Very likely, yes. Were you at the Bluegrass music festival at the fairgrounds?

Kal I understand that what we are calling dry conditions is nothing like what other folks call dry conditions. Everything is relative to what "normal" for a given area.  For this area and the stocking rates etc this is dry.  For someone used to 20a/pair rates as Mark mentions, this doesn't look near as dry to what they are used to seeing.

About the breeding on a level, open spot rather than on wooded hillsides - a couple years ago I had a hiefer go lame from being bred on a rocky hillside. Would that have happened on open more level ground? Maybe, but maybe not. 

The only thing that makes produces income in a cow/calf operation is calves. Everything else is an expense. And in my system, the tighter/shorter the calving period the more likely my steers will be at 13 months and a reasonable weight to process at my scheduled time when they need to get off corn so I can start the cycle again.

I want as many as possible bred on the first cycle so I do everything I can think of to increase that one-cycle calving probability.  A small group in a somewhat limited space that is more level and open than other place I have with anything to graze right now. Maybe it is more management-intensive than other systems but it is just a different way of raising beef that I am experimenting with. There are a lot of different ways to raise cattle as we see on this board.

Stocking rate is another issue this year. I think this year will really define for me what sort of stocking rate can be supported by my system.

Jim at Dawn