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Little River, TX | Greg, Jared. & Ed are hitting all around the bulls eye.
Forty years ago there was an Ace Reed cartoon with Cowboy, with a bunch of skin and bone cattle, Saying to the Soil Conservation ma, Grass what to I care about grass, I am a cow man not a darn farmer.
What people forget is the cow is just a harvesting machine. That is what you use to market your forage.
The cow man first has the animals and then tries to figure where he can find some forage to feed them.
A Forage Farmer first has a good crop of forage and then must consider how he will harvest it.
The most economical harvesting system is to graze the forage.
Yes there are some forages that do not respond to fertilizers like crops do but bermudagrass sure likes fertilizer. With fertilizer a Farmer can produce a ton of hay on 4 inches of water. With out fertilizer a ton of hay needs 12 inches of water.
What is interesting is the Cattleman with too many cattle for the forage available. He has two choices, cut back on the cattle or fertilize the grass. Here at least fertilizer is less costly than more land. With fertilizer most of the pastures HERE could double their carrying capacity,
I never see a cotton farmer say he needs 5 bales to the acre to make a living but he will say he needs too many cows to the acre.
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help me understand cattle farmers mentality
