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Boring old cattle pictures

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Soapweed

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
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Location
northern Nebraska Sandhills
Lifeisnottoobad.jpg

Life is not too bad
Haythisisprettygoodstuff.jpg

Hay, this is pretty good stuff
Mycowlickisrightinthemiddle.jpg

My cowlick is right in the middle, at eye level, am I smart or dumb or average?
Heifercalves.jpg

Heifer calves
Replacementheifercalves.jpg

Replacements, future cows
 
I know about the cowlicks on horses to some degree...wish I would have seen that on RFD-TV.

An ole horseman told me to go by the cowlick to show disposition on choosing a colt. The higher the cowlick the more excitable or nervous the horse, the lower the cowlick the quieter, with the cowlick dead center between the eyes being the preferable spot. Two cowlicks means the horse is 'complicated' and may be harder to break, but once you get him,( if you do), you are well-mounted. The length of the cowlick is supposed to mean something as well, but I can't recall what it is.

A friend that worked on a big ranch went through 50 head of riding horses that were used there and he said the cowlick proved true on all the horses but one. I thought that was very interesting.

Now Temple Grandin has some work published on this in regard to cowlicks on cattle. The higher the more nervous, etc.

So Soapweed, going by the cowlick, that should be an even-tempered cow.

Also, I read where Down's Syndrome kids have more cowlicks than usual.

The whole thing is very interesting to me.
 
Looking at your pics Soapweed those are some pretty darn nice cattle. YOu must have been doing some fancy driving moves the way the hay is layed out in a fancy pattern. :D
 
FH, also not only the cowlick on horses foreheads, but one's in their mane. Dadgummit I can't remember what that man said about it. Seems like it was, the closer it is to it's ears, the easier it would be to train, or shorter time...can't remember.
 
I always cake in a circle. The spout is on the left side of the pickup, so I circle to the left (counter clockwise). My first circle is not real big, and then I just keep circling in a spiral pattern staying about 12-15 feet away from the last line of cake. My theory is that the cattle find all the cubes as they leave the first circle. While they eat the cake, I cut the strings and then feed a couple bales around the original circle in a bigger circle. There is no excuse for the cattle to not find all the feed available. :wink:
 
I find the ones that raise thier cowlick and tailhead at the same time usually have something besides staying put in mind, LOL,

PPRM
 
Soap, I agree with your feeding cake in a circle technique vs straight line feeding. Cows from the beginning of the cake line run over too much of the cake and tromp it into the ground trying to catch up to the pickup and get the "fresh stuff".

That said, I've never been able to train my pickup to go in circles without heading off into some draw or snowbank where it shouldn't boldly go! :D In this part of the country I can usually tie the steering wheel with a couple tarp straps before I bail out and the pickup keeps heading uphill.

Yes, it would probably be better to get a wife, or one of those cake feeders so I could stay in the cab! :shock: :p :lol:
 
John SD said:
Soap, I agree with your feeding cake in a circle technique vs straight line feeding. Cows from the beginning of the cake line run over too much of the cake and tromp it into the ground trying to catch up to the pickup and get the "fresh stuff".

That said, I've never been able to train my pickup to go in circles without heading off into some draw or snowbank where it shouldn't boldly go! :D In this part of the country I can usually tie the steering wheel with a couple tarp straps before I bail out and the pickup keeps heading uphill.

Yes, it would probably be better to get a wife, or one of those cake feeders so I could stay in the cab! :shock: :p :lol:

Yep, John SD, you need to quit spending so much time on the bull session and go to www.countrysingles.com. :wink: :)
 
I always enjoy your pictures, Soapweed. What percent of your hay do you figure your cattle waste the way you feed it? How often do you put hay out? I am trying to reduce the amount of waste I have ( especially this year as we are all short of hay down here). I both unroll it and feed in rings and I can't say either is less wasteful for me. But when I unroll it I can better control consumption.
 
I read in a magazine in a sale barn lobby once about cowlick placement,and wildness.The higher it is,the wilder they said.Anyone else heard of this?I think its bs,but what an idea to come up with,couldnt you just imagine some ole man at the sale sayin "nope,aint buyin her,her cowlick is too high.." :shock:
 
Yes, Lilly. The futher up the neck the cowlicks, the easier the horse is to train, supposedly.

We just had some young friends here at Christmas that work for horse trainers in Oklahoma and Texas. One works for Bobby Lewis and the other for Don Murphy. They rode a nice three-year old we have and one of the comments was, "his cowlick is pretty far up his neck, close to his ears, and that's good."

So, I reckon there is some merit to all this, if people who work for world-reknown trainers notice these little characteristics and use them as indications of good or bad attitudes.
 
Nice pictures Soapweed. I was wondering what percent of your 2005 heifer crop you plan to calf next Spring. If that is not too personal.
 
WB said:
Nice pictures Soapweed. I was wondering what percent of your 2005 heifer crop you plan to calf next Spring. If that is not too personal.

So far, we have sold about 25% of our heifers born in 2005. Of the remaining 75%, we will probably sell the bottom third of them before turning bulls out in the spring. So I guess in round figures, we will end up keeping about 50% of the 2005 heifer crop to calve as two-year-olds in 2007.

Of the heifer calves born in 2004, we have about 30% of them that we have held over to calve this spring (2006).

Most of our cow herd are home-grown, but once in a while I buy some cows or bred heifers that look like they will fit into our program. These are usually only purchased when the price is right. Bred females are high enough this year that I have not even been tempted. :? :wink:
 
efb said:
I always enjoy your pictures, Soapweed. What percent of your hay do you figure your cattle waste the way you feed it? How often do you put hay out? I am trying to reduce the amount of waste I have ( especially this year as we are all short of hay down here). I both unroll it and feed in rings and I can't say either is less wasteful for me. But when I unroll it I can better control consumption.

We try to feed hay daily. If they have any hay left from the day before, I cut back the volume fed the next time. If they have too much left, they don't get any more until they clean up what they have available. My experience is that cattle waste a lot less hay if it is rolled out than when it is fed in bale rings.

When rolling out hay, if it globs off in too thick of a mat, it gets spread out with a pitchfork. By just barely touching the bale to the ground and bringing it right back up in the air, it seems to roll out in a lot smaller piles. Saddletramp uses a bale processor on his end, and the hay is fed in a nice chopped windrow. If the wind is blowing when using a processor, the hay always needs to be fed straight into the wind. Any deviation allows the hay to get blown sideways.

Probably at the most, five percent of the hay might get wasted. I don't think it amounts to that much.
 
On the subject of cowlicks, I would liken them to EPD's. They might be a useful indicator tool but nothing to really hang your hat on. The best horse I ever had is ol' Tom Cat, who turns 24 this spring. He is highly intelligent, but his cowlick is quite a bit below his eyes. If the cowlick philosophy was completely true, he wouldn't have been worth breaking. At the time I had never heard of any such theory so wasn't prejudiced against him. He turned out just fine. EPD's, cowlicks, and weather forcasts are all just products of the SWAG principle. :wink: :)
 

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