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Changing calving seasons

You guys should be happy that there are those of us who are stupidly calving in bitter cold. This provides much more marketing opportunity for the rest of you. If we were all smart enough to only calve in warm weather and sell when prices are the highest, it would just be that much more competition for those of you who do things correctly. Don't bad mouth us,.........pat us on the back. If we weren't so dumb, y'all wouldn't look so smart. :roll: :wink: :-)

By the way, it is a nice sunshiny day, and ranching is once again kind of fun. :-)
 
Soap, you know it is not a matter of the right way or the wrong way. It is a matter of bottom line. It is hard to argue with success. If what you are doing is working, that's great. Some people are satisfied with just working. I had a conversation with my Dad sometime ago and his point exactly was it is hard to argue with success. My response was even if I was successful I would always wonder if I was leaving some money on the table. We have completely different management strategies, he is affraid of change and the unknown and I strive on it because I have seen it work. Different strokes for different folks. Perhaps the greatest success is sustainability and passing on a legacy. :wink: :D
 
Well I went logging yesterday. A guy building a new house had 6 white pine trees that measured 32"s at the butt and a 100' tall.Those are big tree's for our area and most likely won't cut any down that size again. Ended up with 13-16' logs plus a bunch of smaller logs. Also cleaned up 14 used highline poles a few days ago. My plan is to build a large barn to be used for calveing,plus storage and a sales area for our bull sales.I am going to make a wood type barn as I feel it will be a bit warmer for febuary calves.Selling bulls I'm going to have to calve earlier or run them over as 18 month coming two's which I don't want to do.I am hopeing this is my last year of building trailers so that will free up time and also I could use my shop if the need was there for more calveing area.With ever increaseing steel prices the profit margins are getting pretty thin.

Our best grass is mid may until early july then again late august until freeze up if you have calves that utilize that early grass you have pounds off of the later grass.

I don't care when anyone else calves I don't have to do the work or pay their bills.I kinda wish I were calveing no but I've got a week or two to wait yet.
 
Soapweed said:
You guys should be happy that there are those of us who are stupidly calving in bitter cold. This provides much more marketing opportunity for the rest of you. If we were all smart enough to only calve in warm weather and sell when prices are the highest, it would just be that much more competition for those of you who do things correctly. Don't bad mouth us,.........pat us on the back. If we weren't so dumb, y'all wouldn't look so smart. :roll: :wink: :-)

By the way, it is a nice sunshiny day, and ranching is once again kind of fun. :-)
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thank you for all you do for us, Soapweed. :wink: :)
 
Justin said:
Soapweed said:
You guys should be happy that there are those of us who are stupidly calving in bitter cold. This provides much more marketing opportunity for the rest of you. If we were all smart enough to only calve in warm weather and sell when prices are the highest, it would just be that much more competition for those of you who do things correctly. Don't bad mouth us,.........pat us on the back. If we weren't so dumb, y'all wouldn't look so smart. :roll: :wink: :-)

By the way, it is a nice sunshiny day, and ranching is once again kind of fun. :-)
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thank you for all you do for us, Soapweed. :wink: :)
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You are very welcome, kind sir. :-)

My screw-ups just make your cattle worth more. :wink:
 
I find it amazing how people assume they know another ranch's best management from sitting behind a keyboard, in some instances miles and miles away. As far as I can tell, people on this site are quite competent, and are likely doing what they're doing because it works for their individual operations, goals, and unique variables. We ALL have room for improvement.

I've learned enough in 15 years to know that I still have a lot to learn managing this place, let alone thinking I know enough to manage the neighbors :roll: .
 
WyomingRancher said:
I find it amazing how people assume they know another ranch's best management from sitting behind a keyboard, in some instances miles and miles away. As far as I can tell, people on this site are quite competent, and are likely doing what they're doing because it works for their individual operations, goals, and unique variables. We ALL have room for improvement.

I've learned enough in 15 years to know that I still have a lot to learn managing this place, let alone thinking I know enough to manage the neighbors :roll: .
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But it's always easier to run the neighbors place than our own! :wink: :lol: :lol:
 
I agree with Soapweed, if everyone calved later our market would dry up. I would like to encourage everyone to calve in the winter, the earlier the better. :wink: Thank you for all you do.
 
Big Swede said:
I agree with Soapweed, if everyone calved later our market would dry up. I would like to encourage everyone to calve in the winter, the earlier the better. :wink: Thank you for all you do.
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Hear Hear! :D Don't forget a few fall calvers to take up the slack. :wink:
 
Roundup said:
WyomingRancher said it best.
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Welcome Roundup. Although quite correct, what you might not know is that in trying to convince others that our way is best we are phishing for ideas from how others do it. I am sure there is not a perfect time to calve where I live and I am also sure that we will never stop thinking of when would be better.
 
gcreekrch said:
Big Swede said:
I agree with Soapweed, if everyone calved later our market would dry up. I would like to encourage everyone to calve in the winter, the earlier the better. :wink: Thank you for all you do.
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Hear Hear! :D Don't forget a few fall calvers to take up the slack. :wink:
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What the heck, just leave the bulls in year around, market whatever survives when it strikes your fancy, and just let nature take its course :D :wink:.
 
A few years ago I bought a small ranch from an elderly gentleman. He asked if I wanted to buy his cow herd as well . I asked when they started to calve...he said he never pulled the bulls. That way he could take a pickup load of calves to town anytime he needed a calf check. :lol:
 
cowboykell said:
A few years ago I bought a small ranch from an elderly gentleman. He asked if I wanted to buy his cow herd as well . I asked when they started to calve...he said he never pulled the bulls. That way he could take a pickup load of calves to town anytime he needed a calf check. :lol:
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I usually leave the bulls in for about ninety days, figuring a late calf is better than no calf.
 
Why does everyone assume that winter calving means you have to pull calves? :? We're calving right now, and it's been COLD. Our so called extra labour consists of putting those closest to calving in the barn at night. Hardly overwhelming. On average, the only time a calf gets pulled around here is if something's not coming straight, or it's tangled up twins. If these cows were calving alone in the pasture, what's the odds of someone being there to save the calf? Slim. So that low maintenance summer calving cow just ate a whole winter's feed, and lost the calf. But at least no one had to go and help her, so that's good. You may have fewer problems pasture calving, but when you do have problems they are bigger ones.

Also.....Why does everyone also assume that winter calving has higher costs? It ain't necessarily so guys.

Our cows come home from pasture in October, wean their calves, then graze corn until the end of January (about 50 -55 cents a day cost on that). They start calving in Feb. and leave the yard in April. They spend about 70 days in the yard eating hay. Then they go to the small breeding pasture until end of May when it's back to the summer pasture. The only grain the calves get is a bit of creep when they're really little to prevent coccidiosis. A ton of creep does a hundred plus calves. In October they are in the 600 pound range, having eaten one ton of feed.

Compare that to later calving cows. Guys grass their cows, just like us. They bring them home about the same time. They may feed stockpiled forage, or bale graze, so the cow feed is less. But.... is it cheaper to wean a smaller calf, feed it to take it through winter, grass it for the summer, then, as some do, sell it a year later? What if a drought hits? Can anyone afford to sell those 300 pound calves in the fall if there's no feed? Between a rock and a hard place is what I believe that is called.

Maybe it's just us having lived through 20% interest rates years back, but around here, time is money. I remember when the profit on a batch of feeders could be wiped out by interest costs by holding them for just an extra month.

However, the trend to late calving has been a real bonus for the donkey business. I have yet to need to advertise to sell a guard donkey.
:wink:
 
Kato said:
Why does everyone assume that winter calving means you have to pull calves? :? We're calving right now, and it's been COLD. Our so called extra labour consists of putting those closest to calving in the barn at night. Hardly overwhelming. On average, the only time a calf gets pulled around here is if something's not coming straight, or it's tangled up twins. If these cows were calving alone in the pasture, what's the odds of someone being there to save the calf? Slim. So that low maintenance summer calving cow just ate a whole winter's feed, and lost the calf. But at least no one had to go and help her, so that's good. You may have fewer problems pasture calving, but when you do have problems they are bigger ones.

Also.....Why does everyone also assume that winter calving has higher costs? It ain't necessarily so guys.

Our cows come home from pasture in October, wean their calves, then graze corn until the end of January (about 50 -55 cents a day cost on that). They start calving in Feb. and leave the yard in April. They spend about 70 days in the yard eating hay. Then they go to the small breeding pasture until end of May when it's back to the summer pasture. The only grain the calves get is a bit of creep when they're really little to prevent coccidiosis. A ton of creep does a hundred plus calves. In October they are in the 600 pound range, having eaten one ton of feed.

Compare that to later calving cows. Guys grass their cows, just like us. They bring them home about the same time. They may feed stockpiled forage, or bale graze, so the cow feed is less. But.... is it cheaper to wean a smaller calf, feed it to take it through winter, grass it for the summer, then, as some do, sell it a year later? What if a drought hits? Can anyone afford to sell those 300 pound calves in the fall if there's no feed? Between a rock and a hard place is what I believe that is called.

Maybe it's just us having lived through 20% interest rates years back, but around here, time is money. I remember when the profit on a batch of feeders could be wiped out by interest costs by holding them for just an extra month.

However, the trend to late calving has been a real bonus for the donkey business. I have yet to need to advertise to sell a guard donkey.
:wink:
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Excellent job Kato. :agree: Yeah you never hear anything about the death loss,just how much less work it is.Like i said in a earlier post i pull roughly 8% of my calves.That is mainly for calves not coming the correct weigh,there is the odd big calf.I was at the neighbours one evening during calving time,by the time i went home that night.We had pulled 3 backwards calves in a row.All 3 of those calves lived because we were there to help them,how many of those calves would have died in a low maintenance system?
 
I was going to leave this alone but I just can't help myself. Just a few points.

The highest nutritional need of a cow is during lactation.

Cows still out grazing don't require the same bedding.

The sun stays out longer later in the year making the time of darkness less thus no need for light during the checking time.

Pulling or not pulling has very little to do with time of year calving other than the mindset that makes one calve later might make for different genetic selection and maybe pasture calved cows have a different exercise regime.

I really don't have a problem with winter calving and goodness knows I have lots of experience doing it. I will say that my own cattle operation is more profitable with spring calving than it was with winter calving. Taking calves around to grass has also improved my bottom line on the Hf end and it fits great on our fat of grass freezer beef enterprise as well as short keeps for feedlots are usually bought at a premium to fulfill contracts. What ever floats your personal business boat works for me.
 

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