One thing you may need to be careful about is I know of two ranchers that lost cattle because of toxic Johnsongrass. One rancher lost five head and seems like the other lost about 15 head.
Normally you have a problem if it is dry and then you get moisture for a quick growth or at least that is what I have always heard. I know I have heard of a cow’s head through the fence and one bite the head is still through the fence. Now that is toxic.
I can remember as a young boy we were moving some steers out of a pasture on horseback and we barely got them out of the gate and they started falling. It seems we had six or seven down. We got the pickup and drove home to get some crystals. I can’t remember the exact outcome but it was very hectic for a bit.
Cane and various other plants can be toxic, also. The best way to check to see if it is toxic is to borrow a steer of the neighbors.
This market has to be pulling cattle early off grass. A lot because of price but also the dry weather is equally moving them early. Also, I see more calves being sold off cows earlier than usual. And the number of open cows we are seeing is extremely high. I hear several say the reason is the early heat that has lasted most of the summer.
Some say the cows didn’t come into a heat cycle while others say the ground may have been too hot as far as the bull laying on the ground and the semen being “cooked.”
Surprisingly to me packer cows and bulls were a lot higher again this week. A lot of those better fleshy cows brought $92 to $100 per hundredweight. We sold a bull for $119 per hundredweight.
A little boy was waiting outside of a store for his mom who was not far behind. A man walked up to this little boy and said, “Can you tell me where the Post Office is?” The little boy said, “Sure, just go one block north and then turn the corner and it is right there.” The man thanked the boy kindly and said, “I’m the new minister in town and I’d like you to come to church on Sunday and I’ll show you how to get to heaven.”
The little boy replied with a chuckle and said, “Come on—you don’t know how to get to the Post Office so how are you going to be able to show me how to get to heaven?”
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the view of High Plains Journal. Jerry Nine, Woodward, Oklahoma, is a lifetime cattleman who grew up on his family’s ranch near Slapout, Oklahoma.
