The Official Farming Thread...

[Mastermind]

I stepped out onto the front porch, just after dark last night. Cicadas are finally getting noisy in my area, fireworks popping.
Air was full of wood smoke, grilled meat and burnt powder.
Closed my eyes for a moment and it almost felt like I wasn't in the big city.

I'd move.

 

[Hedgerow]

You name yer food?
LOL just bustin yer gnards,
Like mine were when I named my saw. Not by you but a bunch of members here.

Edit/add on: BTW, Larry looks delicious.

Absolutely...

The 3 I fed out last year were Larry Darryl, and Kyle..
Sent Larry at 13 months, and the other 2 went at 15-16 months..
I started feeding them out longer. It’s damn expensive, but the beef quality and marbling really increases after 15 to 18 months.
They live in the lap of luxury and never really want for anything. And yes I pet them all.
I like calm and lazy steers.. The last thing you want is for your animal to go Bizerk at the locker plant because they’re high strong.
That is like fumbling the ball on the 2 yard line.

 

[Hedgerow]

I assisted my neighbor last winter processing a steer..

Honestly, I wouldn’t want to tackle that job on my own. Once a critter gets over 300 lbs, *s-word gets challenging.. this steer was close to 1400 lbs.

Dick has a walk in cooler, but the sides were too big to hang, so quarters it was.. and even the quarters took two men to get in the door and hang.

My son in law and I did a 200 lb hog last year, and was not a problem..

 

[Hedgerow]

On deck currently, we have Whitey, KIZ, and Dave..

Dave is a full blood red angus. We’ll see if their carcass traits are all they’re billed out to be..

All are currently 15 months old and will be sent in September. Take a few months break before the next batch comes in.

 

[dall]

I assisted my neighbor last winter processing a steer..

Honestly, I wouldn’t want to tackle that job on my own. Once a critter gets over 300 lbs, *s-word gets challenging.. this steer was close to 1400 lbs.

Dick has a walk in cooler, but the sides were too big to hang, so quarters it was.. and even the quarters took two men to get in the door and hang.

My son in law and I did a 200 lb hog last year, and was not a problem..

Last one I helped on
Uncle Jim likes to let them go about 2 years and shoots them in the field from his tractor seat

 

[Hedgerow]

View attachment 300635
Last one I helped on
Uncle Jim likes to let them go about 2 years and shoots them in the field from his tractor seat

He got a good walk in cooler?

 

[dall]

He got a good walk in cooler?

a farmer down the road has one probably 10x10

 

[SpaceBus]

Absolutely...

The 3 I fed out last year were Larry Darryl, and Kyle..
Sent Larry at 13 months, and the other 2 went at 15-16 months..
I started feeding them out longer. It’s damn expensive, but the beef quality and marbling really increases after 15 to 18 months.
They live in the lap of luxury and never really want for anything. And yes I pet them all.
I like calm and lazy steers.. The last thing you want is for your animal to go Bizerk at the locker plant because they’re high strong.
That is like fumbling the ball on the 2 yard line.

This is how I treat my roosters. I hatched all of our culls, except for one, this year myself in the incubator. All of them get a name, even if it's just to distinguish one from the other. Our "head" rooster is named Rocky, so all of his sons were Dark Rocky (Australorp Rock cross), Rocky II, Red Rocky (Wyandotte Rock cross), Light Rocky (Legbar Rock cross), and Legbar Rocky (another Legbar Rock cross). The Wyandotte x Rock was the most meat yield, the least aggressive, and the fastest growing. Usually my wife comes up with the names, but she was not as involved with this batch as the chicks we got in the mail last year. There's six eggs in the incubator right now and I'll be putting at least a dozen more in there in three weeks. I've never touched a live cow but my wife says they are actually pretty soft.

I assisted my neighbor last winter processing a steer..

Honestly, I wouldn’t want to tackle that job on my own. Once a critter gets over 300 lbs, *s-word gets challenging.. this steer was close to 1400 lbs.

Dick has a walk in cooler, but the sides were too big to hang, so quarters it was.. and even the quarters took two men to get in the door and hang.

My son in law and I did a 200 lb hog last year, and was not a problem..

I couldn't imagine trying to process an animal that large with my wife. When we cull the roosters I swing them around for a while until they are disoriented and put them in the kill cone. Probably not going to work out so well with a steer!

 

[Hedgerow]

a farmer down the road has one probably 10x10

I’d love to be able to hang a steer 20 days or so..

Just don’t know where I’d even put a cold room where I could get at it with the loader.
Eh, the guys down at the locker plant need a job too..

It’s about a $600 proposition to have one processed any more.

 

[Hedgerow]

Tractor porn..

Levi’s pride and joy went to a collector in N Dakota..

 

[Mastermind]

@Hedgerow

Theres way more grass in that clover than I figured there would be. Looks like some good feed.

 

[Hedgerow]

That looks good Randy.
Having more grass will allow you to roll the clover up a little sooner than you were thinking.

You should send a sample of that hay off for analysis. I’ve always wanted to know what type of protein level was In heavy white clover mix.
Would really be interested to know what it’s relative feed value was.

 

[SpaceBus]

@Hedgerow

Theres way more grass in that clover than I figured there would be. Looks like some good feed.

View attachment 300642 View attachment 300641 View attachment 300643

My alpacas would love that.

 

[Hedgerow]

This is what my daughter sent the wife on mother’s day...

 

[Hedgerow]

This was Babe the blue ox cleaned up for the fair..

 

[Hedgerow]

 

[Mastermind]

That looks good Randy.
Having more grass will allow you to roll the clover up a little sooner than you were thinking.

You should send a sample of that hay off for analysis. I’ve always wanted to know what type of protein level was In heavy white clover mix.
Would really be interested to know what it’s relative feed value was.

I've never sent any off before. I'll call the ag office tomorrow.

 

[Hedgerow]

It’s fair week here..

It’s my obligation as an official old guy to take the trip down memory lane... more pics to come probably..

 

[Mastermind]

View attachment 300658 View attachment 300659

This was Babe the blue ox cleaned up for the fair..

View attachment 300660

Beautiful machine

 

[Hedgerow]

I've never sent any off before. I'll call the ag office tomorrow.

It’s not expensive. Just fill a big zip lock with a good sample and send it.

Then send a bag with regular grass fodder for perspective..