What's up with beef prices? Looked at steaks the other day and a ratty looking NY Strip was 16.99lb.

Cattle numbers are down and feed prices are up. Much like ammo, it pays to stock up so one can run across the peaks without a need to buy.

minute has the way of it. Cattle numbers in the US are the same as they were in the 50's. There are a lot more people who want to eat steak than there were then.
Ethanol is gobbling a lot of what should be cow feed.

Add to that both row crop and cattle farming are still in recovery mode from the drought two years ago and the milder one but still dry last year.

Beef prices are going to be high for a while yet.

Ethanol burning food for fuel wtf dammmit!!!!

venison.

It's what's for dinner.

Most "small" cattle producers simply can't afford to feed more animals or, at least, limit the numbers they do feed. Those who are still producing expect to get a good price for their work, but the "small" guys are just scraping out a living, regardless of what you are seeing at the checkout. Feed prices are up, as already pointed out, largely due (IMHO), at least in part, to ethanol production being pushed by the current administration and the greenies, fuel prices also play a part. The same goes for pork, chicken and turkeys and milk cows. Feed for all is getting pricey.

Get used to it . . . it's here to stay, unfortunately .

another reason is the amount of beef we are shipping out of the country. China is buying a LOT of food from us. That means less food for Americans, and THAT means higher prices.

We're in a second year of a bad drought out west. It was so dry over the winter I lost my alfalfa...didn't carry over. It figures, too. Prices are at about an all-time high for hay, and mine all went away.

I farmed until I ran out of money.

What the ranger said pretty well sums it up.

Drought has forced us to sell off about 40% of our cows in the last 18 months or so. If we stay dry this summer, we will sell off at least 50% of what is left. We are just trying to hang on and ride this drought out so we can rebuild. According to the local Veterinarian, we are not the only ones in this situation locally.

Cattle numbers have not been this low since 1952. Add to that the increase in population in the last 60 years. Its a miracle anyone can buy a steak.

95% of what I eat when it comes to red meat. I do like a bloody steak once in awhile tho!

Yep. Most cattle ranchers I know out here sold most of their herds off in 2011 when the drought was at its worst. There was plenty of beef then, so prices at the meat counter were low for a while due to the glut. But now there's no herds in west Texas to sell off, and those that are selling are going for high dollar at auction.

It's still drier than a popcorn fart in west Texas, third summer in a row. Ranchers aren't buying cattle yet because there isn't enough grass to sustain more than their breeding stock, and some folks have sold everything but their best bulls.

Yes, beef is going to be expensive for a while yet.

You are forgetting the increase in welfare recipients - they can now afford the $16.99/lb.

1/2 the state was on fire... and it was no big deal.


But

I'm not bitter

Snake

The last 2 years we have experienced a very bad drought in the lower plains states, beef prices went up, hay prices went up and many sold off most of their herds. I drove past miles and miles of empty pastures in rural OK, KS & TX. Now the drought seems to have ended so I imagine many are buying calves to replenish them which will cut back on supply also.

Here in Nevada, we couldn't be happier with cattle selling at $122 and feeders at $143. The economy of whole counties has been buoyed up by rising prices. People are making a living again. Commodities in general have surged since the Recession. I don't see any affect from ethanol production at all this far west. The Govt still pays people not to grow corn.

Farm subsidies need to go away.

It's pretty hard to do that out west. Many States are on a draw for tags. Here you get a deer tag about every 3-4 years...one tag. The up-side is most hunting is public lands.

Our open range is in awful condition now, and the stupid "wild whores" huggers will want to feed these worthless nags to keep them alive. True WILD animals starve off during hard times. These animals are left to further destroy the range. It drives up beef prices and hurts game and non-game species.

Chipotle Pepper venison cubed steak for lunch!!
Plan on a concerted effort to put more venison in the freezer this Fall!

But, ethanol by-products feed an awful lot of cattle. Also, distillers grains provide better gain for cattle and do it more efficiently than whole corn. Not arguing for or against ethanol here, just pointing out the usefulness of by-products.

Uncle's got a mixed herd of Holsteins and Jersey's right now for sale if anybody is interested in southeast Kansas. He's dairyed his entire life and says he is losing his shirt now due to the high input costs.

As has been said, all the beef cattle were sold off the last two years due to the drought, so nobody could afford to feed them. Now all the cows that should be going to slaughter have already been slaughtered. Everybody that sold off the last couple of years is trying to buy back replacement cows now that we've got a little rain up here and the pastures are greening up.

Actually, we import close to as much beef as we export. We export mostly high end cuts of meat(steaks and such) and import lower end cuts of beef for grinding. America is a nation of hamburgers. The real question is: Why have prices of fed cattle dropped $10-$12 per hundredweight since January and prices of feeder cattle have dropped over $20 per hundredweight in the same time period, yet prices in the grocery store have gone up? Yes, feed prices are sky-high but that has almost nothing to do with grocery prices or even live cattle prices. Ranchers have to manage inputs because they are price takers. When cattle are sold at a sale barn or to a packer, it is based on what the market is doing that day, the rancher can take it or leave it.

Comparing venison to a nice ribeye or T-bone is blasphemy.

When you take feed cost, fuel . equipment ,labor, and a total investment to have a sizeable herd one can make a livin with the price ought to be higher yet!! The urbanites, and citidots don't have a clue what it takes the run a working farm they just see all the $$ value setting around in cattle and building and equpiment and think all them farmers are rich and they should give us poor ctiy people a break

It's tough to do this when you bone everything out. There ain't any beef that I like better than caribou loin steaks.

I can get it for 8.99-9.99. Whole beef tenderloin was 10.99/lb yesterday.

I took a package of T-bones out of the freezer today I bought back in November on sale for 5.99/lb. Iowa chops for 1.99 lb.

I don't believe ethanol has anything to do with it, but somebody that can make a buck to have folks believe it will have a convincing line.

Crap, now I'm getting hungry.

Wait a minute fellas..........let's use the same logic as lots of 24HCF members use when they whine about crude oil...........DAMN THOSE PRICE FIXING CATTLE RANCHERS!

ive been watching steak prices at costco and you can still get ny strip steaks for 9.00 a pound

Luckily one of my job perks is free beef.

We raise commercial angus beef cattle and sell the calves when they are not quite 1 year old, which is right around 700-750lbs for the steers.

2012 I think we got $.20/lb more than we did in 2013.

'13 calves got fed an extra month and weighed more but price per head was fairly close to '12.

Feed costs for Winter/Spring of 2013 were up about 30-40% from '12. Good thing we raise a fair amount of our own feed.

Figure feed costs per head/day and it about makes a guy sick.


Given the recent and current rains the country is getting I bet replacement heifers could be worth $$$ this Fall and next Spring.

Corn should come down as well which will make the feeders happy and hopefully will also bring back the feeder market. 2013-2014 could be a good year, of course all it takes is one case of 'mad cow' to [bleep] everything up so a guy never wants to get overly optimistic....

About 3 months ago I bought an Angus front quarter for $2.63/#, cut wrapped, labeled and frozen.. Them ribeyes are mighty tasty at that price..

Pork (half-hog) cut, wrapped and frozen is $1.99/#.. I just missed the sale when it was $1.79/# Dang..

Cracked Corn around here is about 9.00 per 50 lbs.

Rupert is getting 2 number 10 cans a day and he has all of the Klein grass he can eat.

I can't wait to get some of those steaks,H@ll the ground meat will be so much better than store bought.

The writing was on the wall last summer as far as where beef and pork prices were headed for 2013. Our area saw extreme drought last year, and the hay, corn, and soy bean fields all fried. Corn was being cut for silage as early as July 1, less than knee-high.
I found a spare freezer last August for $50 off Craigslist (estate sale), bought a whole pasture-fed Angus and half pork from a farm down the road, and filled the freezers. Most everyone in livestock around here sold early to avoid either not being able to find (or afford) to feed their animals.
I'm no prepper or hoarder, but I know when to stock up on things (including ammo and components) that will cost more or be unavailable in the future. The prices on everything in the grocery sucks right now, and the amount in a box or bag keeps getting smaller as well.

Beef are looking very good around here right now. Pastures are in good shape now that we are getting rain again.

Exactly right re: all the above...

About 4 months ago I replaced a couple of aging smaller freezers with the biggest mutha I could find from Whirlpool (chest).. This bugger can hold over 800# of meat.. And it's nearly full at this time.

Last week we bought a big-ass vertical Whirlpool freezer and stuck in it the garage.

Bought a local hog and had it processed and we have 3 or 4 large feedlot bovine candidates for the freezer as well.


I'm wondering how one would be if they were on grass for a month before they get butchered or if they should be done right now(been on ground grass/corn silage/wheat pellet diet for the last 6 months).

I was a little worried the beef might get a little bland if they went on Spring grass?

I just can't begrudge farmers a chance to make a buck. It's all about supply and demand, and with all the factors mentioned (severe drought, overseas sales, smaller herds) prices have gone up. Pork and chicken still seem to be a little more affordable. Guess we'll be eating more ribs and yardbird for a while.

The WTO or whoever got major pissed off when the USA tried to use country of origin labeling for beef packaging in the grocery store.
As was noted earlier we import a lot of beef from Canada, Mexico and Argentina. Of course I'm sure those countries to the south of us are really 'clean' when it comes to taking care of their beef cattle.....


As for the high retail prices that obviously doesn't translate into higher profit margins on the ranching end of things given feed costs(and operating costs in general) went up so much.

It's funny - up where our camp is in upstate NY all you ever saw was dairy cows. The grounds not all that good for corn and they get 2 cuttings of hay if they are lucky. The last 2 years I've seen at least 5 new beef operations start up withing 10 miles of my camp. I'd guess each one of those is carrying 2-300 head. Mostly Angus. We haven't been hit with drought and there's usually plenty of "grass" to feed the beef.

As a side note - I get such a kick out of the new marketing campaigns for "grass fed" beef. Just because ranchers can't afford corn the beef is now more better because they are raised on grass?

I was expecting the worst too but surprisingly USDA Choice rib-eye, NY strip, T-bone, and sometimes Porterhouse steak prices have been holding pretty steady around here.

At least one of the above cuts of steak can usually be found on sale at one or two of our local grocery stores a couple of times a month @ $5.99 - $7.99 per pound in prepackaged "family packs".

During these sales whole loins are going for about $1.00 per lb less and they will slice it to your thickness preference (but not trim) for free.

Let me get this right. I keep an feed a pregnant cow 9 months,she calves hopefully a live calf. I care for her and the calf for another 9 months and sell him for $1.50 a lb. The feed lot operator feeds him real expensive feed and cares for him 3 months and gets $1.15 a lb. The retailer butchers him,after keeping him 5 or 6 hours,puts him in a cooler for two weeks and gets $10.00 a lb. WTF Any way you figure it the cowman gets it in the ass every time.

Not a rancher, butcher or beef man but, I believe the grass fed beef campaign is more on the lines of a cleaner non GMO beef. Corn is used to fatten up cattle obviously and is a GMO (genetically modified organism). Grass isn't. Some varieties of corn actually create their own type of pesticide which some folks don't wish to eat. I believe this is where the grass fed beef craze is coming from.

I think the theory is that grass fed beef have higher omega-3 fatty acid content as well living under better conditions than a feedlot cow.

If it wasn't for the high food prices, gas, taxes and medical insurance we would have a pretty good life. It used to be food and taxes. I am going to put in a garden next year and apply for cow elk tags only to try to keep up.

if you wind up with more than your freezer can hold im in the market for everything but burger....pulled the last two roasts out of the freezer this week.....still got a chit load of burger though from the last half a steer we bought dont have teenagers in the house frying a package up for an afternoon snack anymore

Not all corn is a GMO. Many variety's are just hybrids. The grass fed beef campaign mostly comes from the all natural crowd, because beefers didnt eat corn in the wild. Therefore its unhealthy to eat beef that was raised on corn/silage.

Personally I prefer a corn fed animal. We sell a small portion of our fed cattle by the half. Some of our customers have tried a grass fed animal and hated it. The problem with grass feed beef is that it can a long time to raise a steer to full size. So you can wind up with an old animal who is as tough as leather. Plus grass fed is cheaper to raise so a lot the time if the farmer is being cheap, they may be using a "cheap"/chitty animal to start with.

i can't remember exactly, but seems like there was a time that grain-fed feedlot beef was marketed as superior, as it had more flavor and marbling.

then the kick came along to raise and market pasture fed beef, was healthier and more flavorful. who knows what they will try to sell us next.

I remember that period of time as well. The grass fed beef was marketed in the stores as a less expensive "thrifty" alternative to the higher priced grain fed beef.

We whacked 5 on April 23, they'd been grazing the spring flush for about two weeks and turned off on dry hay. They were still getting 2% bodyweight of a 14% commodity pellet and ground corn, though they were starting to leave some due to the heat setting in. We usually butcher a few weeks earlier to avoid any spring grass (and wild onions), and neither the wife or myself or any of our buyers have noticed a change in flavor.

Some of the best beef I ever ate was from those funny wooly looking Scottish Highland buggers. A buddy of mine raised them and fed them only the feed that he raised. It was non-GMO feed that had been grown using natural fertilizer (manure I assume) and no pesticides. I bought a side from him and was damn happy with ever bite.

I'll take corn-finished beef that are still grazing around the pastures close to the barn over pure grass-fed any day.

[bleep] grass fed beef ,give me the corn fed stuff. More flavor no doubt.

I have some Angus for sale $3.00 lb hanging weight total cost includes all processing fees and cut/wrap. Will be ready around Aug 7. 300-400 lb half.

was raised eating grass fed, dont care for feedlot beef.....when your raised on one the other doesnt taste right.....

In the last 10 years, or so, hay has gone from about $90 / ton to nearly $300 / ton. Range cubes have gone from $168 / ton to $483 / ton. Gasoline from (IRC) $1.68 / gal to $3.67 / gal.


Feeders from (IIRC) $110 / cwt to $143 / cwt. Expenses have doubled to tripled - returns have increased app 25%.

Yeahhhhh - we're making a killing!!!

Mark
(A rich cattleman!)

Sorry to hear that Mark.
I was sure hoping the beef prices were helping you guys at more then that, but unfortunately you confirmed my fears....

Mark has it right. Everything has gone up in price in the last decade including fuel, feed, land, vehicles, taxes......... But beef is supposed to be cheap?

I havent read the whole thread, but I read in the newspaper yesterday where the cattle count was the lowest since 1952. The drought was the main cause.

Thus the high beef prices

Corn is used in many types of food as a supplement as in corn syrup. Feeding cattle a corn diet to finish them, overwhelms their system with glycogen and causes many changes most of which are not good. It does increase the fat and marbling which is desirable in the traditional sense of evaluating a carcass.

There are many health benefits to grass fed beef and benefits to the beef raisers if they can market directly to the consumer. Feedlot cattle are in close confines with thousands of other animals. They are fed lots of anti-biotics and hormones.

Feeding them corn might alter them some but i'm guessing the bullet to the head is a bigger change. ED K

I buy grass fed beef around here from local farmers and let the feedlot sh.it get displayed in it's 'wet aged' styrofoam cloak at the supermarket.

You know this from firsthand experience? Meaning you have actually witnessed it with your own eyes? Or, are you just repeating what some "expert" said? We feed our cattle to finish hormone free and the only time they get anti-biotics is when they are sick. I have no problem with grass finished beef but be careful about using a broad brush to paint the rest of the industry. Much of the information provided by the "experts" is provided in a way to further their own agenda. And, that agenda most of the time is not only against animal agriculture but also against hunting and fishing.

My Dad was in the beef business for 30 years. Ask any feedlot man what they feed their cattle. I sold a good gelding to a feedlot guy over in Fresno a few years ago. When large amounts of animals are in pens in close proximity they get sick unless you give them anti-biotics. Hormones are falling out of favor in many areas. We used to use a hormone implant in the ear in the spring at branding time.

These threads where we are comparing local trends and conditions are lessened in importance by approximately 35% when the posters don't give a [bleep] clue where they are reporting from.

Ribeye ain't never sold for what it's worth!!

A lot of ranchers here have had too either downsize their herds or sell off completely because of the drought and lack or sustaining pasture. As was also mentioned the feed crops were also victim to the drought and competition for fuel grains so it is a double dip to pricing on beef.

I too primarily eat venison but also love my beef but prices are too high for me right now.

You have never had beef fattened from grass in the Flint Hills I see.

Like the location in your profile?

By the way I looked at a brisket flat at Sams Club at $4.19/lb for choice. Bought one from a local shop that sells sub-prime meat for $6.29/lb want to see if it is that much better.

Got a couple on grass right now that will be wrapped about November. Nothing wrong with grass fed Russ

Small guys aren't the only feeder hurting, just check the balance sheets of the big feedlots too, it ain't vodoo, just simple ecenomics.

Frankly I'm a small guy by any standard,and I dont have huge overhead invested and have watched how I bought feeders,and was flexible with making a ration, and actually made money this year feeding steers.

Bullchit.

Argentina beef is ALL grass-fed. None better I've ever had. After eating a huge steak, you are not uncomfortable. Could probably eat another. Less fat, great beef flavor.

The drought sucks here. Elk is grass-fed "beef".

careful Sammo you will hurt the libtard obama supporters feelers.....

I changed it to "Guess" right after I hit submit on my post above. Always has griped me that you can't give some people the credibility they may deserve because they don't show their location, and they say, "here" or "around here" about something. For instance, who's going to believe a post about Bigfoot from a guy in Washington, if he doesn't say he's from Washington?

Keith, not familiar with Ppine but he is off on his assumptions.

I agree Sam ...to many assumptive eggspurts on here...good thing is people with actual knowledge like you are here to counter them.

What age will they be in November?

308scout,
If you are currently in the feed lot business please tell us some more about your operation. My experience is out of date as we sold the ranch in the late 1990s.

There is nothing especially political about the livestock business. Anti-biotics are used for Atlantic salmon raised in pens in British Columbia as well as lots of other types of ag.

hmmm?

I bought two, whole length bulk section short loins yesterday at a small grocer. About 17 lb sections each in the cryovac packs. Had the meat dept mgr custom slice them at 7/8-1" ish for me. Yielded 30 large t bone steaks.

$3 .99 lb

I broke em out and vac sealed them in sets of three with my Foodsaver.

They also had full length pork loin for $1.99 lb

what about beef coming into this country? Mexico?


~ I know, you've got me on ignore.

the resident meat expert speaks,,,,,,,,, i knew it wouldnt be long before you showed up



you still got some mountain oyster gravy on your chin

You still trading Dubs and winder tint for "oral attention" ? Hopefully mommy will let you back in her bedroom on stormy nights.

High beef and other meat prices were predicted all winter by the ag. market analysists. As many have correctly said, a number of factors in play that have dropped the herd numbers and raised the price - all typical economic facts. This will be with us for at least a year until herd mumbers creep back up. Those ranchers stung in the market may not come back while others may expand.

Even the Liar can't control the weather........or at least he hasn't so far.

This is absolutely correct. There is nothing at all wrong with grass fat beef. What it is though is different from what 99% of the beef consuming public is used to eating. ( don't hold me to the exact % as it is a guess but pretty close I believe) For the past three generations or at least since the end of WWII the public has been used to eating grain fat beef and grass fat has been a niche market. They are both good but taste different. Generally speaking if what you are used to eating tastes different you won't like it until you get used to it.

Beef producers have spent God alone knows how much money trying to come up with tender, flavorfull beef without excess fat. Haven't done it yet and no good prospects either. YOu want flavor and tender then you have to have fat unless you resort to chemical treatment. How do you get fat on beef? By what they eat. Will grass put on fat? Sure it will but a lot slower than grain and it will taste different. Not like what folks have been used to eating all their life. There is another little hooker in there too. Cattle on grass will develop yellow fat in a lot larger proprtion than those on grain that have white fat. Noting wrong with yellow fat either but you can't sell it because it looks funny. Consumer won't buy it.

Another thing in the days of grass fat beef, talking about early 1900's the animals were commonly three and four years old. No feeder now days can afford that length of time before they turn a dollar. Even if they could the consumer nowdays wouldn't buy the size cuts that come off that big a carcase. Typical slaughter animal now days is 18 months old and @ 900 lbs. give or take. Makes nice family size prime cuts.

Unless the eating public radically changes taste grass fat won't ever be anything more than niche market again. Takes way too much time, space and economic inputs to produce vs feed lot beef.

Whoop it takes three years from the time you hold back a heifer for a replacement cow before she joins the herd. No body but an idiot keeps a first calf on his heifer very long. The little girl still has growing to do and you pull the calf early so she can. Don't and you got a stunted cow.

Ours calve at 24 months, and we might pull the calves at 6 months age instead of 8 months age off the mature cows. If a heifer doesn't keep pace with the rest of the cows, she gets a one way ticket. No excuses, no exceptions.

Out of curiousity based on your location, do you have Brahman influence cattle? We've got British/Continental cross cows, though the wife bought some Beefmasters one time and we had fertility issues with them. They were later to mature and harder to get bred back than our other cattle.

We feed beef cattle one way for market and another way for our table.

Market cattle rations contain a high percentage of corn. Cattle for the immediate family and the 11 relatives who purchase from us are on grass spring, summer and early fall then hay with increasing amounts of ground corn or silage. Butchered in late December or early January.

It is a juggling act dealing with corn prices and beef prices. We are very lucky, that even though 2012 was a drought year, we did not sell off any cattle and we got together with the neighbors and pooled our resources and feed. Crop insurance did kick in.

Good to hear from producers. Can one of you guys address the anit-biotics and hormone issue or would you rather not talk about it?

Brangus is big in this part of the world. A lot of the boys,us included, like to run those black mamas to a poll Hereford bull. There is just something that our feeder and stocker buyers love about black baldies with no ear to speak of. Past fifteen-twenty years or so there have been all sorts of folks trying everything on God's green earth. Siemental is still used around here some but most have gone back to Brangus. Don't know of any commercial gray braman around any more but all I can speak of is local @ 60 miles or so. Same with Charlois. Lots tried them to get size but started to hate getting docked at the sale barn because the buyers were leery of carcase quality. There are also a lot of tigers and #1 Okies around. A bit of bramah in there somewhere. Nobody wants ear.

Most of the heifers here will have a first calf at 18 months. Pull them five months and come back hot. That is in normal years of course. Last two have been anything but normal. Herds are still trying to get over the drought and get a breeding cycle regulated back to what is normal. Lots completely shut down year before last in breeding. Consequently it was hell to pay to try and get a consistent set of calves to offer. The girls are still working on that. I am talking about pasture breeding of course not AI.

Glad you can hold yours to 24 but we can't or don't want to. Hard to get the setup that you have to have to do that here. Takes too much area. What is your year to year stocking rate? I don't mean one year and graze to the roots but year after year and keep your pasture in good shape. Here even with improved pasture (who the hell can afford to fertilize pasture?) the stocking rate is @ 1to 5.

peepee I haven't run a feed yard in a long time, cow calf and sell stockers. In this business anti-biotics don't come in play. Everybody I know uses hormones in their calves. Non issue and the calf grows out a hell of a lot better with than without. If it would kill you I'd have been dead a long time ago as many Ral-grow needles as I have stuck in myself.

We can run a pair on 2 acres if managed properly, on a good year. That being said, I allow 3 acres per unit for a little buffer zone. Once pastures are in good fertility, we do relatively little to them other than drag manure and bush hog. As long as it's a grazing only situation, the only nutrients removed are those in the calf - those need to be topped off from time to time. Poultry litter is popular for that around here, and the occasional shot of lime.

We graze from April through December, and into January some years. Again, good luck finding an average year. In Dec 2009 I was two weeks into my stockpiled fescue and had 30" of snow dumped on it, we saw that grass again sometime in February.

Most of the folks in this area overgraze their pastures and don't rotate them, most of them feed hay from October through May. I'd love to see those folks sit down and figure all the diesel fuel they use per head each year, that'd be a real eye opener for them. We rotate and pay attention to the forage, it's hard to raise cattle if you can't raise grass.

We run cow/calves, and use hereford, angus and gelbvieh crosses. Angus bulls are used on all the heifers, and gelbvieh/herfs are used on the mature cows. I've went back to horned herf bulls as the polled bulls nowadays leave a lot to be desired in the ass area in my opinion.

Forgot to ask, what's a #1 Okie?

We've gotten tigers out of Beefmasters and Tarentaise when crossed with black bulls, not much I hate more than a tigerstripe.

A #1 Okie is a light built animal that shows what was probably shorthorn back somewhere. Usually horned, spotted red/white. Kind of descendents of the Indian cattle that Oklahoma had a lot of back in the 1880's. They are small and not worth a lot but will produce a calf.

We try to calve out beginning in February. We can usually stop feeding by March 15 and won't start feeding for winter until Dec 1 or so. If you keep your replacements in a separate bunch they will need some suppliment as they are trying to grow a calf along with their body. Got to be careful though or you get too big a calf. Saler bulls help a lot as would longhorns. But if a buyer even suspicious a calf has some longhorn blood he will dock you two bits. Nobody wants those damn things except for pets.

Lots of years there won't be a killing frost until after Thanksgiving. Green grass until then. We usually start with molasses so the girls will eat up everything trying to tighten themselves up.

We don't have enough chiken litter around that we can outbid the hay boys for it. Will lime @ every 4th year. Other than that use herbicide spray on pastures mostly. Grazon. Only brush hog if the woody stuff outpaces what Grazon knocks back.

YOu can way outstock us. Good for you. If you're going to make a living you can't graze to the roots every year and expect your pastures to come back in the spring. Won't happen. YOu know that. We are still recovering from 2011 when lots of grass got pulled up by the roots when we had to turn in on hay meadows.

We will try to light stock some pastures to allow for re-growth and then use the excess as green manure to hold our nutrients. Not all at once but where there is excess we can turn it under lightly and see an improvement the next season.

Blame the damn liberals and 'greenies' for most of it. I know most of you men here probably don't shop for your own groceries but if you did, you would have seen ALL grocery prices starting to go up about two, three years ago and meat prices are still climbing mostly due to the cost of feeding these critters! You can NOT take FOOD, CORN, and make cheap ass, worhtless engine fuel out of it economically and NOT ruin the basic American economy! If you are not retired now, then you better reconsider it if you like to eat a lot of beef, especially steaks, etc.!! Beef is no longer for folks on fixed incomes thanks to the gd liberals and democrats!

Ethanol is a joke that requires more government subsidy to make than what it is sold for and it produces somewhre in the neighborhood of 65-70% of the energy of gasoline per gallon thus lowering MPG and power!

Will have to try it sometime. So far my expierence with grass fed beef has been less flavorful than corn fed. Open to anything, not trying to insult those that raise cattle eitherway.

We figure on 40 acres / momma cow, year 'round. I'm still feeding yearlings - 2# cubes, and 12# oat hay - average per day.
Feeding every other day (saves fuel, as 40 miles even from house to ranch), 1/2 of my time is eaten completely up, much less fence rebuilding, well repair, etc.
Some fellas farther south from me (Southern NM) figure 100+ acres per cow.
I've got one rain guage that has measured 4.35" since the spring of 2010.

Mark

Boggy Creek and mark shubert - I'm curious what the primary grazing forage is in your respective areas?

Here we graze primarily fescue, diluted with red and white clovers. I raise mostly fescue and orchard grass hay with clover and alfalfa mixed in for the nitrogen kick, and am about halfway done with haying now. We've had an abnormally cool spring - frosted here Memorial Day weekend, the orchard grass has turned out really well but the fescue leaves a little to be desired as far as hay yields. OG is running right around 2.25 tons/acre of dry hay, though it's a bit mature now and we're fighting the afternoon thunderstorms this week.

Best of luck to those in the drought affected areas, I hope you get the rain you need. We've been there in the past, and it's no fun.

Here it is common or some variety of costal bermuda for pastures. Bahia grass is common and spreads like wildfire. Cows like it. Native grass, there is still some little bluestem and buffalo grass. Big blue stem shows up too in the creek bottoms along with carpet grass.

Lots of people tried weeping love some years back. You can starve a cow into eating it. Most are trying to get rid of it if they can.

Ppine is short for Ponderosa Pine the king of dry timber trees.

In Nevada we love black cattle, closely followed by black whiteface and some Red Angus and Herefords. Lots of different breeds were popular in years past and even the rainbow cattle from Mexico and Corientes.

Please don't confuse me as a cowman, The guys that make their living off of cattle have my respect and I am not one of them. All this talk (horsecrap) about antibiotics and hormones to me is a a bunch of feathers. I simply buy some cheap dairy bull calves,bottle feed them for about 6 weeks, nut them, and feed them out on my place until the grass and all feed is gone. Then they get the the trip to the freezer. Might be veal, who cares. Still good eating. I am lucky (blessed)enough to live in an area that has on a normal year a lot of feed. A side note, the guys that worry about antibiotics should find out what the chicken they eat are fed with as chicks. The best way to put it to the vegans is that my food sh&ts on your food Russ

Most of the anti antibiotics people are the first to the doctor with a little sniffle for an ANTIBIOTIC. Kinda makes ya wonder what their logic is. Don't want to eat it but will ask a doctor to shoot it in their ass. ED K

Mark,
Good to see you on here, for some reason I hadn't seen you before now. You been having very many of these this year? This one was coming at us.


We have had .15 since last July. It's pretty scary as you know. We have not turned anything out yet and it doesn't look promising.

kend- Where you at in Oregon? I have been thinking about buying a side of beef this year.

PM coming.

In the context of the discussion, some people were voicing their opposition to grass fed beef. There are many advantages to raising cattle out in the open in fresh air where they have plenty of room. Harvesting them in the pasture is even better. It is one of the great things about buffalo meat as it is usually handled that way with no feedlots or slaughter houses.