Kentucky people

[Mojo Chick'n]

Mrs. Turbo :

so you are keeping your babies to start your own herd????? That would be cool.

I may keep Tina - but Ike will probably have to go. Mookie is banded so he's going to our own freezer. Camille is our heifer we are keeping as a nurse cow (I am hoping that Tina is not a freemartin so I can keep her, also). The others are all here to raise up for sale come spring. I figure to AI Camille (and maybe Tina if she can be bred) it's easier and cheaper than having a bull around the place.

We weighed the pros and cons of having a full time herd, and it is actually cheaper to buy bottle babies and raise them up to sell. Normally I wouldn't have this many over the winter to feed, but this is our first year and we are trying to get enough to pay for all the original outlay of stuff for the first bunch. All outlooks on prices say the feeder calf prices are going to be really high in April or May, so I figure to sell then. Reasoning behidn the high price come April is that a with the drought and lower prices for cattle the last couple of years, everyone sold off a lot of calves this fall to keep from having to feed them over the winter - so come spring when the cattle lots are wanting feeder calves, there may be fewer than usual. I figure if I can have 17 or 18 calves to go to sale, I should be able to pay myself back and buy more bottle babies too.

Ok, this is weird - I hear a cat meowing... gonna go check it out.

eta - ok, that was odd - no cat, the dogs are both laying on the porch sleeping - they'd freak over a cat in the yard.

meri​

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Ok, as an example - say I have 17 cows at around 500 pounds each +/- which gives me about 8500 pounds of cow.
If prices are about 1.00 per pound (what is projected is actually higher, but we'll go with easy numbers) then I'll get around 8500 bucks, minus the fee to take them in (minimal) and other misc. fees, I'll at least clear $8200 from which I'd have to subtract what I've spent on them in feed, medicines, etc...

It isn't a HUGE payday, but a lot more than I'll get selling chickens

meri

 

[FrChuckW]

Meri, sounds like a sound idea to me. At what age and weight will you take the calves in to be butchered? Would you consider raising a calf for somebody else for their freezer? And what would you charge if you did? With the reported higher prices coming for meat and dairy in the stores I was thinking of maybe finding someone to partner with on a calf or two and split the costs and the beef. Unfortunately I don't have the room for raising a calf here and I'm not sure when the farm will be ready for me to do it myself.

I found out that today that I only have a little over $32,000.00 still on my lease option on my current house and that I already have $10,000.00 in equity, providing I exercise the option. I know it will take at least $2,000.00 dollars to bring the electrical up to code in it, around another $12,000.00 to replace the windows and doors, not to mention re-insulating the house and replace the ceilings in three rooms. Some of this work I can do myself, but will have to have contractors in to do the wiring and windows. I was also thinking of converting the hot water system from gas to electric as well as the heating. But that is for another time.

 

[ametauss]

Mrs. Turbo -- Richardson's Feed is near the stock yards and hence near me but their price is higher than TSC... wish I knew the area better to know where all the places are.... I'm finding that around here no one seems to advertise in the yellow books or on-line so I'm having a difficult time knowing where to buy stuff at.....

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
We'll probably keep Mookie til he's close to 900 - 1000 lbs - we took Stella (last year's freezer cow) in at around 760 pounds, and even that wasn't too bad (but with a dairy breed you only get 1/3 of live weight out of it.)

No idea what to charge to raise one for someone else. I'd have to figure in cost of feed and meds and all of that.

I'm really bummed that we didn't start another calf when we took Stella in to butchered, because now I am nearly out of meat, and I am out of some cuts, and have had to buy it at the store - and it is already ridiculously priced - I hate to see what it'll go up to. (plus, the meat isn't nearly as good as home raised.) We'll definately be choosing another to keep when we take Mookie in - so we can start raising it to be ready by the time we run out of meat from him.

meri

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

Quote:
If you are buying that much feed might be worth the money to drive to Cecilia to buy feed.....maybe 45 min from Shepherdsville.

I bought all of this for $115 today......all 50# bags They even have some young guys there to load it.....lol everything we buy is less than $10 a bag and the cow feed is around $5

6 bags of duck grower
2 oats
2 cow feed
1 goat feed
2 cracked corn

they also sell layer, meatbird and everything else.......

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

So, I have this Owl out back

and the chickens are scared to death of the thing if it's sitting in the walnut tree by the coop at night when they are going in. Some of them won't even go near the coop door, cause it's almost underneath the owl.

The thing is, they are at least twice the size of this owl - so it isn't hunting them!!

I have major mice out there, and this owl knows a gravy train when it sees it. I even watched it take one the other night - was sitting in the tree (and I was trying to convince a chicken that it wasnt gonna kill it, so get the heck into the coop already!) and it flew down towards the upper coop, snatched up a mouse and flew back up to it's tree. Very silent and very pretty and VERY cool. I love owls, actually, and I'm glad this one is helping me with the mouse problem.

I had this same owl (I assume) in the same tree last year - I haven't seen him in awhile, I'm glad he's back (or one of his progeny, perhaps). I need to go look up owl breeds, because I know it's not a baby owl, just a small breed of owl.

If he sticks around I may have to give him a name.

meri

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Ok, it's an Eastern Screech Owl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fKVE3_smYE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Screech_Owl

meri

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Yeah, the one that I have seen most often sits out in the trees or on top of the lower chicken run. He's probably there all summer, too, but it's harder to see him with leaves on the trees. I hear them all the time, so I know it isn't just Fall when they're at my place.

I have so many mice, though, I love having him around. Plus, I doubt he'd go after one of my chickens - he hasn't in two years, and they are mostly bigger than he is - he'd have to be VERY hungry to try to take a chicken or a duck.

meri

 

[ametauss]

Hey everyone...

I guess I'll be driving to Cecilia since that is really cheap for feed... I'll just have to get some more bins to put the feed in and buy in bulk....

Meri -- that owl is soooo pretty. I wish I had an owl around here...