First Year with Cows: James Asks, Bill Answers

In this episode of Under the Covers, Bill and James talk cows…or more accurately, Bill explains cows while James asks the questions.

James recently went all in on the cow business with two semi-loads of black cows. This episode turns into a real-world conversation about systems, management styles, and lessons learned over the years. From calving seasons and bull selection to grazing management and toxic fescue, the conversation turns into a real-world discussion between someone just getting started and someone who’s been doing it for decades.

The guys also dig into:

• Why James wants to calve in June instead of spring
• The challenges of managing heifers for the first time
• What Bill looks for when selecting bulls
• Why both guys prefer grazing over confinement systems
• The economics (and frustrations) of putting up hay
• Managing toxic fescue in pastures
• Why diversified farms may matter more in the future

The episode also touches on the bigger picture: building farming systems that work together instead of treating crops, cattle, and feed as separate operations.

If you’ve ever thought about getting cows, this one’s for you.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Under the Covers. Where all of our cards are on the table, whether we meant to play them or not. I'm Bill. And I'm James. We're the founders of Iowa Cover Crop, and we disagree about nearly everything. These are the same conversations we've been having for years. It starts with farming and usually ends up somewhere else. No script, no sales pitch, no guarantees we're right. To keep this from turning into a three-hour debate, we play a game of cribbage while we talk. When the game's over, the episode is over. Somebody's probably wrong. Someone's definitely losing. This is under the covers.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Hey.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Hey, how are you? What's going on? Well, I'm about to win a game of cribbage here. I don't think you are. I think this is my time. Three again. Whoa! Whoa! What are the chances of that? Two hands in a row. Now we know the rules. Yeah. And high card wins. Alright. We gotta have a war for the second time in a row. Come on, baby.

unknown 1:07

Dang it.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

I was I I saw it backwards. I said, holy shit. There is, yeah, there's something going on around here. Alright. Threes. It was threes last time. What are the chances of that? That's pretty wild. If you can do, if you can let us know the probability of getting two threes, two games in a row. See if close your eyes right now. Have you ever watched Maverick? Uh oh. See if you can pull a three right now. See if you can pull a three. Oh, Maverick's such a great movie. Come on, maybe. Show it to the camera when you get it up here. Get it up here.

unknown 1:40

No. Dang it.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Well, what if this like it's like every other threes in here? Yeah, we've been we've been playing for six months with a deck with eight threes in it. You know, Maverick was a TV show, right? And then it was Garner. I never watched TV show. I just watched the movie. I've I've only kind of came out when we were kind of. Yeah, Mel Gibson, Jody Foster. I don't know. It was good. Ah, so good. Really good. They just don't make movies like that anymore. No, sir. I gotta figure out. I'm gonna while we're on the Western theme, the theme of this podcast is cows. Oh. So yeah. So I am gonna tell you I am new to the cow business. I'm not new to the cattle business, but the cow business is something definitely new to. Welcome to the cult. Welcome to the fraternity. So I just recently bought these cowboy boots. Right here. Oh, I you know, I spotted those one of the last times we hung out together. This is the fact I'd never seen them before. First pair of cowboots I ever bought. We were Megan got invited to a do-gooder conference. Oh, well. In Minneapolis. And I also got invited to go to the do-gooder conference. And so I thought I better, if I'm gonna put on the show, right? Yeah. Uh did you wear a hat? To get a Stetson? I don't own a hat yet. But small steps. Okay. So I bought the boots, then naturally I had to buy the cows. Yeah, yep. Expensive boots. Expensive boots. Yeah. Man. So I recently bought some cows. Um, out of the West. I bought two semi-loads of them. That's exciting. Yep. And did you do this? You did this in lieu of buying feeders. In lieu of buying steers, yes. Okay. And I'm actually like really excited about the whole system. Like we talked about last couple episodes, grazing cover crops, the small grains, the annual warm season pastures behind it. I'm really excited about that. And the collars, like all this stuff. Yeah. And I'm just excited to use the whole system. Sure. So um, so I bought two semi-loads of cows. And so now I'm gonna ask you about everything I need to know. Are they are they black? Are they red? Are they Oreo? Are they fluffy? What are they? Hmm. They are black, they are big black cows. Wow. Um, yeah, and so I bought them in November. I dry lotted them. Well, actually, I didn't dry lot them, I threw them in this like little tiny 25-acre patch because it was just kind of handy. Also had bunks. I fed them in there. And uh, so now obviously they're out on grass. They don't calve until June. So I um have a lot of time to think about all the messes I'm going to get into. Uh yeah, I mean, as long as June's not hot though, you're gonna love that'll be prime cabin time. Yeah. That'd be great. Yeah, so I bought these because they are much more competitive. I got 12. Jeez. Um, much more competitive compared to steers. Uh, I bought them kind of before the market went up a bunch, too. And so I got them in at a good price. Uh, bought them from a buddy of mine, they were bull breads from a uh guy that sells a bunch of bulls, Blair Brothers Angus. Um, and so there's bullbreads, they cabin June. I'm actually excited about cabin in June, Bill, because even though I don't know anything about cows, I kind of understand like the whole life system of a steer and like how to make him like the most profitable as possible. So I'm really excited about June because I'm gonna take June calves, I'm gonna wean them in like December, January. Yeah, and then I'm going to uh wean them and then I'm gonna like hold them for about a couple months, then put them back on grass, and then put them off grass and put them in the feed yard. So I don't know if you can do the math, but I'm not gonna get paid on these cows until like 2028. That yeah. So they say, so yeah, so anyway. Cool. I'm gonna I'm trying to get as vertically integrated as possible with these cows. That's cool. I I'm happy for you. I think you're gonna love it. Um I don't know, there's something exciting about calving out calves and seeing those little babies running around, it just makes you excited about it. Yeah, I got I know I don't I don't ever get excited going out to our pen that we feed out, you know. But man, I love caving season. Yeah, so I'm kind of new to grazing because you obviously grew up with it. But I started really basically just grazing about 10, 12 years ago, and um I'm gonna give you points. Okay, but I just think that's the right thing to do. I'm behind. I can take it. Uh just don't know. I'll give you points. All right. Um, but uh, so I'm really excited to but yeah, the feedlots are feedlots are ugly. And raising cattle in a pen, even though it's like the most logical thing to do, sure, is it's muddy, it's dirty, it's not much. There's so much more disease. There's more disease. Yeah. So I'm gonna have these mama cows out on range, and I'm going to take them. 25. Um 29. 30. Oh I had you set up perfect, too. So I'm gonna take them off that. I have, I'm like stocking one to one on the pasture in right now, which is too tight of a stocking rate. However, I'm gonna pull them off about July 1st, put them on my small grains pasture. I have both wheat and rye, them harvest some grain, oh, and oats. So I got three different things, got lots of grass or lots of small grains behind them. And um, yeah, so that's what I'm gonna be doing. Cool. That's I I'm a little jealous because we calve like March April. Yep. And I wish we calved like May June. But we calve in March, April because you know time-wise. Oh man, 10. 10 is a double run. 10's a double run. Oh, four, yeah. Yep, and then set and then this all kind of adds up to that adds up, or something adds up to 15 right there. Yeah, 15, yeah. Okay, so 10 and 2. Nope, that's counting the pair. 10 is counting the pair. Oh, 10's pounding the pair. Okay, so 12. That's what I counted earlier. I count it different than you did. Nice. So you're jealous of me calvin in June. I would love to calve in May, June, yeah. But everything happened, you know, just like everything else with farming, everything happens at the same time. So pretty slow in March, April. So we cal in March, April. Yeah, I'm not gonna be doing anything in June, like other than cultivate and make calve cows. Do you make hay? No, not really. Okay. I mean, we might make have like 10 or 15 acres. It's like hay is you talk about a dog. Ugh. I was at the Perry Hay sale. This was like you don't have to tell me. Like, they were selling these like mini round bales that are like, I don't know, they're like this, like this size. And I hadn't been there in a long time. And like four dollars. And I was like, four dollars. They just traded big or small squares for eight. And I was like, four dollars, like, yeah, four dollars. And they trade them for four dollars a piece. Whoa. I didn't buy them. Were they junk? They were junk, but four dollars. There was six of them. So someone got twenty-four doll less commission, which isn't really that much because it doesn't gross anything, and cheaper than straw. Just use it as bedding. Uh I just, yeah, I I just it just it just blows my mind how cheap hay is. It's like to the point of um, this is gonna get real way off topic, but um uh guy works for me, Nate, he he put up 17 acres of hay last year. Nice alfalfa. He put it up well, like he did everything right. This winter he took his hay to the Perry Hayes sale, bought $53 a bale. He did the math, he had 17 acres. He's like, if I had one cow, I would have made a thousand more dollars. That's all he needed was one cow to run on that 17 acres. How dumb is that? I just get tired of I'm a bad farmer. I get tired of driving circles and bouncing around in the hay fields all summer long. You make quite a bit of hay, don't you? Uh, I mean, it keeps us busy, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's probably not that many acres, but it keeps us busy. Yeah. So so I I need to learn a few things, Bill, because I'll be asking you questions about these cows all summer long because I don't know what I'm doing. I'll try not to give you bad information. Oh, jeez, don't look at that. Um but I haven't bought a bull yet, or bulls plural. Okay. What should I do about that? Uh I was thinking about AI and I mean that kind of seems like a lot of work. I, you know, I tried AI in a couple times, and I just don't you don't have a patience for it. I don't have a patience for it. It just I I did it like twice, and I was like, you know, nature's already doing this job. Why, why am I trying to take over? Yeah. So but a lot of people AI. Yeah, and it's great. It's developed the her uh the genetics, you know, like it's it's a good system. I just don't do it. It's not for me. Um so you have Hereford bulls? What do you have? Uh I've got a couple Hereford bulls, couple mostly Angus bulls, and either black cows or black whiteface cows. Yeah. So how many bowls per cow? Oh I you don't want to run more than 20 per bull, I don't think. So I don't know. We always turn out like we always have some like young bulls and some older bulls, and so we usually have multiple bowls in with a pasture of cows. Do you lease bulls, buy bulls? We buy. Okay, this is a dumb question, but um this has been bothering me for a little bit of time. Okay, like, can I keep my bowl with my pregnant cows the whole time so I don't gotta like take care of it separate? Yeah. But I've been looking around at people and they're like, they don't. I hold on to that one. I'm gonna make sure this is legal. No, we're at 13 here. We're at 20. We're at 23. There you go. 30 go. Okay. Um we usually pull off and I keep them at my house because I've got a little pin, anyways. You call it the bullpen. The bullpen, yeah. I don't know. Like, I've never seen them get like super rough with a calf or anything. I've never really been worried about it, I guess. But mostly like it seems like what I've noticed happening is if you don't pull the bulls out, then you start combining, and then pretty soon you have a herd that calves you're around because you never pulled your bulls out. Oh just because you're lazy. I mean, it just you lose track of time or whatever. Then you can get more calves per year. Yeah. Sure. I mean, I mean, theoretically, like in the South, like Florida, like they just let them go. You get like 1.2 calves per year. You take a lifespan of a cow. That can't be true. Yeah, it is. If you hit them in the first cycle, after I suppose. So, like a lifespan of a cow, which is 10 years, you get 12 calves. Maybe that's what we need to be thinking about. Maybe. Uh I don't know. I maybe we just do it out of habit. I'm not sure. Well, um, so that was one major question I had. Uh I have pins? What are you worried about keeping them separate for? Because I don't want to have like three bulls and a pen. Oh. Do you think I can just put them with a bunch of fat steers? Well, they get too fat. They'll get too fat. Like, yeah, you you don't want them getting too fat in the off season. Yeah, one thing I did learn that I was guilty of, and I tried like hell to knock this to happen, but I think I got my cows too fat this winter. Oh. And I was only feeding like less than 2% of body weight, but I was also letting them out on corn stalks a little bit, and then they're they always look like they're really hungry. And then my dad was feeding them, he's a feedlot guy, and it's like, you better push them like it's gonna get cold. I was like, Yeah, they're huge, right? And so it's easy to do because they're always hungry, right? No matter how much you feed them. Exactly. They're cows, so they're gonna take whatever you give them. Yeah, and I don't know. I mean, then it might have been early enough that it didn't screw them up, add any. You're not gonna have 150-pound calves or something. Well, it was like February, and I was like, oh gosh, these things are gonna calve pretty soon because they are, it looks like their udders are filling out, and I was like, oh no, they're just fat. Yeah. So we thinned them up a little bit. Uh, so hopefully that I this was a horrible hand. Nothing. Oh, darn it. Yeah, I feel bad. So I have a little bit to learn about there. So my plan is if I if I keep them out on like corn stocks more. I wasn't really set up very well on corn stocks. I had steers run down on scorn stocks, but next year I'll be set up where I can run them on corn stocks. I'm not gonna feed them at all. Just gonna completely forget about them. Just sure. Like what do you only gotta check on like once every time? What do you think? Exactly. 20 to 30 days. That's it. That sounds very interesting. I mean, actually, just put enough food out for a month. That's what the corn stocks are for. Oh I mean, out west they don't see them. Yeah, it's true. Um what was again? Oh, here's my ideal, going back to the bull thing. Yeah. Ideally, and this is where this is in my seven-year plan. Uh I will have an equal fall herd to my spring herd. Oh, yeah. So they're always just running with cows. Mine would be like a December herd with my June herd.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

That might be some interesting cav.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

So you will you will you want then you can move your cows back and forth. Or just so you can like live. Then I could then I could utilize my bowls double. Yeah, yeah. And cavern in the fall is pretty nice too. I've like fall, like when were you gonna like like uh September. Okay. Yeah. There's nothing going on in September. I have to retire from a seed business before I do that, probably. Well, the problem is is you farm. Yeah. Like row crop. You'll have to well, you just get rid of row crop. Then you don't like October's like, huh. What you got going on? It's October. I got nothing going on right now. Yeah. Have you bought a horse yet? No, but probably. Uh Megan at the charity auction bought Hazel riding lessons. Oh. From here? Local? Brown, yeah. Oh, okay. So um horse is probably already got my neighbor Ryan said I could have a horse. Horse procurement. Ah boy, I don't know. Free horses. Horse procurement. Is that a good deal? We won't know until later. Uh 26. Jeez. Um, how many calves, like how many calves do you so right now I don't have any heifers, but how many calves do you like usually pull on a normal season? You have 70 some calves. I you know, it it goes to bull selection a lot. Yep. If I'm uh so I have I did not pull a calf this year.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

And you calved heifers. Yeah, I had 30, 30 heifers. Holy cow. Um let me make sure that's true. I you know, I have not pulled a calf. Um that's not probably the typical, especially with heifers. You know more often in cows, if you're pulling one for us, because we we pick kind of lower birth weight bulls, because I think even if they're not the most growthy, if I don't lose one, live calf's right. Huge savings. Yeah. So uh so we pick kind of a lower birth weight bull usually just mostly for that to get that live calf out on the ground. Um so this year seems like most of the ones that we pull are backwards, or they had an arm tucked back or something. That's more than just like, oh, this is a big calf. Do you call it vet or do you do it all yourself? Uh mostly pulling, we just pull it ourselves, unless it gets real weird. Yep. So you had something big happen this spring. You had triplets. Oh, yeah, triplets. Never had that happen before. So, what's your calving percentage? 102. I have a baton like 110. Um, yeah. Over over a hundred right now. Nice. Better knock on wood another time just in case. And talk about a year for that to happen. Yeah. Yeah, it's been we did we did lose a calf. Um so in heifers, it seems like I I've never had a cow do this, I don't think. But in heifers, sometimes the instinct won't kick in, whatever it is, and they just don't understand it's go time once they've had the calf. And so we had a bottle calf because she just never clicked that she'd had a calf. And uh, I don't know, then like just out of the blue, calf got sick and died. So we did lose a calf that way. Cattle just die. Cattle if you got livestock, you got dead stock. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know the whole cattle dying, I understand very clearly in that end. Yeah, yeah. Um but yeah, no, hopefully, hopefully you don't have to have any, and I think actually the reason I had really good luck this year was I bought a brand new uh calf jack. Oh, perfect. So should I buy one? Buy a brand new one. I don't have one, so I'm gonna have to buy one. Buy a brand new one, get all the stuff ready, have it 100% ready. Get your chains, get everything ready to roll. Disinfected, everything. And you don't have to use it. I'll even have the little bucket. You know, like do you have the little stainless steel bucket? Uh well, we've got yep, we've got stainless steel. Bring in hot water and soapy water. Oh, yeah. Like, like every morning, fill my bucket up. Yep, just have it ready on call. So, where do you think? Okay, you know me pretty well. Where do you think my wreck comes from? Like, where am I gonna get caught on this thing? What's your prediction? Like, like, all right, this is where James is gonna screw up. Oh, I you know what, I've got a lot of faith in you. Oh, come on. Um the amount of calves that I've accidentally saved would blow your mind. Where like I've fed while I'm feeding, I'm I'm looking through everything, and there's no problems. I kind of walk around them or something, there's no problems. And then I'm like, I'm just gonna kind of hang out and like see what's happening, read the room for a little bit. And then I'll notice, like, oh, this doesn't look right. And just like getting to know, like, I don't know, this probably isn't what patience other people do, but like I feel like, especially with heifers, I literally can't discard without giving you points here. That's good. Um especially with heifers, you like I walk through them all the time just to like calm them down. Uh if I go by it, I do I just walk through the pin just to like let them know that I belong in there. And so if I have to get them in to the working pin or whatever, I don't have to like fight them, hopefully, to do it. They're like, oh, there's Bill again. Gosh, he's a loser. Yeah, doesn't he have friends? Yeah, just us, I guess. Uh so I it takes a lot of that, and then you start to like I don't know, like subconsciously, like notice their personality or their habits, and when they're a little bit off, you're like, I don't know what it is, but you're a little off today. And then you just start watching them like a hawk. Boy, I don't think I have enough patience to do that. You just have to quit your other jobs, it's not a big deal. Yeah. It isn't. So that's the only thing that like, and I mean, obviously, it can you'll be fine. Of course, you're you're you're a true professional. I am? Yeah. I mean you're batting 102%. Well, right. This year. So um go. Uh go. Yeah. Still go. I can't go now. So you take your Yeah, I know. What do I get? Three there? Two. Okay. Um, yeah, I don't know. Maybe that would be like the only thing where it's like, it's not just like I'm coming in with the feed wagon, drop the feed and say, none of them have their heads stuck in the case in the feed. Yeah, I don't see a calf lane on the ground, I gotta tag, so I'll just go. Like it it takes a little bit of time. Do I have to tag them right away? Or can I like can I wait till there's like five, then like run them through shoot? Why do you have to tag them? Well, you gotta give them a shot, I suppose. You know, I'm not always good about getting there right away either. I'd made a pretty decent choice on my discard, by the way. Just you know, hang on a second here. Six. Do you like just like the run? Like to catch them? Um, well, like yeah, catching them earlier, like if you can catch them on the first day, you hopefully don't have to run so fast. Yeah. Uh you catch them on the room. Especially in June. It's gonna be warm. Those calves are gonna hit the ground running. Yeah, they better. You are they're gonna weigh like 700 pounds by the first of July. Just tag in October. Just tag them in October. I I don't think I think we get carried away with the tagging thing. I'm probably gonna have a branding. Because isn't that what you're supposed to say? I have the boots. You're gonna have a horse? I'm gonna have a horse. Um, yeah. Taps light on tap. When is the nut fry? Oh, the nut fry. I forgot all about the nut fry. You gotta have a nut fry. Have you ever had a nut fry? Oh, yeah. I've never been invited to your nut fry. Really? Nope. We had them in high school and stuff. Yeah, but I like here recently, you've never had one. We have not had at home, we usually donate ours to the Elks Club because they have an elk uh nut fry at the Elks. Why don't we have a nut fry this year? At Iowa Cover Club? Yeah. Okay. That'd be kind of fun. What are we gonna call it? Like a Christmas party nut fry because I'll be obviously running my third shoot in December. Yeah, we'll just do we'll incorporate that that into the dealer day.

unknown 26:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Um yeah, I don't know. I mean, that's the biggest thing. I like to like let them get their first drink. Don't tag them before they get their first drink. That's bad luck, I think. Oh. Because once they've gotten their first drink, you're like, okay, you're gonna make it. But before that, they could still die. You're making the assumption I check them every day. Oh, just tag them in October. Just tag them in October. I think I have some more cards. I can't think. I'm just thinking about nut fries. I count six. I'll give you two more. Oh, there you go. Um, what is a mistake you've made that you've learned from? I'm not gonna plant a pen full of turnips and kill them with prussic acid. Yep, not gonna do that. Um, what is a mistake I've made that you could learn from? This is a hard question. You don't make mistakes. How about that? That's right. Uh okay. The let's let's let's let's let's talk about seed. Um, let's talk about fescue. Oh, yeah. Well, you like fescue, I do not like fescue. Well, maybe I start well, maybe I won't like fescue. If you have toxic fescue, you will not like it. I promise that. I it it raises their core temperature, it makes their hooves super tender, so like you get them you start walking them over your concrete to like work them or something, and they look like they can't hardly walk, and you just feel terrible, and it's all because of the stupid fescue seed that they ate. Uh their tails fall off. How much fescue seed do you think it takes? I don't know. Not I don't know. It m I don't think it takes. I mean, once it's in a pasture, it's going to be the predominant species in that pasture. But like, is it like one mouthful of fescue heads? No, I don't think so. I mean it's gonna be. I imagine it's like a daily diet, but I I don't I'm not a scientist. Yeah. So very good. So you you have fescue pastures? I rented one and it had had it pretty bad, and I I I stopped renting it because it just wasn't worth it. Do you think that the end of fight free fascues are bad? Because my pasture right now is supposedly supposedly planet. End of Would you would you ever try one? Um I I if I had to, I guess. It's not gonna like if I was backed into a corner, I guess I wouldn't be scared of it. Mostly because I think it's it's drifting up to our area anyways. Yeah. So I think all of our pastures probably have it. Yeah. Um or are going to have it real soon. Yeah. So I think climate change. For well, probably more so just like people hauling hay up and down the high highway, and you know, like from I haven't had that one. What's that? I haven't had that ace just uh sorry. Um so I I guess I for me I just favor like keeping cows that are tolerant to it. Yep. Because I we still have it in one of our pastures a little bit, but it's not it's not terrible yet, but it it will be. So um so then you're buying mostly southern cows? I we haven't bought cows for a while, other than like my sister's bred heifers. Um but if I was gonna buy cows, I would, I would be going to Missouri. So all the all the well, I've already screwed up there. Nah, you'll be fine. So all the all the heifers at your cabin are like cloth, like your they're either ours or my sister's, yeah. Oh wow. Yeah. That's pretty impressive. Yeah, she does a good job uh raising cows. I should talk nice about her since the last episode I called her old. So I called her young. I said she was 30. Yeah, she did she raises some really nice heifers, and so she she kept about half of them and took about half of them to the sale barn, and I bought what I needed. So yeah, I really don't I don't want to cap heifers. Like that's not my plan. It is a ton of work, but man, it it is probably my favorite job on the farm. I just want bulls. If I could like I've talked about AI, and the only reason I want AI is because I want AI to sex semen.

unknown 31:24

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

And I don't want heifers, I just want bulls. Because the steer caps worth so much more. Yeah. Do you think that's happening? Is that happening on a big scale? Like, isn't that going to create a problem in the cow industry? No, well, it's happening in the dairy business a bunch. Um it is not happening in the it's not happening like in the commercial beef business. If anything, I'm sure like people are having sex semen for heifers, not sure for but bec uh yeah, but it is happening in the dairy business. Um so yeah, so I was looking at that. Is that good for you? Yeah, it's fine. Okay, it's not like score update. You need seven. Eight. Uh yeah, eight, yep. I need 13, which I have a great hand. Go ahead. Oh, geez. Nothing like adding pressure. Yeah. Uh what kind of great hand do you have? So we talked about what I can prepare for, which is buy the calving, brand new cabing stuff. Yep. Get the cabin stuff. Um we talked about what I'm we didn't really talk what I struggled with. I think that was my struggle for you was taking the time to like notice if something's off. Yeah. Um 25. But you're capable of doing that. I'm not worried about you. 30. Um Yeah, I'm trying I mean, I've had a pile of mistakes that I've made. Oh, 66, yeah. Good job. And last, I think. I had so once you get into the polls, you'll realize why you never had them anymore. Because they're just they're teenage boys, they're like oversexed and uh underemployed. Oversexed. Yeah. They just they they only have one job, right? Well, two jobs, eat and make babies. And they just they act like they're like middle school boys. And so they they're like, if they sit around too long, they're just gonna start like punching on each other and stuff. And pretty soon you'll just have like a broken shed that they're by because they just can't leave each other alone. Yeah, you're gonna love them. Uh that's what I say about like steers are on reading steers. And a buddy of mine told me, you know, steers have eight hours to eat, eight hours sleep, eight hours to get in trouble. Uh two, four, six, nine, twelve. I was a really good hand. You were out. Yeah. Yeah, but all in all, I think you're gonna be fine. I mean, just do cow stuff. You'll be fine. Just gonna do cow stuff, just cowboy up, as they say. People have been saying, because this is what cow guys say all the time. Like, what do you think of the market? And cow guys are like, oh, I really don't care. Just let me know what they're gonna bring in October. That's what I've been telling people. Well, I don't care. What are they worth in December? Is Howard excited? Uh, he is excited. He is excited. Uh, you know, we are really excited about uh we've talked about this, and we can talk about this in a future podcast, but we have specialized ourselves, us and along with everybody else, right? Like we were in this like box is like we are a feed yard. That's all we're ever gonna be. Right. And this is it. Well, now we are a feed yard, we feed pigs, we have cows, we graze steers, we have an organic farm, we have a conventional farm, and they're all like they're all work together. Yeah, and we don't have to be specialized, we are farmers, that's our specialization, right? You're raising food. We are raising food. And why do we have to be more specialized than that? And so I think that's probably been the biggest thing that my dad is like before he was kind of thinking it was like, all right, we have feed yard, we feed cattle, that's what we do. And now it's like, well, we can do all these things because they all work together. Sure. Exciting. You're getting less specialized because you got you're not keep feeding any cattle this year. Yeah. We're like going opposite directions. I'm trying to focus on doing the things that both make money and I give me life to do it. So that is, I was thinking about that because I really don't like conventional farming. And it is something like right now that it's just like it's just a drag. I hate doing it. I don't like it, but it's like, or I'm just doing it and put it in the emotions, and it's kind of easy, and it's uh I just I when when I'm conventionally farming, I just don't really enjoy it, if that makes sense. If it pays the bills, it pays the bills, yeah, it's easy. It you can't really lose any money because of the operation. Well, you know, like it's got all the other things, but it's exactly how I feel about it. If if that's the one, if I'm gonna drop one, it's that one. Yeah. I don't know how we got that. We do agree on that. Yeah, weirdly enough. And it's not that I don't like it, like it, there's a lot of stuff that I do like about it. But ah, you're gonna be so excited to see those little baby calves. Yeah, it's gonna give you like it's gonna make you get out of bed in the morning. Yeah. I don't have any problem getting out of bed in the morning right now. Well, you have three kids. I have three kids. Although Ira is on a tear, he has three nights in a row. He's slept all night long. Whoa. So that's pretty exciting. Exciting. All right, we will leave it there. Good episode, Bill. Thank you for the advice. Good luck. I I can't wait to see it. I will be you we will be seeing Facebook posts of calves. We've already seen my cows. Yeah. So um, we've had a brand registered for a long time. Do you have a registered brand? Uh dad does, yeah. I need to change it from left hip to right hip because my cows have freeze bands in my left hit, and I'm gonna brand them. Because if you're gonna do this, I wonder if I could wrestle some of your cows someday. No, because I'm gonna brand them like next week. I already have like the electric iron bot. Okay.

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I've got a week to come up with a plan. Yeah. Well, they are pretty tame cows. So like like a little like a scoop of silage, and you can load them all up. Okay. You can find those at 1774 Neil Avenue. Uh thanks for joining us. Yeah, thank you, Deals, for the sponsorship. Oh, yeah. Shout out to Deals again. Yeah. That was so like out of the blue. We didn't even ask. They just came up. They just sent us $10,000 and it is terrific. Case of cider. That is a great family there. Yeah. Cool. All right. See you out there. Follow us between episodes on Facebook and Instagram at IowaCovercrop. Or send us an email and tell us what you really think at info at iacovercrop.com.