The July class III milk price has been announced. The 2009 price was $9.97. It was $13.62 in 2010. We contracted for $16.43 and the price is actually $21.39. Our translation of this is an opportunity loss of $3727. Now we are talking serious money : ( From what I can see that could be a record price for any month in the last 15 years with a price of $21.38 for July 2007. The lowest price was $9.33 in 2002 and the highest was July 2007. Oh well, we knew this was coming, and even with that I contracted the rest of our milk for Aug, Sept, and Oct. The potential for a financial crash in the country makes me nervous. I am less afraid of not hitting the high on the contract, and terrified of the low prices we have seen as possible in the last few years. There is tremendous peace of mind knowing what we will be getting for our milk in those months. Now if we only knew what direction to go with the next year.
The stag steer went on the truck this morning along with 3 cull cows that were no longer paying for their feed. Each cow had a different reason for leaving. One freshened with mastitis and has never produced well. One we couldn't get pregnant. One is a staph aureus cow with little milk and a high somatic cell count. The steer sorted and loaded without any issues and it was funny to see Bruce just point his stick and the steer would go to the far end of the pen. It reminded us of the lasers in the Star Wars movies since the steers reaction was as though there were magic powers in that stick. We are glad he is gone and I will use my magical powers to stuff him and his cow friends into the checkbook later this week. Bruce went to the therapist today that has been helping him with his previous shoulder injury, also animal related. She found problems around the back of his knees and legs, perhaps from the steer pushing on him while he stood on the bunk edge. In any case, he has no serious damages and we are thankful : )
We did have an interesting dilemma this morning. In the process of letting cows out and keeping the ones that were leaving in, Bruce accidentally let a cow out that was supposed to stay in to be bred. Joe watched the road and Bruce and I and Mike went out to try and sort the cow out and get her back. After a few rounds of the pasture we ended up getting her home, along with 4 extras that we sorted back when we got the one we wanted in the barn. Mike worked really hard and during the process took a dip in the water tank to cool off. When we got the extras back he took another dip, sitting in there longer than I have ever seen him. What was funny is there was a cow that came up to get a drink, and she shook her head and flopped her ears in disapproval, and he continued to sit in her tank. I am not sure if he decided to get out on his own or she poked him with her nose. He and this particular cow have a love/hate relationship and it wouldn't surprise me if Mike sat in the tank longer just to annoy her. Gotta love animals : )
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