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Soldiers Grove Wi. 54655 | Jim
As you know I'm only about 5 - 6 miles from you as the crow flys and the only 2nd crop I have taken off was a field on the river bottom as a lawn mower would do just as good as a haybine on the hillsides. I too have been feeding hay since early August but some of my river bottom pasture up river did come back some so that's helped. The cows and calves also have a lot of shade and a creek with cool water running in the pasture and at times my cows are walking 1/2 way into the Kickapoo on the real hot days. (I'm just lucky they don't pasture on the other side of the river as the new owners have let their properties go fallow and don't crop it anymore so the cropground is all weeds) In my younger days the cattle would cross quite often or their cattle would cross onto my side.
I just pulled my calves yesterday and locked them up so they are getting weaned off the cows right now as it's time and the pasture is just to short. The neighborhood didn't get much sleep last night since the cows and calves were balling all night and will for a couple more days.. lol I've had a few phone calls with them wondering if something is wrong with my cows since the noise echoes all night up and down the valley... lol
As far as the drought itself I believe this is worse than 2012 and just about as bad as 1988 but the sloughs aren't quite dry yet. If we don't get a good amount of rain this fall or snow this winter and a damp spring next year is going to really hurt.. I sure am glad I didn't sell any more hay then I did this spring as usually I have 200+ bales of first crop and this year only 50. Looks like I'll be putting up some round bales of corn fodder and thinking about adding molasses to it but I'm not sure how much to put on a 4x 5 bale yet. Early planted corn and beans on rotated ground is fair but what I no tilled into sod is terrible. It's odd as in 1988 the no till in sod was the best I had and I averaged 135 bu/a that year.
As far as pasturing the woods I haven't checked to see if there are many acorns this year but I've heard of cows eating to many and getting sick on them but they may have been low on energy and gorged themselves on it at the time.
Have a good day~
Kick~ | |
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