How I Started Running Twice as Many Cattle Per Acre

Have you been to the stockyards lately and seen what cattle are worth? And if you're not willing to see if you can improve that based on what a value per pound is, you probably ought to sell all your cattle. We are principally a full blood Fleckvieh operation. We have introduced some commercial cattle in this. Our mineral program with the farm has been a little bit varied over several years. We really wanted to do the Riomax tubs. Some like minded people had started and we decided to work together and kind of analyze this a little bit. I have a very analytical breeder that's out in in central Oklahoma and he sent me some data in his mind that that looked made really a lot sense to do this. So I wanted to be very detailed when we first started the product. We separate cattle by and large. We keep them in different groups. So we monitored the cattle pretty closely on what their consumption rates were. Honestly, the control groups of twenty five to thirty cows were going through a tub about once a month. And so it fit pretty much what I was told they would do. They did go through salt pretty regular and I have no problem with that. I think that was that fit what we expected them to do. I had a couple that were in control groups that just weren't in the condition they needed to be. And I don't wanna say they were neglected, but they certainly weren't in pastures that had the quality of roughage that they needed coming out of the summer. I certainly saw some condition changes in those cattle very quickly. They seemed to slick off, their coats slicked off pretty well. They looked they just had a fresh look to them. Certainly in in the first ninety days really in condition with the cattle. So which is which is really what sold me on wanting to go forward with the product. Those cattle are performing extraordinarily well considering what they're what they're raising and what they're producing out there. I'm probably not the most experienced nutritionist out there, but I think they're overall their intake is balanced. I think they're getting what they need. Cattle by nature are made to take care of their selves if they can. And, if we can give them a supplement that'll do that, I think that makes a big difference. From a conception standpoint, we've always had really good conception rates. We really have. But with the market today, if you lose one calf, that's a that's a few dollars. We just did our, a round of preg test the other day, and I'm extremely pleased with where we're at. And I do think that really relates into body condition and and overall the overall makeup of the cattle and how they're how they're performing right now. I came into winter this year purposely with less hay than I normally do. We're setting with a fourth of what I put up still setting here right now. So we've certainly seen a difference in that. I'm not one that worries lot about hay. What I will tell you is the tractor started twice a week. That's all we put out hay. Whether the cost of the hay is a big deal or not, and it is, the labor for me to have to do that more than a couple times a week is a big deal. I'm a one man show here, and if I've gotta start that tractor five days a week, I'm the one on it. So it does make a difference. Here's what I found with the previous mineral programs, and I think I'm no different than anybody else. It's a lot easier to drive by and look at one of these tubs and see if they're empty or not. When I was doing the loose mineral before, you run out and you don't go get it, And one day they ate it all, next day they don't eat it for a week. Much better. Much much easier to handle than overall. That's allowed me to increase more cattle. I would tell you today, I probably run twice as many cattle per acre than everybody else does. Now part of that is pasture improvements and things I'm doing, but I'm using my land and I will use the land and we will run it to the max every year. At the cost of the per acre of land in this area right now, you better use it or you better sell it. You're setting in an area that really has got a lot of pressure today to break up property and put it into housing. And so if I can't make this land make money, then it has to go into something else. So it allows the farm to stay a farm. That's what it really does. If you look at the time of having to handle the product and handle what I would do if I wasn't using that, you look at the cost of hay, no doubt about that, what it's gonna cost me to use other mineral programs. I don't think it's that much more expensive. Matter of fact, I I think I can make a case that it might be cheaper than what I was doing previously. If I if I couldn't, I wouldn't be using it, I'll tell you, because I think the value is there with it. No doubt about it.