------=_NextPart_000_0008_01C75E26.A6F5E710
charset="iso-8859-1"
Why corn silage for only the transitiod ?
----- Original Message -----
From: Stephen and Stephanie Bray
To: graze-l@witt.ac.nz
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2007 9:02 PM
Subject: converting?
I am a 29 year old, first generation, dairy producer in south
central Va. I own 131 acres. I am currently milking 150 cows. I raise
some heifers here but contract out heifer from 250# to 750#. I am
mostly holstein but do have a few Jerseys and crosses. Most of my
pregnant cows now are breed to jerseys. I have done some grazing in the
past. However with this many cows on 110 acres pasture, I was not able
to get over 30-40% grass. I, like every other conventional dairyman,
have came off of a very bad year.
What my goal is to do is over the next two years convert to
totally grass and parlor feed. I can sell 100 springing heifer and 50
milk cow to eliminate all of my short term debt. This will leave a 3300
a month farm payment.
My question is, can I my money on 60-70 cows on 130 acres and
still make the farm payment. If I drop back to these numbers, I would
have very little additional labor. I would also put up 2000 tons of
Corn Silage to help me during the transition period.
I would like some feedback as to whether you people think this
will work. If I am crazy, please tell me.
Stephen Bray
Penhook, VA
This communication - including any attachments - may contain
legally privileged information,
and is confidential to the addressee. If you are not the
intended recipient you should
delete the communication and contact the sender immediately.
If you have received this e-mail in error, you must not read,
copy, disseminate,
distribute or otherwise use or disclose any part of this
communication, or any information
on matters or persons to which it refers.
WITT reserves the right to monitor all e-mail communications
sent through its network.
