The Effect of the California Drought: Part 2

The hay that was delivered to our barn on monday was 200 bales short of what it should of been. The reason for that is that morning before 7 the semi truck had a collision with a herd of deer and the bales broke open and scattered on high way 20. We are getting a refund for the hay and hopefully get another 200 bales. This amount of hay that was delivered will most likely last 7 to 8 months at the most so hopefully we get a lot more rain before then so the prices will drop and supply will be high for California.

The effect of the California drought on hay prices: part 1

The drought that has occurred recently is going to make less hay and make the prices for the remaining hay extremely expensive. Ranchers and farmers say that as long as the drought continues, the nation's largest agricultural state will remain in turmoil, with repercussions stretching to consumer pocketbooks in the form of higher prices for such basic staples as meat, milk, fruit and vegetables. We are getting a full semi truck load of hay before the prices go up and it is going to last about 10 months to a year. Getting hay in bulk is better buying when cheaper even though it is a lot of a money but it would be the difference of 250 dollars a ton  or 350 dollars a ton which can add up to a couple thousand dollar difference.

Scours

Scours is technically just bad diarrhea, which you will almost never see in adult steers, bulls, or cows unless they are sick. Scours is more common in nursing calves because of the amount of milk they ingest in one feeding. My calves are nursing once in the morning and once in the evening. They nurse for more than five minutes on one cow. This used to be a problem because even five minutes would give them scours but now since they are getting bigger they can handle more milk quicker. If a calf gets extreme scours it could be fatal. So when my calf got scours I would reduce the amount of time he would get nursing until I saw good solid poop then I knew I was in the clear.

Grass Fed Dairy Meat

People who have bought our dairy steer meat have gave us amazing feed back that it is the best meat they have ever had and we thought the same thing. Many things have made it taste so amazing the way it does. The steers nursed off of their mothers until the day they died which people don't normally due for reasons they feel necessary. They were grass fed which led to the taste and they were never stressed out in their hole life which was played a huge role in the magnificent taste.