From the Barns: Some tragic news

My last article had just been sent off when I got word that my good friend, Jamie Willrett, had left suddenly to be with the Lord. This tragic news shook me and the rest of the cattle industry as we all lost a trusted friend and leader. Jamie and I served together as officers of the Illinois Beef Association many years ago. I was inspired by what Jamie and his father, Jim, had done feeding cattle here in Illinois and utilized many of the things I learned from them in our own cattle feeding operation — in fact Scott, our nutritionist, was suggested to me by Jamie and we have shared his help for over 30 years.

Jamie and his father, Jim, were always what I called “closers.” During the debate on many issues involving the beef industry, they would listen intently, weigh what was presented and interject sparingly, but as I witnessed on many occasions, when the emotions had run their course, they had the ability to put any issue to bed with a well thought-out solution that usually called for an immediate vote. I loved to watch them in action and our industry will always be in their debt.

This year’s growing season is off to a tremendous start. The manure was applied easily and dry conditions made fieldwork go smoothly. We had a pleasant surprise — the wheat acres we had written off back in February as nonexistent when we were applying manure somehow took off and grew when we weren’t watching. Our normal turnout on wheat pasture is on March 15, but we didn’t realize there was anything to turn out on until a couple of weeks later. The wheat, feasting on the manure I’d applied, was growing like crazy and the cows never could catch up, so much so that we had to break out the chopper and make wheatlage on a couple hundred acres just so we could get the ground clear enough to plant corn.

Most cover crop guys will just terminate and plant, but we have to deal with the cow tracks in order to get a decent seedbed for the corn crop. We have tried any number of field preparation options, from plowing, field cultivation and several other combinations, but what seems to work the best is the turbo-disk. The disk slices through the cow tracks and levels it up and the rolling basket firms the soil back up all while leaving the wheat residue on top to protect the soil and hold moisture. A little rain makes you look genius, too. The cows are calving nicely on the abundant grass in the pastures we just turned out on and will finish up soon.

Fat cattle have rebounded nicely, but a lot of cattle feeders are nervous to load back up with the prices of feeders being spiked from grass fever. Nobody wants to get caught holding the bag when this fat market breaks for lower prices. Our memories are still feeling it from the last time we were here. It’s summer, time for the cows to do what they are here on this earth to do, convert sunshine to protein — what a great plan!