Can't keep doing this or I'll lose the farm! Go Broke? You tell me!

folks today on the Stony Ridge Farm we're going to be talking about cows and we're running out of food we're going to run out of hay if we don't get rid of some of our animals I need your feedback [Music] Stony hey there folks this is Josh Stony Ridge farmer welcome back to another gorgeous day here on the Stony Ridge Farm we're out here in the pasture with the cows and we've got a problem we're going to lose the farm if we don't solve this problem and literally we are going to fail as a farm if I don't find a solution here so we are running out of hay come along we're going to talk a little bit about decision-making process here on the farm with these animals that we have here we're overran with animals we're running out of hay and we're spending way too much money this will be great food for thought if you're considering starting your own cattle operation or Farm welcome back friends to the Stony Ridge Farm all around us is 150 acre first generation Farm project and I'm learning as I go this is a regenerative farm this is not a farm where we use commercial fertilizers this is not a farm where I medicate my cows if they're not sick I don't believe in vaccinating my cows for things that they don't have or have no risk of getting the cows on this Farm stay on this Farm forever until they leave this farm and most of the time when they leave the farm they're leaving to go to freezer Camp so these are beef cows most of these cows are female cows that are here as brood cows to produce Offspring and typically a small farm like this and we're on 150 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains here typically an operation like this would be a cow calf operation however we've decided to go into beef production direct to Consumer beef production you can get in on that at patreon.com stonyridge Farmer if you're interested I'll post a link down there I'm not here to sell you beef I'm here to talk to you about decision making process here on the farm you can see we've got some little dots out here some little Cals are out here running around behind us and we are at 54 animals right now 54 cows on a total of about 85 Acres of very poor land okay so what we're having to deal with right now is a situation where our cows are eating us out of house and home so over the past few years here on the Farm what we've done is buy hay and roll it out to the cows in the winter time we've got to feed the cows anyway and we've got to feed them hay this is a total grass-fed operation so we do not feed any grain many of these cows have never even seen grain they don't know what grain is however if I bring corn out here they somehow know instinctively to go to the corn I don't know it's like candy to them I guess so when we are in a grass-fed operation like this and again what we do a regenerative Farm we don't put chemical fertilizers down what we do is we try to rebuild the soil it's all about the soil so the beef is the byproduct of the soil production what I wanted to do on this regenerative Farm is bring in as many animals as I possibly could and as much hay as I possibly could because that hay builds carbon that carbon builds soil that carbon builds biomass that carbon brings earthworms to the soil that carbon brings the micro risal fungi to the soil our ecosystem in our soil is the most important part of our nation's bread basket and we're destroying it I think on a daily basis by pouring chemicals out on the land we don't put herbicides down we don't medicate our animals unless they're sick it seems smart to me I don't know you tell me now all that being said we've got a healthy herd of animals here we've got about 54 cows and a donkey and we're going through three to five hay bales round bales per day so anywhere in the neighborhood of 1,700 lb to 2500 lb of food per day of biomass per day of carbon coming out the cow's butt per day aside from what builds beef we are pouring money out on this land just pouring the money out so I've got a decision to make right now over on the other side of the farm and we'll get you a shot of this I have approxim Le 61 hay bales which is enough to get me through 30 more days we are in the end of February 1st of March probably when you see this video will be in the first week of March that means we're going to be feeding hay March and April okay and maybe into May so we've got two months at least eight weeks maybe nine weeks of hay to feed and we don't have the hay that we need now if I go to buy hay it's going to cost me $47 a bail if I continue to roll out three $47 Bales every day it's 150 bucks basically per day to feed the land what we're doing there is we're burning through our wallet to feed our land and to feed our cows and what's the end game what is the end game and I'm going to tell you I've got a tough decision to make the way I raise my cows is kind of on the cheap I guess because I'm not vaccinating my cows because I'm not giving them unnecessary medications in my mind and we're doing an all grass-fed operation now I am going to have to sell some cows in order to make it through the winter and I say cows it'll probably be steers and it'll be young heers last year's brood so what my plan is and I want your guys' input before I go set send them to the auction I want your input I'm trying to raise a most premium product I'm trying to heal the soil with this premium product the premium product is the grass-fed beef that's never been adulterated right however we've come to a point where the financial balance is way up here and the reward and return is way down here we're going to have to equalize that now if I take let's just say for instance a 500 lb cow to the market what am I going to get for it if I had 1,000 lb cow they're they're going for about $255 per pound right now so I have a 500 lb cow we're going to net a significant return in other words we're going to make enough money to pay for all the hay for the winter time and all of our cows here are reproducing at a very rapid rate so I have approximately 28 mama cows that are going to produce Offspring I'm I'm going to have to get rid of some mama cows I hate to do that so here's what my plan is and I want you guys please brainstorm with me and post comments down there my plan is to load up at least 20 cows and take at least 20 cows to Market try to keep around 30 to 35 cows if I do that when I say cow I mean B Vine animal I don't mean steer I don't mean heer I mean animal that's how many animals I feel like I'm going to have to take to the market in order to get a return if I take about 20 to 22 to the market I'll probably net a return of somewhere around 15,000 12 to $15,000 that will pay for the year's hay from last year and then into next year every year we're going to have to make a decision last year we took about 12 cows to Market and it was a bad decision for me for me because we started selling beef direct to Market so here's my plan I'm going to keep four steers it takes 24 to 28 months for a grass-fed beef cow to finish in other words finish and go to the butcher it takes 24 to 28 months I have three steers that will go this year for Stony Ridge beef for folks to buy next year I'll have four steers that will go for beef for folks to buy if I had a feed lot I can just park Park them in one spot and I could cram food in them but it's not what I'm about we're about healing the soil healing the land and having an unadulterated product here what do you guys think give me a solution that's a viable solution for my hay wos I have hay woses right now so I just simply can't afford to put $150 worth of hay out on the land and go buy more we have over well over $10,000 worth of hay that that has been consumed so far here on the farm this year and that's just not viable for the farm operation we've got a lot going on we want the farm to be profitable last year was our first year of just a tiny profit this year if we take the cows to Market this time in the spring or in the late winter and we take cows again to Market in the late winter in December then we will finally be able to earn a Prof Prof of about $20,000 here on the farm what do you think should we continue to buy hay continue to feed the land and when I talk about intensively grazing and intensively feeding hay here when we have a massive amount of animals we're eating a massive amount of food and producing a massive amount of manure on the land so what we're really trying to do is put a lot of pressure on the land so that we can build our soil much more rapidly than it would naturally occur typically it takes about 100 years to build an inch of top soil and I'm going to say we've built about an inch of top soil in about six years on the farm here because we've been intensively doing this what do you think guys let me know post comments down there should we sell off some cows should we keep some cows how many steers should we keep for processing this year I just don't know all I do know is we've got to cut this back because I've got over 60 days of hay to feed and I only have 30 days worth of hay so what are we going to do we need to cut our numbers back we almost need to cut that 54 number down to about 28 I don't know how many cows should I sell how many steers should I keep and if we've got viable brooded mamas that are going to have babies should I get rid rid of any of the cow calf pairs tell me what you think guys hit that like button subscribe the channel this is just one of the struggles in and decisionmaking processes that I have to go through here on the Farm I don't want to sell any of these animals I just don't want them to go anywhere I want to keep them I want to keep all of them but I can't because they're eating me out of house and home you do the math at 60 days times 150 bucks we're putting a lot of money out on the land it's way cheaper to just go buy fertilizer and put it down but it's not what we're about here on the farm that fertilizer in my humble opinion it works it pops the grass turns green and then it's back to Brown and desertification here on the farm I have seen a tenfold increase in the production of grass here thank you guys so much please hit that like button subscribe to the channel love to have you back here on the farm everything's not about Farm here but this is a conundrum that I've got to figure out should I sell should they stay should they go should I buy more hay and keep them you tell me see you guys have a great day thank you so much hit that like button subscribe to the channel love to have you back here on the Stony Ridge Right girls right sweetie this is my sweetie hey girl take care guys Stony Ridge bring your wife bring your kids we living life pure and sweet that's the way it's supposed to be Stony r