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Winter routines etc

Pumpkin1456

Pumpkin1456

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Joined
Nov 11, 2022
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So here stock has been brought into lower pastures or housing now to be fed each day. The horses are in stables with turn out rotations rather than living out 24/7. The snow will come soon, the rain is already here in abundance and I'm praying for a decent frost to refresh the grazing grounds. We are castrating, trimming, freeze marking, sorting etc etc. Have a new bull arriving tomorrow so will get him settled in. Fluking next month. In a few weeks I'll sort out and pen up the lambing sheds ready for the first wave of lambing to begin in the new year. Got a few sales to go to between now and Christmas. Putting an Angus bull in with some of the bulling dairy heifers too.

Wondering what everyone's routines are this time of year in your various places and what you're all up to 🙂
 
Spent the better part of a month getting cattle off the mountain and home for the winter. Summer range is nine canyons and about 20 by 60 miles. Weaned the calves in October and we feed them til February. Then we will sell them. Pulling horse shoes off this weekend. We start lambing in two weeks. Hauling a load of cull cows to the sale next week.
 
You lamb in December? I'm guessing you lamb indoors? How many have you got to lamb this year?

We time lambing for when the weather starts picking up. We have them in groups and lamb in waves so the first lot will be lambed and kicked out to pasture, quick re-bedding of the shed and onto the next group and so on.
 
We lamb to time it for the stockshows. My daughter started this deal when she started showing sheep. Now we sell lambs to other kids for them to show. We do lamb in sheds and barns. Just a small bunch. 11 ewes. Hamp shire/Suffolk crossed
 
It's just sunk in that 20 by 60 miles is absolutely massive ground. That's a huge gathering job on there! How do you manage that? Do you have stock split and gather in groups or bring it all down at the same time?

Ahh that makes sense. We like the lambs at age and weight for back end of summer ready to go. I wish we only had 11. We have 375 in lamb ewes 😱
 
Preg checking next Wed, Then start fliushing ewes to put rams is about 4th Dec. Been getting snow we got a big pasture with no pines that we can graze into end Jan first of Feb, with lick tubs and have to haul water and keep a propane heater on the water tank. If keeps snowing and crust up hard , we bring to cows home and feed cake and hay.
 
Pumpkin1456 said:
It's just sunk in that 20 by 60 miles is absolutely massive ground. That's a huge gathering job on there! How do you manage that? Do you have stock split and gather in groups or bring it all down at the same time?

Ahh that makes sense. We like the lambs at age and weight for back end of summer ready to go. I wish we only had 11. We have 375 in lamb ewes 😱
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It's takes some doing. We gather from the public permit onto a couple of 640 acre sections. Some years they are pretty much in one or two canyons. This year, because of drought, they were scattered from heck to breakfast. Some days ya get 20 pairs. Some days ya get two. It's just the nature of where we run cattle. Gcreek is always after me to hire a plane and fly. But nearest airport is 70 miles away and it's rare a plane is ever there. So we make big circles on horses and pick up cows as we go. It's just how it's done in the Great Basin. When we aren't in a major drought, we can leave the cows (calves weaned already) on private land til the week between Christmas and new years. And then we drive them home, which is 65 miles and a three day trip. We cross three counties. But drought hasn't given us the feed we need so we hauled them home two weeks after we weaned.
 
Pumpkin1456 said:
It's just sunk in that 20 by 60 miles is absolutely massive ground. That's a huge gathering job on there! How do you manage that? Do you have stock split and gather in groups or bring it all down at the same time?

Ahh that makes sense. We like the lambs at age and weight for back end of summer ready to go. I wish we only had 11. We have 375 in lamb ewes 😱
Click to expand...
when we ran on forest permits after the first few gathers, we hire a plane to fly over and spot where the last few were at.
 
We pregged and weaned on the 28th. The cows are back out on leased rangeground. Normally they would stay til Christmas ish, but when it was looking so dry in March the guy we lease from cut us back 200 AUM's so they will come home around Thanksgiving. The steers will go before thanksgiving, not sure what we are doing with the heifers yet. Been getting wood and cutting up elk meat :)
 
Nicky said:
We pregged and weaned on the 28th. The cows are back out on leased rangeground. Normally they would stay til Christmas ish, but when it was looking so dry in March the guy we lease from cut us back 200 AUM's so they will come home around Thanksgiving. The steers will go before thanksgiving, not sure what we are doing with the heifers yet. Been getting wood and cutting up elk meat :)
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If you're in the giving mood I'll take 5 cords of pine and a plate of back straps 😁
 
Well we are buying the wood from a neighbor, but come on up and we will feed you backstraps! You have some of your own don't you????
 
Sold the calves from the old broken mouth cows yesterday. Only cattle here now is 35 380-440 pound steers I have been buying. Only takes a few minutes in the morning to feed them. In about 3 weeks I will start putting together another herd of broken mouth cows. We seemed to skip past fall this year. Went from too hot to be running a chain saw to too cold. We are about two thirds of the way done with cutting firewood. Just need a couple of free afternoons to get finished. But for someone who is supposed to be retired I sure have been busy the last couple weeks.
 
I'm loving reading your replies here. It's really cool seeing what everyone's up to. It can be a lonely time of year. Our new bull arrived today and I've spent most the day checking boundaries and fence lines. My grandfather has been doing the firewood this year, he's 91, calls himself 'grandad the great'. Takes him an age but he's a stubborn sod and won't let anyone else do it!
 
when we start feeding instead of early morning, we feed hay and cake late afternoon, usually hour to two before dark. we notice cows eat go drink go back eat, and next morning when it cold they are picking up.
 
The calves I bought Wednesday were licking the little bit of ice in the bottom of the trough. I had to walk them out an already open gate to go to the river to drink. What kind of calf does not walk out an open gate?
 
A hundred Pounder propane tank , works well with
15000-A._2.jpg
 
Pumpkin1456 said:
So here stock has been brought into lower pastures or housing now to be fed each day. The horses are in stables with turn out rotations rather than living out 24/7. The snow will come soon, the rain is already here in abundance and I'm praying for a decent frost to refresh the grazing grounds. We are castrating, trimming, freeze marking, sorting etc etc. Have a new bull arriving tomorrow so will get him settled in. Fluking next month. In a few weeks I'll sort out and pen up the lambing sheds ready for the first wave of lambing to begin in the new year. Got a few sales to go to between now and Christmas. Putting an Angus bull in with some of the bulling dairy heifers too.

Wondering what everyone's routines are this time of year in your various places and what you're all up to 🙂
Click to expand...
I wondered if you used horses, what kind are they? Ours stay out year round.
How much precipitation do you get a year, and when does most of it come? And in what form? We get 9 inches (i lucky). We can get up to 3 feet of snow but most years less than a foot.
When do you calve, and how do you market the calves? We calve in Feb/march and sell them in the fall. So you have dairy and beef cattle?
 

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