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Black and White Observation....

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Mike

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While traveling back and forth moving hay this week (by far the warmest week of the year) I couldn't help but observe the cattle between the field and the barn.

1-The black cattle stayed in the shade from approx. 11:00 AM until 4:00 PM. All three black herds I watched moved to graze at about the same time each day.

2-The 4 white herds stayed in the sun all day and even layed down in the sun as if they were enjoying it.

3-Surprisingly the one herd of Brahman cross cattle I was watching stood in and around a pond just about all of the daylight hours.

When it gets up around 100 degrees and 95-100% humidity will be the real test.
 
yeah,good observation MIKE,I wont keep black cattle south of san antonio,they just dont do as well as your light color that far south............good luck PS just my humble opinion,of course one of these packer lovers will say how wrong I am :wink: ,
 
That's interesting, Mike. Keep your eye open and let us know your observations.

We had a guy move up here from the West Coast who had a Santa Gertrudis cow in his herd - claimed she was one of his best. He said the first good cold snap we got, she laid down and died.
 
Just an opinon;

Mother nature sure does a good job of culling. Ever find a dead deer with a fawn hanging halfway out? Wonder if any fawn get killed in spring storms?
 
I was reading last evening about how a certain percentage of cattle are immune to parasites. It was stated that they are in every breed, the non parasite cattle that is, and it's hereditary. It was stated that they are ussually the better cows in the herd. One way to spot them is when observing the cow herd in deep summer when the flies are terrible some cows in the herd have very little if any flies on them. This is assuming the herd is untreated like mine are. Got me to thinking these past years when looking over the herd, there always were some cows that flies never bothered. This summer I'm going to keep a record of it in the red book and in fall compare preformance and the like. Interesting!
 
Tom S said:
I was reading last evening about how a certain percentage of cattle are immune to parasites. It was stated that they are in every breed, the non parasite cattle that is, and it's hereditary. It was stated that they are ussually the better cows in the herd. One way to spot them is when observing the cow herd in deep summer when the flies are terrible some cows in the herd have very little if any flies on them. This is assuming the herd is untreated like mine are. Got me to thinking these past years when looking over the herd, there always were some cows that flies never bothered. This summer I'm going to keep a record of it in the red book and in fall compare preformance and the like. Interesting!

I've noticed the parasite thing too, Tom. But I have one that's really weird!
She's really susceptible to getting lice and having little clumps of hair missing in the winter but is one of those that doesn't have many flies in summer. She also has the heaviest calf at weaning too. But she never has bulls - heifers only after five.
 
Tom S said:
Do you keep any heifers from her and if you do how are they doing? Kinda interesting.

I have kept them all. Each are out of different bulls and they are never lousy like their dam but not quite as "milky" either. I calve in Oct and that's when the lice show up on the old cow. May be that it has something to do with her being a "milk machine".
 
Mike said:
Tom S said:
Do you keep any heifers from her and if you do how are they doing? Kinda interesting.

I have kept them all. Each are out of different bulls and they are never lousy like their dam but not quite as "milky" either. I calve in Oct and that's when the lice show up on the old cow. May be that it has something to do with her being a "milk machine".

I tell you what, like I said on a previous post I'm gonna keep track of this this summer. I hope a few others would too. From what I'm recollecting most of these cows that don't have flies are mostly the easy doing gals that a guy takes for granted. It would be interesting to compare some notes this fall. And there are always exceptions. One thing stands out on the cow you mentioned and that is heavy milker. Give and take on a trait, maybe?
 
Sandhusker said:
That's interesting, Mike. Keep your eye open and let us know your observations.

We had a guy move up here from the West Coast who had a Santa Gertrudis cow in his herd - claimed she was one of his best. He said the first good cold snap we got, she laid down and died.


It could be where she came from as I have used and Santa gert. bull but he was raised in this country.
 
It has been our experience that the cows with the better immune system have less flies.

Several years ago, we were looking through the cowherd and a two year old heifer had not shed off. She also was loaded with flies. I went back and looked and she had twins that spring (remember, she was only 2) and it must have hurt her in some way. She was dry that fall.

Look to see if the cows with the most flies, are also the ones with some dead hair on them. Usually that is the case.

As far as the good cow that seems to have lice, why don't you treat her for lice and then retreat her in 13 days? Try that one fall. The only way to truly GET LICE is to pour them twice. That is true of ANY PRODUCT. There are biting lice and eggs and you gotta get the eggs when they hatch. One treatment controls lice in most herds but in order to really KILL lice, you must pour them twice. FWIW.
 
One more little thing, Mike.

It is normal for cattle to graze in the morning, lay down around noon and then go back and graze in the afternoon/evening. One can check them at noon and if they are laying down, they are full and contented. If they are up grazing something is wrong~out of feed, etc.

So in your above post, are you telling us the "white cattle" don't have enough sense to get out of the sun? LOL!! LOL!!!
 
So far as good doing cows and cows out of their natural climate range, there was an old high percentage brahma cross cow on this ranch when I was married and moved here 47 years ago. She had been traded around a lot and our ranch was the last owner. Don't know how many years she was here, but she was over 20 years old when she died. She got no special treatment and grazed year round with maybe a little cottonseed cake when the winter was severe. She had a calf every year she was on this ranch. Some of her years on this ranch she was owned by a hired man and he sold her to my husbands' father when he changed careers and left the ranch. Actually, she still is here.....we had her head mounted and she is hanging in our garage at the present time, until we convert a storage room into a place for a saddle collection when she will move to quarter more suited to her status as a treasured part of our ranch history.

MRJ
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
Sandhusker said:
That's interesting, Mike. Keep your eye open and let us know your observations.

We had a guy move up here from the West Coast who had a Santa Gertrudis cow in his herd - claimed she was one of his best. He said the first good cold snap we got, she laid down and died.


It could be where she came from as I have used and Santa gert. bull but he was raised in this country.

I have never heard of anybody this far North using Santa Gertrudises. Why did you use one?
 
Faster horses said:
One more little thing, Mike.

It is normal for cattle to graze in the morning, lay down around noon and then go back and graze in the afternoon/evening. One can check them at noon and if they are laying down, they are full and contented. If they are up grazing something is wrong~out of feed, etc.

So in your above post, are you telling us the "white cattle" don't have enough sense to get out of the sun? LOL!! LOL!!!

I pour that cow 4-5 times in about a 3 month period.

Observing those cows grazing was not an effect of feed. Pastures are all full of grass now. Most of the cows down here now have pretty big calves now and at this time of year are grazing heavy.

And the Brahmans don't have enough sense to get out of the pond! :lol:
 
Faster horses, how are things? I have been swamped for the last two months with bulls sales, breeding and seeding. Seeding is just about wrapped up and will relax shortly

How's calving? I bet you're done.
Did you get snow a few days bacK?
We could use moisture. It's been cold here lately.
In fact, the ground temp. was warmer 3 weeks ago than it is today.
 
Sandhusker said:
Big Muddy rancher said:
Sandhusker said:
That's interesting, Mike. Keep your eye open and let us know your observations.

We had a guy move up here from the West Coast who had a Santa Gertrudis cow in his herd - claimed she was one of his best. He said the first good cold snap we got, she laid down and died.


It could be where she came from as I have used and Santa gert. bull but he was raised in this country.

I have never heard of anybody this far North using Santa Gertrudises. Why did you use one?


When I started my cow herd I was breeding alot of Hfrs so I was buying Blacks and breeding to Long horn, Watusi and I had a chance to buy this good Santa bull and I also tried Brangus. I liked the Watusi and Santa calves the longhorns of course were off colored and i had hip lock trouble calving the Brangus. I now run angus on angus and have mostly black herd with just a few white faces and one red cow of the kids left over from the Watusi.
 
BMr - Do you get many twins out of your Angus on Angus? I've had three pairs this spring and they all came out of brockle face cows. Two pairs came dead, so you can figure how far ahead we are with twinns.
 
Maple Leaf Angus said:
BMr - Do you get many twins out of your Angus on Angus? I've had three pairs this spring and they all came out of brockle face cows. Two pairs came dead, so you can figure how far ahead we are with twinns.

We don't seem to get many twins but are calving out in the hills so at times we may lose one and not find it as the coyotes can clean up a dead calf pretty quick. When riding yesterday came across a cow standing vigil over a calf. All licked off but dead and another calf that needed some treatment but was some better last night.. calving is slowing down but will drag out for a while as after we picked up our bulls had a visitor for a while. At the price of cull I guess a late calf is better then none but it messes with our management.
 

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