custom grazing.

[cswilson]

You'd of got culled first swing of the gate anyways lol.

[cswilson]

you would likely be a pretty fiesty one cowman !!!

[grassfarmer]

Emrald, it's great what can be accomplished by a "can do" attitude rather than a "can't do". Conventional thinking says "you can't do that in my area...it wouldn't work" - the same conventional thinking that constantly tells us that you can't make money from beef cattle.
Having winter calving cattle that you are proud "hold up on poor pasture" indicates to me back to front thinking. Surely the pasture and grass come first - we are only utilising cattle to harvest the grass. The idea that we give winter calving cattle as much expensive feed as they want to maximise production then kick them out on poor pasture for a brief summer is clearly misguided.

Given that poultry and pigs can convert grain into protein a lot more efficiently than cattle I see the future for cattle being utilisation of grass / long forages as that is their forte. Allowing the cattle to harvest the grass themselves will always be cheaper than doing it mechanically.

I wonder if these "hobby genetics" will still be around in 20 years? The seedstock herds that by calving in winter are selecting cattle that can only perform in a feedlot situation.
Good for input suppliers, disasterous for producers.

[grassfarmer]

grassfarmer, I didn't mean to insinuate that my pastures were poor, but that some of my cows don't fall apart on poor pasture like we had in 2002.
It sounds like your operation is a money maker for you and thats excellent. Obviously winter calving is a choice that some of us make,it isn't for everyone but then again, its the diversity that makes the industry so interesting.