Eastern Montana cows and calves
- Thread starter HAY MAKER
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Faster horses
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Haymaker, THANKS A BUNCH!!
I couldn't get this picture to come on the screen, and ole' Haymaker came to the rescue!! He posted it for me, until I get an account with photobucket.
That picture is some of our steer pairs, taken August 1. We calve the end of March, so the calves are not more than 4 months old.
Vigortone mineral really makes 'em shiny, big and healthy!
Since I found my digital camera, I am really looking foreward to gettin' the hang of this!
I couldn't get this picture to come on the screen, and ole' Haymaker came to the rescue!! He posted it for me, until I get an account with photobucket.
That picture is some of our steer pairs, taken August 1. We calve the end of March, so the calves are not more than 4 months old.
Vigortone mineral really makes 'em shiny, big and healthy!
Since I found my digital camera, I am really looking foreward to gettin' the hang of this!
ranchwife
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those are some BEAUTIFUL looking bovine ya got there, FH!!! Many congratulations!!! 
A
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Faster horses
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I don't know if they would be a record or not, but thanks! Our calves usually weigh between 620 and 640 when we ship around the 10th of October.
Just for fun, because we have gotten into breed and EPD discussions on here lots of times, I looked up what the calf in the foreground is. The cow is a daughter of some Shoshone Angus bulls we bought. The calf is either out of a Right Time son or Sitz Alliance 6595. We pasture bred a group of cows to these two bulls (by mistake actually~I wanted both Right Time sons put with them, but someone goofed!! and the 6595 bull got in with them instead of the other Right Time bull. :roll: ) So that's the way it goes...
Anyway, both were pretty moderate bulls, the Right Time one might have been a little framier. But we are definitely buying moderate, maternal bulls. The factory is what we are most interested in~those good replacements.
Just for fun, because we have gotten into breed and EPD discussions on here lots of times, I looked up what the calf in the foreground is. The cow is a daughter of some Shoshone Angus bulls we bought. The calf is either out of a Right Time son or Sitz Alliance 6595. We pasture bred a group of cows to these two bulls (by mistake actually~I wanted both Right Time sons put with them, but someone goofed!! and the 6595 bull got in with them instead of the other Right Time bull. :roll: ) So that's the way it goes...
Anyway, both were pretty moderate bulls, the Right Time one might have been a little framier. But we are definitely buying moderate, maternal bulls. The factory is what we are most interested in~those good replacements.
Manitoba_Rancher
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Real nice looking stock FH. I like the black ones too!!! How can we get our hands on some of that mineral up here?
the_jersey_lilly_2000
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I just did a search on vigertone, found the website but they dont supply a place to "find your nearest dealer" I was wanting to compare prices etc .
Soapweed
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Really good looking cattle, faster horses. Wish you hadn't taken a jackknife to those good looking steer calves. I could use some nice bulls like that. Keep posting those pictures.
Thanks to you, too, Haymaker, for getting this photo to get posted on the bull session.
Thanks to you, too, Haymaker, for getting this photo to get posted on the bull session.
Faster horses
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Thanks, Soapweed. I consider that a real compliment.
We do have some neighbors that pick out some at branding time for their own use and they seem to be real satisfied. I wouldn't mind raising some bulls, however...
Jack doesn't like bulls, he would NEVER raise bulls. He thinks YOU are on the RIGHT TRACK getting rid of the son-of-a-guns. :wink:
We do have some neighbors that pick out some at branding time for their own use and they seem to be real satisfied. I wouldn't mind raising some bulls, however...
Jack doesn't like bulls, he would NEVER raise bulls. He thinks YOU are on the RIGHT TRACK getting rid of the son-of-a-guns. :wink:
the_jersey_lilly_2000
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Soapweed...you gittin rid of em..or just takin em off the cows?
Soapweed
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the_jersey_lilly_2000 said:
We buy all yearling bulls in the spring, use them one season, and sell them in the fall. Usually we just take a trailer load at a time into one of four local sale barns, and sell them to the highest bidder.
I have advertised them in the Sandhills Cattle Association bi-weekly paper, and have a "hot nibble" from a Nebraska order buyer with an order to send a bunch of young breeding bulls to Texas. If this deal gels, I might get my initial purchase price back, and get the cows bred for the price of the summer grass that the bulls ate.
Another thought that has recently hit my cranium is to maybe try selling a bunch of these bulls over one of the video auctions. Cut off a few bottom enders, and file the rest of them by the video camera. A buyer could bid on them "as is", by the pound, with a slide. If the buyer wanted to use them for breeding bulls, he would be financially responsible for any tests that would be desired (i.e. fertility, trich, BVD, or whatever), and we would run the bunch through the chute. Any bulls that didn't pass any of the tests we would just sell by another outlet. Just a thought. :? :???:
the_jersey_lilly_2000
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soapweed...feel free to send them black one's my way lol
rancher said:
There it is rancher,I was deleteing some albums today and I did'nt realize faster horses picture was one of them,this picture deal is funny if you delete it at photo bucket then every where you have it posted gets deleted too.well maybe faster horses wont get too mad,her and I worked hard to get it posted............good luck
faster horses,IM gonna take the label off the next sack of loose mineral I buy and scan/post it so we can compare it to vigortone,can you do the same on your end so we can compare?............good luck
Faster horses
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What are you doing up so early, haymaker?
Sure, I'll compare labels if you like. The labels don't tell the whole story, however. It is INGREDIENTS that make up the difference. Though I will risk sounding like a commercial for Vigortone mineral here, "there are many who copy our tag, while they should copy what we put in the bag." Those quality ingredients result in consistent particle size, which keeps the mineral from getting hard when it gets wet.
Most generally people who who are on a Vigortone mineral program for a year see so much improvement in their cattle that they won't go back to anything else. That 30 lbs. we add to calf weaning weights pretty much seals the deal. Plus the herd health and added conception rates more than pays for the mineral.
What I say is, "We are not a low-cost mineral, we are a performance mineral." Of course we have to be competively priced and we are.
My advice is to try it for a year and see the difference. Or take one group of cattle and put them on it and see the difference in those. I'll guarantee you, there is a difference you can visibly see. Like the shiny haircoat on our cattle. If I can, I will get a picture of our cattle BEFORE we started on Vigortone and post it here. It is nothing short of amazing. Now we have no red tint. If you have black cattle with a RED tint, chances are you are short of copper. Black cattle should be BLACK. Ours weren't. They are now. They weren't healthy, and they are VERY healthy now.
One other thing I would like to mention, our cows get grass and hay. In these dry falls, we have put out Forage Pro starting in September, until we wean the calves. Other than that, they get no other supplement. Just grass. Just hay.
Breaks my heart to see all the protein that is supplemented that is unnecessary. We have taken hay samples all over this country and have yet to find hay that was such poor quality that it needed supplemented when the cattle were fed enough. 10# of a 8% protein hay isn't enough. 10% protein hay fed at 20 to 25# is good enough for most range cattle. Second cutting hay should be fed as a supplement to range cattle, not as a complete feed. 10# of a 20% alfalfa hay with 10% moisture would result in 1.8# of crude protein, that would basically meet their protein requirements. Then whatever else you fed, grass hay, straw, grazing, etc. would add a little more protein and the extra forage would also be necessary in order to meet the dry matter requirements.
PM me when I get back, haymaker, and we'll compare. It is always interesting. We have over 100 mineral products to fit every situation.
Industry leader, that's what we are. Been around over 90 years. (Not me, the mineral~) :wink:
Sure, I'll compare labels if you like. The labels don't tell the whole story, however. It is INGREDIENTS that make up the difference. Though I will risk sounding like a commercial for Vigortone mineral here, "there are many who copy our tag, while they should copy what we put in the bag." Those quality ingredients result in consistent particle size, which keeps the mineral from getting hard when it gets wet.
Most generally people who who are on a Vigortone mineral program for a year see so much improvement in their cattle that they won't go back to anything else. That 30 lbs. we add to calf weaning weights pretty much seals the deal. Plus the herd health and added conception rates more than pays for the mineral.
What I say is, "We are not a low-cost mineral, we are a performance mineral." Of course we have to be competively priced and we are.
My advice is to try it for a year and see the difference. Or take one group of cattle and put them on it and see the difference in those. I'll guarantee you, there is a difference you can visibly see. Like the shiny haircoat on our cattle. If I can, I will get a picture of our cattle BEFORE we started on Vigortone and post it here. It is nothing short of amazing. Now we have no red tint. If you have black cattle with a RED tint, chances are you are short of copper. Black cattle should be BLACK. Ours weren't. They are now. They weren't healthy, and they are VERY healthy now.
One other thing I would like to mention, our cows get grass and hay. In these dry falls, we have put out Forage Pro starting in September, until we wean the calves. Other than that, they get no other supplement. Just grass. Just hay.
Breaks my heart to see all the protein that is supplemented that is unnecessary. We have taken hay samples all over this country and have yet to find hay that was such poor quality that it needed supplemented when the cattle were fed enough. 10# of a 8% protein hay isn't enough. 10% protein hay fed at 20 to 25# is good enough for most range cattle. Second cutting hay should be fed as a supplement to range cattle, not as a complete feed. 10# of a 20% alfalfa hay with 10% moisture would result in 1.8# of crude protein, that would basically meet their protein requirements. Then whatever else you fed, grass hay, straw, grazing, etc. would add a little more protein and the extra forage would also be necessary in order to meet the dry matter requirements.
PM me when I get back, haymaker, and we'll compare. It is always interesting. We have over 100 mineral products to fit every situation.
Industry leader, that's what we are. Been around over 90 years. (Not me, the mineral~) :wink:
the_jersey_lilly_2000
Well-known member
I'd be interested in seein that bag tag too....
shorthorn
Well-known member
I use Stockmaster minerals by Hubbard feeds. My cows shed and look good and thats all they get. Some of the buffalo guys around here were using vigortone but changed after they tried the hubbard for a while. The 2 minerals arent that much differant and minerals are minerals the analisis makes the mineral.As a feed salesman and rancher i only sell what i use. Vigortone is a good mineral so is cargill and a few others. Just depends on where you are and what your cattles needs are.
