The new cattle are here!

Friday, April 22, 2011

We took receipt of 128 heifers today on a grazing contract. They are grade 1 to 1 1/2's and average just over 500 lbs. Most should gain well on grass alone although we are supplementing some just in case.

Started out a little rough because Ross, the driver, got stuck in our driveway. It is a bit narrow even after enlarging it a couple years ago. I forgot a 53 footer can only make it coming in from the west of the farm. He had to back up, take Deer Creek Cir. and come back. Ross hauled 98 head and we picked up the rest. Only a handfull looked a bit droopy so we'll antiobiotic them and keep a close eye.

Most are angus and angus cross with a few reds, greys and charlois in the bunch. They came just in time because our dominant forage here is Kentucky tall fescue and it rapidly matures come mid May. We do have lots of ladino white clover and then the common bermuda will come on by the end of May.

These cattle came from an excellent cow man named Bob Chandler over in Social Circle, Ga. Bob has been backgrounding cattle for years and we feel fortunate to be working with him. A gain deal like this is good for us at this time of year because we prefer to straighten out our own cattle in the fall of the year when it has cooled off. We plant winter annuals and the fescue is a super stockpile forage which prevents us from having to feed too much hay.

We are only working 8 horses on cattle so this bunch ought to keep us in fresh cows throughout the summer. We would love cutters, reined cowhorse folks and ranch sorters and team penners to come practice with us. We charge $65 per horse and you can stay as long as you want. Just give us a call and we'll plan on it.

We

are now benefitting from wonderful spring rain, a temperate climate and lots of rest time for our pastures. The forage is thick with endophyte-free fescue, ladino white clover and lespedeza. By recently selling our bred cows we now have custom graz- ing available for stockers or cows. Our paddock sizes range from as little as 5 acres up to 45 acres. Each has good, clean, cool well-water piped into concrete troughs. As seen in the accompanying images, all pastures have 2-ton capacity protein supplement sheds that consist of 2/3 dried distillers grains and 1/3 salt. Cattle will be rotated when 1/3 of the forage canopy has been grazed and 2/3 remains. Since we background our own stockers we have the capability to help manage outside cattle in addition to ours. Facilities include a covered cattle barn with sprinklers, fly control system and large fans. In addtion, we have electronic weighing scales and easy access lots for hospital, and recovery patients. We are charging $.75/lb. gain for 6 month grazing contracts for stocker cattle. We also custom graze broodcows and/or cow-calf pairs. Grazing contracts for these cattle are also 6 months and the charge is $12/head (or pair) per month. Please call, blog or e-mail with questions or interest.

Nate Pettitt showing Zoe Sugar Pep

Here is an image of our new resident trainer, Nate Pettitt, showing our good mare Zoe Sugar Pep. This competition took place at the 2010 NCHA Eastern National Championships in Jackson, Ms. They had a good run going; good first cow, second cow and third cow but a controversial hot quit penalty assessed by just 2 out of the 5 judges on the second cow kept Nate and Zoe from advancing to the Open Finals.

Nate is from Gillsville, Ga. and has been training for us for a number of years. Beginning in January this year, Nate took up residence in our newest apartments here on the farm and we are thrilled to have him full-time. He will be taking in outside horses so come one, come all. We now have 27 stalls so there is plenty of room to grow.

Our latest project at Rosemont Farm is the construction of a large storage barn and bunkhouse. This idea was hatched nearly three years ago during the height of the housing boom. Needless to say, finding a good contractor that was also reasonable was nigh on impossible back then. But one severe economic downturn later, the search for good, cheap(er) help was a lot easier. Just as well to have waited because it required a whole bunch of lumber to build this 80 X 50 Taj Mahal. Our trusty timber man, Mike Marshall, who also saves souls in his spare time, cleared around 20 acres for hayfield, lake and pasture. He dutifully sawed all the logs, hardwoods and pine, to produce all of our fence, corral and barn siding. We attempted to make all of our barns and sheds match with lap siding and it has taken a forest full of trees to do it.

This barn is about 23 feet tall and should be able to house our big rig. It also features a three bedroom loft apartment complete with communal kitchen, bath and loafing quarters. The bedrooms should be pretty cool looking because Mike sawed us some huge poplar trees and tongue and grooved paneling for the walls. The living quarters encompasses the top quadrant of the barn and runs the entire length and sports a barn- length catwalk on the outside of the apartments. I had some fancy plans to construct a truck wash inside the barn proper but the details of that still allude me.

Our plans are, shall we say, still dynamic. I intend to attract a succession of college interns from some of the good equine programs around the country to fulfill their requirements by working for Rosemont. What a possibly super way to develop great contacts and friendships around the nation. Plus we may find someone permanent. Good help is hard to find and especially to keep.

A passel of hearty "thank you's" go out to numerous hard workers to construct this barn. Riley Harcrow is our builder, and a fine one too. Tim Meachum poured our slab. Tim somehow manages to raise 5 children, manages a poultry operation, auto mechanic shop and is a concrete man. Joe Nichols is our long-time interior paint man. Trusty Justino Guzman, our full-time farmhand, found us Richard and Jose and the three of them only need me to pick up materials.

And last, but not least, is our newest horse wrangler Kelly Pollard. Kelly started some two year colts for us the first of the year but after another short gig contacted us again to see if we needed all of our horses ridden. Thank goodness for we've had a heck of a time finding a bonafide resident cutting horse trainer. We are always looking, though, and intend to formally advertise the position after we finish this big barn and acquire our next potload of stocker calves. But in the meantime, Kelly has allowed us to focus on this project by doing most all the riding and allowed us to spend copius amounts of time, labor (and money) getting our small band of brooodmares in foal.

Hopefully, it will be completed shortly so we can go back to the fun stuff of training and showing cutting horses.

November 1, 2009

Last show of the year for the Wateree Cutting Horse Association at the fine Circle M Ranch

in Pelzer, SC. Had a fine show. Trainer Nate Pettitt won the $10k Novice on Zoe. I won the $15k

Novice Horse Non-Pro (on a rather unspectacular run- see above), and was second the next day.

Really fun when the Settlement Sheet has a much higher earnings figure than charges. Zoe was

awarded with the $10k Novice Horse of the year award for the Wateree CHA and received a

custom halter and cooler.

This July, we invested in two registered angus bulls; a long-yearling and a two-year old both raised and developed by the great Three Trees Ranch of Senoia, Ga. owned by Stan Thomas. These photos don't do the young studs justice. Take my word for it; they are handsome boys. We will use these bulls to "clean-up" after our artificial insemination program for the top-end of our stocker-heifer purchases. The above photos capture some of the flavor of my trip to the Woodbury, Ga. facility on top of a huge hill that has the most panoramic view. That is a renovated old dairy barn where Three Trees has an annual bull sale where they move @300 bulls , all products of their extremely successful embryo transfer program. Ranch manager Rob Singleton was nice enough to deliver the guys to me; that is Rob in the photo above. Rob is also a competitive non-pro cutter and proud owner of an excellent son of Docs Hickory named Hickorys Advantage. He still shows the stallion and we are happy to own a son of this fine stud that we call Artemis who is a yearling and a good-looking young gelding out of our good mare Missy.

Tuesday was shipment day for our last pot-load of heifers. We sold them through Southeast Livestock Exchange. We had the cows for 4 months but they were played out about a month ago so it has been tough working reruns on the young horses. The above photos are of the heifers waiting to load out, the big rig pulling in the driveway (it barely fits) and trusty Justino with the bunch. He had already fed and moved all 67 head by himself by the time the truck arrived. Miracle worker! Like the first load, we carved out the best 20 head for bred-heifer market. We then syncronised their heat cycle and bred the heifers artificially. As of now, this is our value-added proposition to turn a profit. It seems hard to just put weight on the cattle and turn a profit. Ask anyone who owns a feedlot. We may try to feed some heavy stocker steers on grass for our next set and just keep them for a couple months but are having some difficulty replacing the last set at a profit without selling the short-bred heifers right away too. It aint all just about cuttin' baby!

Here, finally, is a photo of our farm sign. Thanks go out to quite a few. First of all, Mike Marshall, our long-time timber man (2003) who has worked so hard carefully clearing our old-growth timber for pastures, lakes and ponds. He logs then uses a Woodmizer to produce beautiful red and white oak plank boards for all of our fencing, arena boards, and corral planking.
Gary Todd and his wife Sherry from Roopville, Ga. did the etching and staining work (in addition to cutting out "bottoms and skids" for our tire-cattle feeders). And many thanks go to our long-time top hand Justino Guzman for the post holes and pipe sinking. Van Brown, Bremen, Ga. our diligent welder, constructed the sign frame (along with numerous arenas and gates) and Scott Montieth, Hogansville, Ga. painted the steel (along with nimerous arenas and gates). Scott Heath, Tyus, Ga., justed added night lights (dusk to dawn) so everyone can see the sign. dbarr

So, here I am again. This might be the video of David and Tom in Harriman,TN on 4-5-09.

Well, I did not figure out the videos. Something about converting them from how the camcorder records to a format the blog and dvds can take. Much to learn. Here are some farm pictures of our new colt,BB. He is named after his mom,Barcali Rose and dad Playboy's Badge. Official name is Bars and Badges.