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North Central Kansas | I my area, pastures don't really respond to fertilizer, except for brome grass.
I've made an observation that if you show me a 'good' farmer, I'll show you a poor cow man. They try to make the cow/calf operation into a grain farm by focusing solely on production and marketing. When they talk about the cattle and decisions to be made all the language is the same as if they were producing grain. Their mind can't shift gears to a different enterprise. These guys are successful farmers that just have cattle because they own land with pasture on it, or rent land with pasture and they want to keep control of everything. Most of them over the years get out of the cattle, or pass off those responsibilities to someone else. There may also be some landlord restrictions. My new banker asked why don't more people implement a rotational grazing system? One reason is that most landlords won't even listen to that. They are afraid of change and they have pre conceived ideas of the only way to do things so if you mention something new you may not rent that pasture anymore. They are scared of you; you threatened them.
Another observation I've made is some of those guys that don't have any livestock have this arrogance about them. Cows aren't to be on cropland, they never should get out. I begin to wonder if they eat beef?? Or if they have a weed on their farm? I guess we all wonder why others act the way they do. I am sure people wonder about me. | |
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help me understand cattle farmers mentality
