Agmates

Victorian cattle producer and horse breeder Jenny Bird (pictured) Writes:

Next time you think you had a bad day - remember there is always someone who has had a worse one!

These photo’s were sent to me by a friend in the USA.

A Pit-bull decided he would battle a Porcupine in back of his house in Southern California

But being both brave and stupid, he ultimately learned the hard way that he can’t always win ……. no matter how tough you are.

A vet sedated the dog, and then removed a total of 1,347 quills.

The dog survived, and hopefully learned a valuable lesson.

Now tell me you’ve had a bad day!!!

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Dogs For Sale

Victorian cattle producer Jenny Bird (Location) writes:

This appeared in the Border Mail this morning on the strength of the prospect of rain down here. Bill reported we got 5 ML over night!

I think someone has been funny and p****d in the rain gauge myself! He’s gone off on the bike dressed in wet weather gear (covered in paper wasp cacoons it hasn’t been used for so long) just in case.

The forecast down here is for ’some showers’ for the next 3 days.
The Politicians will start talking now that the drought is over again….just watch!

Cartoon Source - Weekly Times 16th April 2008.

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Let others in the community know if you have had any rain in your part of the world in the last week.

Just leave a comment with what area of Australia (or the world) you’re in and how your season is shaping up.

Victorian Cattle Producer & Morgan Horse Breeder Jenny Bird writes:

Well, things got serious a few days after submitting my last article to Agmates “boasting” my cattle were sold at $1:85.

Not long after I got a call telling me that the Japs had pulled the pin on the job ……. after 35 years. My B - Double’s worth of steers weren’t going anywhere!……nor the 400 we had waiting to cover the 5 months forward order…all needled twice with ‘Pestigard’ at a cost of $8 a head.

Do you value your up bringing? I certainly do and often recall all those adages that were instilled into me like:

If at first you don’t succeed…
Don’t count your chickens…
Never look back….
Know when to be serious - all of which applied to me right then!

Photo #1: I have to tell you after I got the call I felt a bit this horse ……hemmed in with no way out.

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After a great flurry of frantic activity on the phone I finally got them and 3 other loads sold at $1:88 per kg for Angus milk and two tooth steers, and $1:75 for Black baldy steers….provided they met the target grid with a price down grade applying to those that didn’t comply, a curfew of 12 hours plus and compliance that no more than 10% were NOT Life Time traceable.

Photo #2: Below is the steer grid that I did manage to sell the steers on. For those of you who aren’t familiar with such grids, the curfewed liveweight in Kilos is the top line and underneath each is the cents per kilo of that weight range.

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Steers lose 10% minimum over 10 hours and my steers certainly lost that and more. eg the steers left here at 4 :30 pm and were processed individually next morning at 7:41 AM over a few hours. A full weight 504KG Black baldy near fat steer off silage melted to 450 KG and a similar one of 486 KG melted to 434.

Knowing the current daily weight gain of cattle you can expect if the delivery date is in 7 to 21 days time helps too when you are selecting. Cattle off dry feed and supplementary fed on hay or silage makes a huge difference to cattle and their ability to hold together.

Photo2: We have some heifers going tomorrow afternoon.
The adjustment downward to $1:55 was unfortunate. $1:65 was a “printing error”!!! This made the window very narrow for the best dollar 300KG to 359KG….of $1:65 EMPTY WEIGHT!!!!

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A discount applies of 5 cents per kg on every beast delivered in a day if there are more than 10% NON LIFE TIME TRACEABLE CATTLE.

Photo #3: Price grids are here to stay, get used to them.
These days when selling cattle, it is a matter of getting into bed with anyone who will have you! Just don’t go to sleep on the job!”

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So the Angus steers averaged $1:85 across the various loads (got a few wrong!!!) and the Black baldy steers averaged $1:75..and they were paid for within the 7 days of trucking. Other companies can take up to 3 weeks!

I don’t know if heifers stand up better or not but if they are off dry feed or hay they hold together better than soft green feed cattle. You need to be a magician to keep well with in the EMPTY WEIGHT range to avoid disappointment on a grid as specific as this one. We’ll weigh before loading to get a better idea as we don’t handle many and it will be interesting to know

Photo #4: There are some over weight and underweight steers left to find markets for but at least there are 330 head fewer looking for a feed on the “sheep feed” post 6 ml of rain in the paddocks and hay feeders.

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A little issue that caused some heart ache is worth relating.

One property is river bound by the “Mighty Murray” which has been reduced to a mere creek with cut backs in release from the Hume Weir with the view to saving water for the next irrigation flow (and save the frog wet lands inundations).

Two B Doubles were due at 5 pm. A muster of two paddocks began at 4. A quick count found 102 from one paddock and no amount of re counting turned it into 135 that should have been there. On dusk we returned to find them all across on the far river bank…stuck under a ledge.

Photo #5: This is the Murray River after they stop the irrigation flow releases.
The cut back of flow has reduced it to only a few feet across in places. All too easy for steers to walk across. The absconding steers just made the mistake of picking a place with a high bank on the other side.”

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Our ‘helpful dogs’ forced them up the 12 foot embankment on the Victorian side from where we retrieved them the next day. A B Double load was reduced to a Double only and the balance went out the next day. Fencing is currently in progress of the river frontage!!!

Photo #6: The oat crop on Bungowannah Park is growing slowly.
It enjoyed 6 ml of rain last week but has mainly survived on the heavy dews and foggy mornings followed by bright sunny days with temperatures in the high teens. It was dry sown before we got any rain at all so it is well ahead of crops being sown now. We are dependent on it for grazing in the winter as the crop hay from last season (that refused to burn) has all gone.

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The autumn colours have been drab this year due to the dry. Normally the place is a photographer’s delight.

So there you have it, I found a way round the cattle marketing issue and now I better get on with the next obstacle to staying viable. I’m so lucky really. There’s no shortage of choice…. fuel costs, the fertiliser hike, the lack of rain, the restocking quandary, the over draft.

Another of those life driving sayings just came to mind. “If you don’t weaken….”.

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Say G’day to Jenny. Leave Jenny your message / comment or question.

Victorian Cattle producer Jenny Bird writes: Location

This feed on steer job is beginning to look like a waste of time and effort.

Sowing oats and rye on the promise of rain ……..was meant to be started on Monday…..but that’s how farming goes sometimes!!!

Sent another 64 head of steers to my father’s 400 acres of hill ….he’s got more grass than me this season …waiting for a lift in the feedlot price!!!

I have the second B Double of Angus pictured below ready to roll out and locked in at $1:85 to go in 6 weeks time. but the coloured cattle price has to go up over $1:80 to pay the extra trucking costs. It is all starting to get scary.

Some of the ‘coloured’ milk and 2 tooth steers are pictured below. Their weight range is 420 to 480 kg and thirty head consume a silage roll every second day while they have been on the last of the irrigated pasture. Tomorrow they are locked out of the sown paddocks and have silage only. This dam they are beside has a 20 mg water licence anad can be replenished from the lagoon and dams above it.

So the plan is to get 150 acres under oats and rye pictured below and get as much silage put away early in spring and re sow suitable paddocks with perennial…and pray for rain!

I will do a few smaller paddocks with perennial just as a test to see what I could have got away with!!! But the better perennial mixture of ryes and clovers is $5 to $12 a kg…..so I opted for some the local favourite at $3:70 a kg. I’m not a big gambler!

The mountains are capped with snow and the record lowest temperatures on record have put the wind up me too. Frosts are predicted for the next week or so. The whole exercise has cost double what I had budgeted on 12 months ago.

Fuel delivered on farm was $1:72 a week ago before the big price rise…..I am not game to re order before I go for the over draft extension!!! The contractor Mark pictured below is the cheapest cost of all at $60 a hectare ……I felt so guilty I have offered to fill his tank before he pulls out tomorrow.

Sowing rates are at 80 kg oats (at $300 a tonne)/ 8 kg annual rye (at $2 a kg)/ 80 kg DAP (at $1630 a tonne) to the hectare. DAP $1600 a tonne bagged…………$4800 Oats $300 X 3.3 tonne off farm and $550 X 1 tonne cleaned and private buy……..$1540 Annual rye $3 X 400kg……..$1200 (Couldn’t afford the $12 a kg perennial) Double spraying out as the weeds got away again……..$3000 Sowing contractor $60 per hectare………$2500 plus diesel.

So 40 hectares of potential growth and potential silage with maybe a chance to strip graze the irrigated 25 acres pictured below will mean I may be able to better than double the 300 steers and 50 cows and calves I turned off it in the last 6 months.

The buy in price of weaners is more than you can see getting for the 450 kg product after drench and trucking costs. Doing $9000 silage rolls and then feed them, $9000 on 60 litres of Fasimec….and thousands on Pestigard….. sweat tears of blood waiting for the price to lift and worry if the cattle are going to fit into a Swift grid targeted at the milk and 2 tooth 380 to 499kg empty weight with the crunch back to $1:83 for those over and under with no compensation for doing them twice with Pesigard at $8 a head!

There’s got to be an easier way of making money……let me know when you find it will you?

My estimated input costs have doubled!!!

It wouldn’t hurt so much if you could see it back in the steer price or could look forward to $2500 a hectare return for your grain in 7 months time……..but this feed on steer job is beginning to look like a waste of time and effort.

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Have Your Say!

Farm input costs are rising, how are you coping?.

Leave your comment below or click on the Blue word Comments and the comments box will appear.

Victorian, Cattle Producer, Feedlotter, Horse Breeder Jenny Bird writes.

Our operation is relatively small..we trade about 4000 steers into feedlots. So we buy in, grow out and send. Wodonga Sale yards on the Victorian / NSW Border (pictured below) is where we source most of our cattle.

Regular sales are Tuesday fat market plus store sale, special sales are held on other days of the week. These special sales require cattle to be yarded the day before and the sales start at 10:30 am. We have arrangements to get cattle out of the pens to dirt yards quickly and then home to paddocks 10 and 15 and 25 k away as the cement footing and radiant heat cook the feet of cattle and cause no end of veterinary work for us.

This is our main processing set of yards on the Bungowannah property under construction. The roof is going on over the yards ($22,000 alone) with lights so we can process cattle when they come in at midnight and get them out into paddocks asap to avoid health issues from standing round on concrete at sale yards and hours of trucking.

Best invention ever a roof over the working area. The power hose is essential to keep the area clean as the cattle are very loose in spring. The heat of the day in open yards in summer is intolerable so we start at dawn and try to knock off by midday……not that it ever works that way!!!!

In the feed on steer job you need to process cattle when they want them so good yards and facilities have become essential….but all are expensive.

The scanning equipment and recording gear we can take to other yards and use portable scales. Above is the sort of crush set up we have in all yards……this one hasn’t got the head grab on it yet. You can’t read buttons manually with out one! All scales need to be programed to the recording box…..if not they can give a false reading of up to 4 kg per 100 kg…..very critical when you are targeting a grid system of price for different feedlots.

We invested in $20,000 worth of crushes and scanner/recording equipment to ease the back pain of having to manually read all cattle on purchased and out the gate so we could check NLIS status of them on the data base to avoid ‘discounts’ at the feedlot entry point.

Above is Bill Weidner, who has been in the cattle business for many years, with some bullocks ready to go to Queensland at the Bonegilla property. Bill and I run his brother’s Estate. AJ Weidner was a very well known commission buyer for 60 odd years. Since Bill had a horse flip on him and break his leg, followed by a horse flinging him into a float and breaking a hip he does very little on a horse now…..but he has a buster off the Ag bike on a regular basis….the brakes on a horse were pretty reliable! At 79 he doesn’t repair as well as he used to!

Manually reading tags is essential on purchase entry as it identifies those cattle who don’t scan; don’t carry buttons at all on arrival; don’t carry a button that matches the NVD; aren’t in fact what they were sold as ie Vendor Bred but second hand, or Vendor Bred but the NVD relates to a different property so they come up on the data base as NOT LIFE TIME TRACEABLE.

The other issue is that when the data is entered on the keyboard, fields don’t hold that data and hours of filling in ‘gaps’ is done off the long hand recording we still have to do.

Nothing beats the written format….except when the dog pi**es on the sheets and you have used a texta pen!!!

“In my spare time I stand 4 Morgan stallions …live service and chilled shipment and breed Pure and Part bred Morgan horses. This mare I originally sold to NZ as a filly but then repurchased when the opportunity arose. I have sold several horses to NZ and every State and Territory in Australia. I have just sold a yearling filly to England….a first.

So when we have a problem on intake we ring the agent and request the correct NVD applicable to the cattle and a roll back of the data entry is done to make the cattle Life Time traceable. Otherwise, we deduct $100 off every incorrect beast purchased.

It is amazing how agents don’t put up a fight!!! It is easier to wear the discount than fix the problem for most……..as they are not computer literate themselves or it occurs so often they would have no time to address their own bottom line profit sheet if they had to fix every “problem” beast!!!

At the price of feed on steers we can’t afford to run 20% non lifetime traceable cattle to punt back into the domestic market!!!…..where Life time traceability doesn’t matter.

Marvelous Encore (pictured) is a Morgan stallion I imported from Arizona in 1994. He arrived mid winter - July 4th in a summer coat but he soon learnt to grow a winter coat.

The filly I sent to England in January went out in 40 degree heat and arrived in -8 with wind chill factor and it snowed the next day. She is growing a winter coat now as she tears off her rugs. It takes horses over 12 months to adjust to the climate change.

I have imported many horses from America, NZ and England as well as frozen semen. The drought and EI has minimised my program but I still have about 25 horses…..but don’t tell Bill!!!”

If only purchasers and breeders and stock owners of cattle would check their data base to see the mess they have on it. Most would recognize that the numbers they are supposed to have in the paddock according to the data base has no relationship to the data they have submitted to the Tax man!!!

Wouldn’t the Tax Office have a field day if they had a look at the data base of most cockies!!!!???? If you aren’t computer literate then ask your Agent to down load a copy of all the cattle you have recorded on your data base. You will be in for a BIG surprise!!! Remember the new buttons in the shed as yet unused are on there too…before you have a heart attack!!!

I headed up a syndicate to import frozen semen from a Palomino Morgan stallion and market that semen as well. Below is a photo of Palomino M0rgan Stallion - PT Cruiser.

Have your say! To ask Jenny a question online or leave a comment click on the Blue word Comment below.