From the Barns: Always a lot to do

October saw absolutely no rainfall until the 31st. Needless to say, it was getting very dry once again. The 1.25 inches we received was very beneficial on pastures, cutting all the dust problems, but especially on the 123 acres of Supergrazer that we got planted over the entire month. While drilling I noticed we had good surface soil moisture. That allowed the grass to sprout and looks like we got a good stand with the early planting — then add this rain to it and I am very confident that the cereal rye and ryegrass is going to thrive here in November.

I did end up having to replace my tub grinder. I found one in Oklahoma and bought it off of Big Iron Auctions. It is an upgrade of my old machine, has some features mine did not have and hopefully will last me a number of years. I also bought a used Tru-Test scale system off of another auction site and we will be putting it under our hydraulic chute. It was needed and a good buy. Hoping that is the last of my shopping for a while.

As we have shipped out fat cattle, we have been bringing into the feedlot our heavier yearlings that were out on traps. We have been able to catch up and keep up with revaccination and implanting of these cattle. Also weighed everything to see how they have been gaining and to give us a better idea of when they will be ready to market.

All of the cattle that we have on inventory that are not currently covered by Livestock Risk Protection insurance will have coverage by Nov. 5. I don’t trust the economy, markets, consumer attitude or basically anything concerning the outcome or reaction to the elections. I am very concerned about a “black swan” kind of reaction.

Maybe I am overreacting, but nonetheless I think it wise to use this risk management tool that we have available. I am going to be very aggressive with both fed and feeder cattle coverages and I think we will be able to sleep better at night knowing that we have our downside covered and using my current strategy can get this done with very affordable premium cost.

We are in the planning stages of setting up our AI synchronization and breeding protocols. From Nov. 16 and the following three to four weeks, we are going to find ourselves busier than ever. Two to four trips through the chute per animal will find us handling a lot of breeding females. We have roughly 115 heifers to breed and close to that number of cows.

The heifers will be set up to breed all of them on one day with timed AI. There is also going to be some flushing and embryo transfer work going on during this time. Hopefully good planning and execution will keep things going smoothly and not too many outside problems to deal with during those time frames. Semen testing bulls on Nov. 20 in order to have those guys ready to go when time for bull turnout.

Once again, no shortage of things to do on the farm and couple that with the planning and office work that continues to be done, there won’t be much time for rest or slacking. We can hope and pray for cooperative weather conditions and just keep plugging away at all these tasks.