Read article here...
More to come...
Feedyard losses mounting....
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
This Week In Cattle
I had a guy ask me yesterday about whether he should background his calves this fall and try to hedge a profit in now while prices are still really high. First, I congratulated this guy for having the foresight to think about how he was going to market calves before October 15.
Not that he isn’t a good thinker, because he is, but I have never known him to give too much thought to the most critical management function he can perform for himself and his business before fall.
The second thing I responded with was: “Never, never, never short an inflationary market…ever”
By “inflationary” I mean a commodity market that is going up in value because the value of the currency that supports said value is going down. Which is what we are seeing right now in the US and around the world.
By “short” I mean use a short hedge that requires you to pay margin calls when the market moves up. Not that I expect this market to go a lot higher and not that I expect it to go lower, I don’t know what to expect and frankly, it doesn’t matter what I think.
What matters and I can tell you this from some very hard-earned experience, is that there is nothing to be gained from trying to short inflationary patterns with a short-hedge. You will run up potentially massive margin calls and could potentially bankrupt yourself in the process.
Read more...
Not that he isn’t a good thinker, because he is, but I have never known him to give too much thought to the most critical management function he can perform for himself and his business before fall.
The second thing I responded with was: “Never, never, never short an inflationary market…ever”
By “inflationary” I mean a commodity market that is going up in value because the value of the currency that supports said value is going down. Which is what we are seeing right now in the US and around the world.
By “short” I mean use a short hedge that requires you to pay margin calls when the market moves up. Not that I expect this market to go a lot higher and not that I expect it to go lower, I don’t know what to expect and frankly, it doesn’t matter what I think.
What matters and I can tell you this from some very hard-earned experience, is that there is nothing to be gained from trying to short inflationary patterns with a short-hedge. You will run up potentially massive margin calls and could potentially bankrupt yourself in the process.
Read more...
Friday, July 15, 2011
Heat Stress in South Dakota Feedyards Will be a Major Issue Next Week
Although temperatures will only be in the low to mid-90's, high relative humidity and low winds speeds are the major threats to penned cattle.
The real issue will be high nighttime temps and high humidity will not allow stressed cattle to cool off overnight, therefore cattle cannot handle the heat of the next day.
Heat stress can't be completely avoided but a little management can go a long ways towards keeping cattle cooler and maintaining feed intake.
The biggest thing cattlemen can do is help cattle cool off at night by sprinkling the mounds in dirt pens with water in the evening to give cattle a cool place to lie down and dissipate body heat. Nothing you can do is more important than that.
Cattlemen will also have to regularly monitor cattle disposition during the day and make judgement calls on whether cattle need cool water sprayed directly on them to dissipate body heat.
Dr. Ben Holland, South Dakota State University (SDSU) Feedlot Specialist said, “Cattlemen need to start planning to keep cattle cool before the heat arrives, once cattle get hot, it’s too late to prevent problems.”
Dr. Holland also recommended acclimating cattle to being sprayed with water now, while is cool, so they don’t panic when you try to spray them when it is hot and unnecessarily generate more body heat.
Dr. Kelly Bruns, SDSU Professor of Animal Science said, “Cattlemen need to start preparing for the heat today by figuring out what auxillary water sources are available if cattle need extra water to drink and how is water going to be delivered to sprinkle pen mounds and cattle. He added, “whether you need to work with the local fire department or borrow a water truck to carry water, this needs to be figured out before Saturday evening when it is likely that cattle will start showing signs of stress in some areas.
Although some cloud cover and isolated thunderstorms are forecasted for Sunday, many areas will be hot and sunny most of the day and cattle could really start to suffer on Monday and Tuesday.
Thank you, have a great day, and good luck!!
The real issue will be high nighttime temps and high humidity will not allow stressed cattle to cool off overnight, therefore cattle cannot handle the heat of the next day.
Heat stress can't be completely avoided but a little management can go a long ways towards keeping cattle cooler and maintaining feed intake.
The biggest thing cattlemen can do is help cattle cool off at night by sprinkling the mounds in dirt pens with water in the evening to give cattle a cool place to lie down and dissipate body heat. Nothing you can do is more important than that.
Cattlemen will also have to regularly monitor cattle disposition during the day and make judgement calls on whether cattle need cool water sprayed directly on them to dissipate body heat.
Dr. Ben Holland, South Dakota State University (SDSU) Feedlot Specialist said, “Cattlemen need to start planning to keep cattle cool before the heat arrives, once cattle get hot, it’s too late to prevent problems.”
Dr. Holland also recommended acclimating cattle to being sprayed with water now, while is cool, so they don’t panic when you try to spray them when it is hot and unnecessarily generate more body heat.
Dr. Kelly Bruns, SDSU Professor of Animal Science said, “Cattlemen need to start preparing for the heat today by figuring out what auxillary water sources are available if cattle need extra water to drink and how is water going to be delivered to sprinkle pen mounds and cattle. He added, “whether you need to work with the local fire department or borrow a water truck to carry water, this needs to be figured out before Saturday evening when it is likely that cattle will start showing signs of stress in some areas.
Although some cloud cover and isolated thunderstorms are forecasted for Sunday, many areas will be hot and sunny most of the day and cattle could really start to suffer on Monday and Tuesday.
Thank you, have a great day, and good luck!!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Y the Infertility in Heifers?
Here's an update from BIF in Billings.
This goes along with the work we have been doing at SDSU with identifying factors that affect fertility and longevity in females.
Why the Y?
Thank You and Have a Great Day!!
This goes along with the work we have been doing at SDSU with identifying factors that affect fertility and longevity in females.
Why the Y?
Thank You and Have a Great Day!!
Thursday, May 12, 2011
2010 Cow Calf Business Report
The SDSU Cow Calf Business Report is a guide to current year's production costs and production cost trends. The data that comprises these reports is collected directly from outfits across South Dakota as part of the SD Integrated Resource Management Program at SDSU (SD IRM). The SD IRM program provides individual and small group business management training, record keeping, and accoutning for farmers and ranchers in South Dakota.
The SD IRM program assists farmers and ranchers in developing financial statements based on managerial accounting, business financial analysis, enterprise cost profiling, record keeping, and cow herd efficiency analysis using the Standardized Performance Analysis (SPA); CHAPS also is used in some instances.
The 2010 SDSU Cow Calf Business Report is now available for viewing.
You can check it out at: http://ranchmanager.org/CowCalfBusinessReports.aspx
If you would like to become part of the SD IRM program, call me at 605-688-5455 or email me at eric.mousel@sdstate.edu.
Thank you and have a great day!
The SD IRM program assists farmers and ranchers in developing financial statements based on managerial accounting, business financial analysis, enterprise cost profiling, record keeping, and cow herd efficiency analysis using the Standardized Performance Analysis (SPA); CHAPS also is used in some instances.
The 2010 SDSU Cow Calf Business Report is now available for viewing.
You can check it out at: http://ranchmanager.org/CowCalfBusinessReports.aspx
If you would like to become part of the SD IRM program, call me at 605-688-5455 or email me at eric.mousel@sdstate.edu.
Thank you and have a great day!
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
This is a Test
This is a test to see if SDR Newsletter, SDR Twitter, and SDR on Facebook are all connected. I doubt it.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Odds and Ends
As a result of my considerable time away, which is typical of JAN - APR due to the trip to Argentina and a lot of other stuff going on, I have developed quite a backlog of really good questions, comments and points of discussion that I would like to try to address over the next few weeks.
Last fall and early winter, we had quite a few discussions on cattle markets and the like and since that time, the markets have gone crazy with no real end in sight. This market run probably has a good side and a bad side, depending on which side of the fence you sit on; but we can visit more about that later.
Right now, I would like to respond to some of the great stuff readers of SDR have passed along. I probably won't get to everything, either because I don't really have a good comment or answer, or because it is so specific to your individual situation that it doesn't have much application to the broader audience of SDR. But I do read each and every email and I do appreciate the questions, feedback and comments.
I'll start with question #175 ( I keep them numbered in a spreadsheet so I don't lose track of them)
Q #175 - Do you have any yield and quality info for millets for the central area?
A: Yes and no, I'm not sure what you mean by "central area" but I will assume you mean central SD. By "yes and no" I mean I have some yield and quality info for certain varieties, but certainly not for all of them.
I have done a couple of yield trials at Miller, SD and have some data for a couple hybrids of Pearl millet. Of course there are many types of millet and they are not all the same. The type you want to plant depends on what you want it to do for you. Pearl millet is a good millet hybrid especially for haying and maybe some grazing if conditions are right.
The two Pearl millet hybrids I used in this trial was a non-BMR hybrid Pearl millet and the other was a BMR hybrid Pearl Millet. I planted four 20 ft. x 40 ft. plots of each variety on JUN 1. I harvested the plots on SEP 20. The harvest date was a little later than I would have liked, but we got some rain around the time I wanted to harvest and had to wait for things to dry out.
At harvest time, the forage from each plot was cut and weighed in tons per acre. Then sample moisture was determined to correct weights to a dry-matter basis in tons per acre. Then I took samples to the lab to have them tested for crude protein (%CP) and total digestible nutrients (TDN).
Using the %CP and TDN results I then calculated CP yield in tons per acre and TDN yield in tons per acre to give an idea of which variety yielded the most nutrients as well as the most forage.
You can see in the table that you give up some yield with the BMR variety. About a ton and a half on average (27%). However, what you give up in yield you gain with quality. The BMR runs about 14% higher %CP and 4% higher TDN than the non-BMR hybrid. So what does all this mean?
A lot of it is going to have to do with what you want this forage to do. If you are just looking for gut-fill for cows or to mix in with higher quality feeds for calves, the higher yielding, lower quality non-BMR hybrid is probably what you need. However, if you are looking to graze, I would go with the BMR variety. It is a lot more palatable than the non-BMR hybrids and since there isn't quite so much yield, cattle tend to waste a lot less (read: about zero) of it in grazing situations. If grazing ends up not working out, you can still hay it and have some real nice feed. You can graze the non-BMR too, but expect cattle to trample, foul, refuse, and waste 30% or so, so you are right back to about where you would be with the BMR hybrid.
Thank you and Have a Great Day!
Last fall and early winter, we had quite a few discussions on cattle markets and the like and since that time, the markets have gone crazy with no real end in sight. This market run probably has a good side and a bad side, depending on which side of the fence you sit on; but we can visit more about that later.
Right now, I would like to respond to some of the great stuff readers of SDR have passed along. I probably won't get to everything, either because I don't really have a good comment or answer, or because it is so specific to your individual situation that it doesn't have much application to the broader audience of SDR. But I do read each and every email and I do appreciate the questions, feedback and comments.
I'll start with question #175 ( I keep them numbered in a spreadsheet so I don't lose track of them)
Q #175 - Do you have any yield and quality info for millets for the central area?
A: Yes and no, I'm not sure what you mean by "central area" but I will assume you mean central SD. By "yes and no" I mean I have some yield and quality info for certain varieties, but certainly not for all of them.
I have done a couple of yield trials at Miller, SD and have some data for a couple hybrids of Pearl millet. Of course there are many types of millet and they are not all the same. The type you want to plant depends on what you want it to do for you. Pearl millet is a good millet hybrid especially for haying and maybe some grazing if conditions are right.
The two Pearl millet hybrids I used in this trial was a non-BMR hybrid Pearl millet and the other was a BMR hybrid Pearl Millet. I planted four 20 ft. x 40 ft. plots of each variety on JUN 1. I harvested the plots on SEP 20. The harvest date was a little later than I would have liked, but we got some rain around the time I wanted to harvest and had to wait for things to dry out.
At harvest time, the forage from each plot was cut and weighed in tons per acre. Then sample moisture was determined to correct weights to a dry-matter basis in tons per acre. Then I took samples to the lab to have them tested for crude protein (%CP) and total digestible nutrients (TDN).
Using the %CP and TDN results I then calculated CP yield in tons per acre and TDN yield in tons per acre to give an idea of which variety yielded the most nutrients as well as the most forage.
You can see in the table that you give up some yield with the BMR variety. About a ton and a half on average (27%). However, what you give up in yield you gain with quality. The BMR runs about 14% higher %CP and 4% higher TDN than the non-BMR hybrid. So what does all this mean?
A lot of it is going to have to do with what you want this forage to do. If you are just looking for gut-fill for cows or to mix in with higher quality feeds for calves, the higher yielding, lower quality non-BMR hybrid is probably what you need. However, if you are looking to graze, I would go with the BMR variety. It is a lot more palatable than the non-BMR hybrids and since there isn't quite so much yield, cattle tend to waste a lot less (read: about zero) of it in grazing situations. If grazing ends up not working out, you can still hay it and have some real nice feed. You can graze the non-BMR too, but expect cattle to trample, foul, refuse, and waste 30% or so, so you are right back to about where you would be with the BMR hybrid.
Thank you and Have a Great Day!
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