A Winters Day work on a Beef Cattle Farm

In this video I am out with a family farm in Iowa as they feed their beef cattle herd, clean out the barns and spread the pen packed manure on a field then bed the barns with corn stalks for the cattle to lay on.
This farm mixes up several batched of feed a day and feed they cattle twice a day. I show and explain what they mix up in the batch of feed. They clean out the cattle barns several times a year and bed the barns with corn stalk bales and stacks generally every other day.

[@thomassojka2704]

Great looking farm. No junk hidden behind buildings, no bent up shed roofs, no dented equipment. Cattle condition is excellent. Good for them. Thanks for the excellent video

[@billnboo4u]

no spar parts ya mean

[@dogwoodish]

thank you to the farmers for sharing their operation

[@tedcantell9088]

Yup thank you to the farmers out in the heartland of America, for doing what you do to feed the country!!!!! This country and the world for as fare as that goes!!! and thank you Mike, for showing us that it takes a lot of work everyday to feed and take care of this amazing beef and that it don't just mysteriously show up in the supermarket !!! Thank you Mike, great video!!!

[@SimonKL11]

The cows are happy with the fresh bedding😉👍 cool video👍👍

[@chrisandert3174]

Really enjoyed the video. Very nice farm, like seeing the Holstein steers.

[@gdhunt19]

30 mins from the dairy farm I grew up on. Thanks Mike for these videos, as I enjoy them from our home in Phoenix! Brings back memories of freezing winters doing chores ☃️💪

[@michaelbaumgardner2530]

Reminds me of my Dad when I was young,he said there's always something to do,Great Video

[@АндрейМортин]

I always watch with interest how farmers work on cow farms. I didn't know before that corn stalks are used as bedding. Good video, thanks, Mike.

[@ScottPykare]

Super interesting video Mike. Getting to see what happens after the forage harvesters are done. These guys do A LOT of work everyday!! Very nice operation 👍🏻.

[@Plowboy4960]

Enjoy the different farm videos and see how they do different things always a good video

[@charlesjenkins8078]

Really enjoyed this video!Great stuff.

[@joeroy02]

Great video Mike😀

[@mariarusso3790]

Hello Joe how are you. Have a nice weekend 😊

[@johnhatt1219]

Nice looking fertilizer nice and dark

[@joelg8004]

You’re a lot braver than I standing that close to the flinger!

[@DigginLife21]

🔥🔥🔥 THANKS FOR SHARING MIKE

[@jerryrobbins400]

Mike, it was nice to see some Iowa countryside as that is where I grew up. Love your video’s. Brings back lots of memories. I remember one time running our skid steer cleaning out a cattle lot. I learned to not carry a load quite so high when I had to stop suddenly and dumped the skid steer on it’s nose. I carried it a lot lower from then on.

[@franciscosandiego3026]

I like Mike less videos on KZbin from the imperial county California 👍👍🖐️🇺🇲.

[@MultiMesquite]

Buen Dia, Amigo Mike Lees. Dios lo Bendiga, el trabajo enaltece al hombre.

[@gr82bcrazy1]

I remember seeing a JD 8520 in the early 2000’s. I thought it was a monster of a tractor that was only for the biggest jobs on the farm. Now we see it doing a “little” tractors job of spreading.

[@JacksonRhodes42]

It’s impressive for sure! Overkill is underrated!

[@alexthomson719]

Another great video Mike thanks again 👍 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@1d1hamby]

One of the more interesting videos for me. Love to see all the jobs on the farm. Fixing equipment and improvising in every way possible all the time. Liked how he stuffed the netting in the back of the tractor. Wonder what uses they find for it next?

[@Hinesfarm-Indiana]

Great video Mike, like the 4440👍👍

[@kutubfamily-youtube-channel]

Wow Awesome You made videos, I watched your full video videos uploading Continue, Friendship Keep. Nice to meet u also,🌹🌹🌹🌹👌👌👌👌💚💚💚

[@Hinesfarm-Indiana]

Looks like they had a crappy day with those spreaders lol 😆

[@russjordan3996]

up north where I live in MN we try to leave the manure pack in all winter to keepem warm some times the stock are almost up to the rafters

[@markfleck7981]

Great job I hope to meet you this year at farm machine show in Louisville Ky

[@markfleck7981]

Do you know what both number you going to be at this year or where it be located at there at farm show

[@outbackladas]

Enjoyed the video, must be cold to be keeping cattle in a shed, certainly don’t do that in my part of the world. Regards from Down Under.

[@sattarfotohi]

Awesome Mike Thanks a lot

[@robertreznik9330]

Amazing how much equipment and labor is used to feed the beef herd. Here in Texas the scale of efficiency is so much different. Bedding is not used except at the diary. Corn stalks are used for part of feed rations. The corn is brought in from the Mid West by mile long unit trains.

[@davidzumbach1985]

Have to use bedding here and have sheds for protection here in the winter with the weather that Iowa can get. Feed is cheaper here to help offset some of the higher costs with housing. Corn literally goes from the neighboring fields to the cattle for feed.

[@robertreznik9330]

Almost all the feedlot cattle are 100% beef bred cross. The cattle come here from Arizona to Florida and Wyoming to Mexico feeding beef with cutting edge technology. More than 25,000 head a day will be Processed in the Amarillo area. This area is also third in dairy production behind California and Wisconsin. They sex specific the semen for only heifers. The old milk cows are not feed just go to be processed. This is the new world of animal science!

[@frankscruggs4749]

Good video

[@OpunktSchmidt1301]

A big "Moooooooooooooooo!" 😉 Thanks a lot for the video! 😊👍🏻

[@drewwilke1733]

Would love to see the stack mover brochures you got especially the attachments you mentioned for them

[@wolfeislandexcavating5426]

Thanks for sharing

[@simeontmoedl6929]

Farmhand also made Stackers, several of the Farmhand literature pieces highlighting them show a picture of a loaf of bread being held by a Farmhand glove showing that the stack is like a loaf that sheds water.

[@farmhandmike]

Yes I have a brochure of the Farmhand one. The pictures I saw were a little different than the Hesston. At one point someone made one for Gehl.

[@simeontmoedl6929]

@@farmhandmike yes, the way I understood the farmhand ones is they didn’t press, and the blower pivoted side to side. Have only ever seen remnants of them, have seen a parts of Gehl, if memory is correct it looked similar to the farmhands.

[@zbigniewteterycz1571]

POZDRAWIAM .

[@sstransportexpressllc8223]

The cows are like kids in a candy store when it come to cornstalks

[@davidkimmel4216]

Thank You

[@ranger5721]

In ND here we even have a few farmers that have that and a muffin stacker which i also think it is kewl

[@farmhandmike]

I have been looking for someone that still uses the old Haybuster muffing stacker to film. Can you help me locate a farm that is still using one? my email is [e-mail]

[@ranger5721]

@@farmhandmike i sent you a email to comfrim that it is you

[@farmhandmike]

@@ranger5721 I’ll look for it

[@ranger5721]

i just send you a drop pin where the muffins are, my frist time doing a pin drop so i will see how i did

[@samspade4634]

I've never seen a tractor like the white one loading the spreaders. The flat backend of the tractor is unfamiliar to me. Never seen anything like that. Can you provide some information on that for me? As always love the videos. I believe you live one of the most interesting lives (if you love agriculture like I do). Thanks for sharing.

[@igagri4817]

In the UK they were sold with a excavator arm on the back, not sure about the USA, maybe they removed them?

[@Pross1993]

It just looks like a Terex backhoe with the rear loader removed to me. But the other yellow one looks like a backhoe that has had a lift hitch added to the rear of it or maybe even an AG model of a backhoe from a manufacturer.

[@possleaholsteinspossbrofar8429]

It's terex skip loader.

[@davidzumbach1985]

This tractor originally had a backhoe on it. It was removed to use for loader work only. The yellow one was manufactured that way. It is called a skip loader.

[@jarrodwemhoff7270]

Ah, feeding stein steers.... little context goes a long way.😂

[@derrickzenner9300]

Hard to beat Iowa

[@jackwillie2729]

Thus is done 7 days a week twice a day feeding ...treating cattle with different injections..water supply..keeping mechanical feeding equipment going...not sure but an 800 lb steer eats an drinks in one day what 8 people consume..so if your a 500 steer feeder that's like a city of 4,000

[@richardmassey2699]

Thanks Mike

[@douglaslaschkewitsch6032]

Never heard of feeding candy to cows before.

[@noahater5785]

Ikr??? I was kind of a bit confused by it too.

[@davidzumbach1985]

Candy provides energy and replaces some of the corn in the ration at a lower cost.

[@JRDato-on-xr5fi]

In my opinion almarai dairy farm operation in Saudi Arabia is more advanced in dairy operation.

[@noahater5785]

Forgive me, if this sounds like a dumb question, but why is candy one of the ingredients in this cattle feed, added sugars or something?

[@davidzumbach1985]

It provides energy and replaces some corn in the ration at a lower cost. If the candy waste was not fed to cattle, it would end up in the landfill.

[@bobnistler]

😎😎

[@billsmith8739]

Great Video!! So what does the candy do? Sugar? Diabetic Cows...

[@davidzumbach1985]

Candy provides energy and replaces some corn in the ration at a lower cost.

[@ascension8811]

Never heard or seen feeding candy, I assume that it is to help them gain weight. Interesting. Where do they get it from?

[@davidzumbach1985]

Candy provides energy and replaces some of the corn in the ration at a lower cost. Most of this stuff comes from Chicago.

[@ascension8811]

@@davidzumbach1985 Interesting thanks

[@emersontayten]

Those ao smith harvestore silos were impressive for their day. But they cost an arm and a leg and they frequently broke, requiring specialized people to fix them. I wonder how many farmers went out of business because of the loans they took out on them 🤔

[@farmhandmike]

I've heard some stories like this before.

[@davidzumbach1985]

The two big harvestores here were bought used for very little and then dismantled and moved to this farm and rebuilt. These have a power sweep unload kind of like a grain bin which is very simple and causes very little trouble. These only store shelled corn. The ones used to store forages did have unloaders that were high maintenance. You are right that they did cause financial stress for many farms in the 1980’s that borrowed money to build them at high interest rates and then had to try and pay for them in a very poor time in the farm economy.

[@emersontayten]

@@davidzumbach1985 Oh nice history. I appreciate you. Those would actually be awesome to store corn!

[@harmanjitaulakh1003]

How many acres are you farming?

[@dinkygreen7125]

Do the cows know when to move

[@maddierosemusic]

I wonder how they are going to manage when they will be forced to go all electric tractors and loaders. Gonna need a bunch of fast charging stations!

[@jeff7764]

Do they stay in these pens all day? Why not let them roam around

[@carsonkirshner6849]

I've never seen candy feed to cattle in a ration. I know cows have a sweet tooth but again, never seen it with candy.

[@MrPummi88]

I Always wonder why All your Maschines are that big, but the spreaders are so small.

[@farmhandmike]

I believe these are the biggest spreaders New Holland makes.

[@billfarmer7984]

Did they use molasses before candy?

[@petehutzel3778]

We did use molasses 60 years ago, when I was kid. The sweetness encourages them to eat more feed, if it is mixed in well, and the sugars add some nutrition. Molasses is still used in dairy operations to some extent.

[@j-cb1521]

Il se font moins chier que nous

[@carlossierrahn]

Hola, buenas noches me gustaría mucho trabajar en su granja tengo el pasaporte vigente.

[@donmedford2563]

Did you read the news about Gina Dairy hay barn burning down?

[@farmhandmike]

No, I don't know who Gina Dairy is?

[@austinmoe433]

That’s not a beef operation, that’s a feedlot. A beef operation is cow/calf….

[@juliaharris1455]

How are they keeping the animals away from the hill of candy?

[@davidzumbach1985]

The candy is in a shed where only feed is stored. There are no animals around it.

[@ileenmcminn2062]

Can they still get parts for the stacker?

[@farmhandmike]

Some parts are still available. If not you can find these in a farm salvage yard in areas.

[@elliekennedy2952]

The music is to loud and I cannot hear the speaker..

[@stumpjumper8107]

looks like a dairy farm not beef cattle?

[@slabrankle9588]

I wonder how many candy wrappers those cattle are accidentally ingesting. You know there are some! But on a more serious note, it just goes to show that there are some very dubious ingredients entering the food chain with very little awareness by consumers and even less disclosure by the meat industry, and no regulation to speak of. I'm not losing any sleep over it but it is a concern.

[@farmhandmike]

Although there was some wrappers in the mix I watched the cattle sort them out. Not saying some don't accidentally get swallowed but this is all candy that was for human consumption and was a second or surplus that could not be sold.

[@davidzumbach1985]

There is nothing to hide here or be concerned about. Wrappers are digested or just passed. This is all waste from candy produced for people. Just mispackaged or produced as the line was changing over to another product. It provides calories and replaces some corn in the ration. If this was not fed to cattle, it would end up in landfills and be wasted.

[@slabrankle9588]

@@davidzumbach1985 I know of this practice and why it's done. There is a cost in terms of the nutritional value of the resulting meat. You can debate what that cost is but this is being done for profit, not for the benefit of the consumer, who is largely unaware of what's being done, and without any oversight or regulation. It's a cause for concern, and this type of feed is essentially trash, complete with wrappers, and should go to the landfill.

[@davidzumbach1985]

They are fed two pounds per head per day out of a total of 31 pounds of feed fed per head daily. The ration is still nutritionally balanced. I would like to see any scientific proof of the difference in the meat. There is none. This is recycling at its finest, taking something that is not usable by people and turning it into something usable by people and keeping it out of landfills.

[@TheRipper5418]

@@slabrankle9588 Enjoy your next McDonalds hamburger 🍔. I sure will Even More now that I know there is some Candy 🍫🍭🍬mixed in with it. YUM, YUM!!

[@davidhickenbottom6574]

Diesel, Diesel, Diesel. Not sustainable not regenerative.

[@danfenn8343]

I work for a commodities company with 3 elevator why do we need 4wheel drive when my old man did it in a 4420 years ago.

[@danfenn8343]

Your all too far into it. With the bank But nobody knows do they? Your doing it wrong.

[@billnboo4u]

thanks Mike