I’m thinking about running out to the lease in Ballinger Thursday or Friday to fill the feeder and see how bad it is. I now the lease manager who’s place is up the road sold all his cattle in May due to his tanks were just about dry. The land owner of our lease usually runs 200 head or more of sheep and last year was the first time he ever started hauling water in. All the tanks were real low at the end of the season I’m sure they are dry now. It will be interesting to see how the Colorado is that boarders the lease on the north.

I saw this on Livestock Weekly yesterday. Its worth a shot...

Rain Prayer Worked In Kansas,
Then Twice Again In West Texas
By W.L. White
Emporia Gazette, 1935


O Lord, in Thy mercy, grant us a rain, and by that we don't mean a shower. We want to go out in our car in the early evening and watch the lightning go ripping across the southwestern sky in hot blue forks as the fat clouds roll in on us from Chase County. We want to hurry home to close the house with the first fat drops the size of marbles on a suddenly rising wind, chasing us and plunking on the hood of our car. We want to scramble all over the house just as the first sheets descend, frantically slamming down the windows, while the drops thunder on the tin roof of the porch and lightning blasts illuminate the waving treetops.
O Lord of Hosts, we want to look out of the windows and watch the regiments of fat, close-paced raindrops march diagonally down in sheets, until we can't see the outlines of the street light on the corner and it looks like a great pale luminous ball through the driving drops. We want to hear, about a minute after the first rush, the gurgle in the tin gutters under the eaves, and, in 25 seconds more, the sputter of the downspout and the hollow churning of the water in the cistern.
God of Israel, Isaac and Jacob, let it come down so hard, let the drops dance so high that the outlines of streets and sidewalks seem covered with a six-inch fog of splattering drops. Then let it just keep up for a while, and then begin to taper off, and then turn right 'round and get a lot worse, swishing, pounding, splattering, pouring, drenching, the thunder coming — "Crackity-BAM! Bam - bam - bumble - bumble-bumble" — and the lightning flashing so fast and furious you can't tell which flash goes with which peal of thunder.
So that all the women will get scared and climb on top of the feather beds and scream at you not to get too close to the windows. So that in between lightning flashes, you can see the dirty yellow gutter water rippling across the street instead of along its sides.
And then, O Jealous God, repeat the whole act about three times, and in the middle of the second time, we will get out the old tin wash pan and climb the attic stairs to put it under the tiny leak in the roof which usually you can't even notice in an ordinary rain. And after a couple of hours, kind of taper it down, O Lord, to a good, steady rain — not a drizzle — but a business-like one, that keeps up until just about dawn and then spits a few drops occasionally during the morning from a gray sky.
O Shepherd of a Chosen People, when we walk to work that morning, let us see pink, thin-nosed angleworms that have crawled out of the grass and drowned in the sidewalk puddles, and big pools of standing water in every yard, with just the tips of the fresh green grass breaking the surface. Let it knock all the buds off the elm trees, so that streets and sidewalks are covered with a brown snow, except where the running water has gathered into thick scum over the pools around the choked drains.
Then let everyone begin wondering what the rivers are doing, and when we go down to the bridge, make us drive through about two inches of dirty yellow water running over the pavement, and when we get on it, let us watch a pig and two Buff Orpington hens and half a woodshed float by, about three feet under our shoe soles, and Lord, let the farmers holler their heads off about how it will be too wet, now, to get their corn in early enough.
Thou Art My Shepherd, I shall not want if Thou leadest me into green pastures, and beside the still waters, while the little pasture ponds stand full to the brinks of their cement dams.
O God of Battles and Lord of Many Mansions, if you don't want it to rain in Kansas, all right. And if you do, all right. But we are weak in faith and pray for a sign such as you gave to Aaron to confound Pharaoh's magicians and sorcerers. Take this business of weather prediction out of the hands of a lot of incompetent Washington Bureaucrats and make it Thy special province. They're playing horse with us, Lord. They promise a rain and all we get is a mangy little thin-flanked shower that you could hang your hat on its hip bones.
Kansas is indeed the Promised Land, O Lord, and if it gets a break it will flow with milk and honey. But we can't live much longer on promises. So, in Thine own way and in Thine own time make up Thy mind, O Lord, and we will bow before Thy judgment and praise Thy everlasting name. Amen.

We buy and sell cattle throughout the year. My boys have been going to the auctions with me since they were about 5 years old. We bought 3 heifers about a month ago and when we got them home we didn't like their attitudes (skittish). So my son asked if he could take them to the Decatur auction by himself. I let him. He knew what the prices should be. We bought the set of 3 for just over $900. We had them for 2 or 3 weeks and my son sold all three for $364 total. He got $40 for a longhorn heifer that we paid $340 for. She was 2 years old, very healthy, and 550 pounds. He told me we didn't need them. I guess we didn't need our money back either. He is not allowed to go by himself again.

$40? Ouch - someone got a 'free' freezer full of beef!

I'm curious so I'll ask.........how is him taking 3 heifers to an auction and getting a low price on him in any way? I didn't know the seller had any say in what they brought when they went through the ring?

The seller can catch them back essentially, by bidding on them. Still pay feed and commission

Most good auctions catch to support market instead of backing them up that much.

I've never stayed at a sale when dropping cows, calves, or a bull off. I only go in when I am buying and rarely do that anymore but instead buy from folks I know.
My guess is they spotted something on that longhorn heifer they simply did not like. Those buyers can spot a tick on the bottom of a damn hoof before an animal is all the way into the ring. Any kind of flaw and it is spotted by all of the 'professional buyers' immediately.

I personally wouldn’t take cattle back there If the auction let a 2 year heifer regardless of her heritage sale for $40.

She sold for way less then canner prices, sounds like a small barn that doesnt have many buyers

Yup
No doubt about this at all.

My ground is cracking open. I got about a 1/4" a week ago, and that's it. And I know that's more than many have caught. I have seen it dryer than this before. The waterway to my pond is still holding water. I have put the tractor and batwing in it almost every summer. I will get a second cutting, of that I am sure. I just gotta figure out what they're worth. Johnson and Bermuda mix. 60" W X 62" tall and a damn tight roll thats net wrapped.

The seller can PO their cattle and pay a small fee. I've done it several times.

5x5 bale, probably $100 roll, just depends on demand but it will likely be there. How many does it usually make, and was it fertilized?

We’re getting $100/roll for 4x5’ first cut (which is never as clean as subsequent cuts) non-fertilized coastal.. Feed stores are asking $150+/roll..

The broker/vultures will move in (if they haven't already) and gobble up what remains and prices will really climb. Times like this suck. Dry land corn is burned and the milo I see is thin and already mature.

I heard from a friend today that the Eastland auction barn was full yesterday and not taking anymore.

I haven't spoken to any friends yet here but they are combining corn already here which is a couple weeks early. It is all dry land and only about 1/2 of what was planted in this area is going to get harvested. A lot was baled up for hay or simply shredded and insurance collected.
I'm betting the ones who do have some to combine are not going to make much if any off of it at all.

The Milo looks God awful terrible as well here.

We will see $15/bag corn shortly IMO.

The cost/benefit for fertilizer isn't there.

29 acres made 71 bales last month.

You have other fertilizer options…. “Biosolids”

2/10" of rain this morning.

Not much, but I will take what I can get.

Gonna be tropical the rest of the day. I'll suffer through it, and know my grass will do well.

Did you sell the 71?

My farmer didn't plant this year and is just planning to cut for hay grazer this year because of fertilizer costs.

Glad we got some rain yesterday up in Bailey near JG. As he said the grass is going to love that rain.

Fertilizer is thru the roof, it’s gonna get ugly

Everything is through the roof. I have a few irrigation wells that run off diesel