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#29 the last to calf

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webfoot

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I bought 2 cows in late March. They called then as 3 to 5 year olds and bred 7 and 8 months. I long since forgot which was supposed to be 8 months and which one 7 months. They were simply ear tag #28 and #29. Well #28 accidentally got loaded and off to summer pasture before she calved (that is another story). #29 hung around here looking very much like maybe a September calver. Bert was agreeing with me. On Wednesday I went past her going out to do irrigation. I looked at her and thought maybe you are going to calf eventually. On Thursday morning she had a new calf following her around. Just goes to show you how good of an eye I have.
This cow absolutely hates the idea of a dog being in the same county with her calf. We have already had several interesting times with her. A couple times I thought she might climb on back of the quad to get my dog. I don't think she is overly fond of people right now either.

P5273096.JPG
 
I have a story to tell here about a friend of ours.
He AI'd 180 of his own heifers. He doesn't like to calve more than 25 days so he didn't put a
clean-up bull with them. When he preg tested last fall he had 5 bred heifers!! The semen was
bad. So he sold the open heifers through the sale ring and bought bred heifers back. I'm not sure
how many he purchased, if I did know, I forgot. So calving time comes this spring. 3 of the 5 of the
owned bred heifers heifers were WILD. I mean, really WILD. He handles cattle very well and there
was no reason for them to act like that. Of course, he took the calves off these 3 and sold the wild
heifers through the sale ring. I'm telling this because I think it is interesting how things turned out.
That was 60% wild cattle. of his own. If that had held true with the others, he would have had 108 wild heifers to contend with.

We've always said he could fall in a toilet and come out smelling like a rose.

His reasoning as to why this happened (the wildness) was that he sent the 180 heifers to be wintered in a feed lot. The winter was brutal in that country and no one walked the pens most all that winter so the heifers never saw a hooman for several months. Could that be it? How would he ever know?
 
Last year I went to a bred cow special sale. Got one cow bought. Went to the same sale the next week. There was a bunch of bred cows and no bred cow buyer because they hadn't been advertised. I bought 42 cows for under the budget money. Didn't buy anything with horns or that acted goofy in the ring. Just the sale yard manager and a low dollar trader to bid against me. Turned out the cows all came from a big ranch in the high desert SW of Burns. I don't think they had ever seen a human on foot and rarely one horseback. There were a few moments. But everything turned out alright and we made good money on them.
I think #29 will be ok once the calf gets a little age on it. And Bert and his cowboys get to deal with her anyway. That is his part in our partner deal on these cows. I do the buying and feed his feed. It is his hay I feed and he gets to do any cowboy stuff which needs to be done. When this cow first came here she was giving me the eye while I was feeding but she calmed down in a day or two.
 
I have talked a couple of moms into letting me unstop a clogged up teat before.Out in the pasture.Some you don't even dare get between them and their calf.
 
Faster horses said:
I have a story to tell here about a friend of ours.
He AI'd 180 of his own heifers. He doesn't like to calve more than 25 days so he didn't put a
clean-up bull with them. When he preg tested last fall he had 5 bred heifers!! The semen was
bad. So he sold the open heifers through the sale ring and bought bred heifers back. I'm not sure
how many he purchased, if I did know, I forgot. So calving time comes this spring. 3 of the 5 of the
owned bred heifers heifers were WILD. I mean, really WILD. He handles cattle very well and there
was no reason for them to act like that. Of course, he took the calves off these 3 and sold the wild
heifers through the sale ring. I'm telling this because I think it is interesting how things turned out.
That was 60% wild cattle. of his own. If that had held true with the others, he would have had 108 wild heifers to contend with.

We've always said he could fall in a toilet and come out smelling like a rose.

His reasoning as to why this happened (the wildness) was that he sent the 180 heifers to be wintered in a feed lot. The winter was brutal in that country and no one walked the pens most all that winter so the heifers never saw a hooman for several months. Could that be it? How would he ever know?
Click to expand...
My guess is it was more likely what happened the few days they were exposed to the feedlot help than the many days they were not
 

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