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Soapweed
Rancher
Joined: 11 Feb 2005
Posts: 12095
Location: northern Nebraska Sandhills
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movin' on
Member
Joined: 25 Nov 2006
Posts: 626
Location: Independence, KS
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 Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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| My kind of cows, Soapweed.
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Soapweed
Rancher
Joined: 11 Feb 2005
Posts: 12095
Location: northern Nebraska Sandhills
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Mike
Rancher
Joined: 10 Feb 2005
Posts: 16951
Location: Montgomery, Al
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movin' on
Member
Joined: 25 Nov 2006
Posts: 626
Location: Independence, KS
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Soapweed, what do you base your keep/cull desicions on? Does body type play any sort of role or do you go strictly on performance? Did I read somehwere that you pretty much keep all the bred cows? If so, how do you choose which heifers to keep back?
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Jassy
Rancher
Joined: 23 Aug 2006
Posts: 2733
Location: S. of Valentine, NE
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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| You've sure got them cows trained good Soapweed...come when ya call em...(I've had dogs that won't do that) form a circle...form a straight line....very talented critters I'd say...lol I see most of your snow is gone..we've lost alot in the last few days, but we still have ground cover.
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Soapweed
Rancher
Joined: 11 Feb 2005
Posts: 12095
Location: northern Nebraska Sandhills
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Soapweed
Rancher
Joined: 11 Feb 2005
Posts: 12095
Location: northern Nebraska Sandhills
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:41 pm Post subject: |
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| movin' on wrote: |
Soapweed, what do you base your keep/cull desicions on?
Mostly eye appeal.
Does body type play any sort of role or do you go strictly on performance?
The big horsey ones I don't keep, and the little insignificant poorer quality ones get to hit the road.
Did I read somehwere that you pretty much keep all the bred cows?
Usually if a cow is bred and has all her teeth she gets to stay. If she has a noticeably poor calf, or has a poor attitude, bad bag, eye trouble, etc. she doesn't get to hang around. In the spring of the year, if we lose a calf out of a nice young cow, we'll rob a calf out of an older blemished type cow to graft onto the young cow. The other cow gets sold after she has had a chance to go dry for about three weeks.
If so, how do you choose which heifers to keep back?
I like to sort replacement heifers while they are still sucking their mothers. We put a herd of cows with their calves into a fence corner, and do our sorting horseback, one pair at a time. Eye appeal is the single most used factor in our decisions. We can also tell by the top number of the calf's ear tag the chronological order in which it came. Each calf should be the right size for the time period in which it was born. This becomes part of the criterion for the selection process.
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movin' on
Member
Joined: 25 Nov 2006
Posts: 626
Location: Independence, KS
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:49 pm Post subject: |
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| I see. Do you ever elect to keep a heifer that looks really good on momma and then kind of falls apart a few months later? I have the luxury of being able to keep my calves on wheat pasture for several months after I wean calves. It seems to me like I always change my mind a time or two on several heifers each year as they develop.
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Soapweed
Rancher
Joined: 11 Feb 2005
Posts: 12095
Location: northern Nebraska Sandhills
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:51 pm Post subject: |
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| movin' on wrote: |
| I see. Do you ever elect to keep a heifer that looks really good on momma and then kind of falls apart a few months later? I have the luxury of being able to keep my calves on wheat pasture for several months after I wean calves. It seems to me like I always change my mind a time or two on several heifers each year as they develop. |
Sometimes, before turn-out time in the spring and before the yearling heifers are bred, I'll pick out some that I don't like too well and sell them.
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movin' on
Member
Joined: 25 Nov 2006
Posts: 626
Location: Independence, KS
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:01 pm Post subject: |
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| OK, thanks.
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jigs
Rancher
Joined: 17 Mar 2005
Posts: 6938
Location: KANSAS
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| Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 7:12 am Post subject: |
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| it almost appears that you have taught your cows to square dance.... I bet if I cut and pasted enough of your photos into a power point slide show it would sure look that way!
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Unless of course, if EPD were to stand for "expert pasture devourers". 