feeding

[Denny]

The great thing about the cattle business is how diverse it is. What is completely foreign to me works just fine in other parts of the planet. Between Silver wintering on snow and us summering on rocks, cows can make a living almost anywhere. 8)

A voice of reason Merry Christmas H

 

[DejaVu]

whether they are all grazing the same direction (shows they are competing for grass)

FH, I've been thinking about this and don't cattle generally graze into the wind? which would make them graze mostly in the same direction. The other day I happened to see the neighbor's cattle moving through a section of wheat and milo stalks. There was plenty to eat and they were all moving in the same direction. We had a fairly strong north wind and they were grazing into it. Yeah, I'l overthinking it. It's what I do best! :lol:
Merry Christmas to all. :santa:

 

[Faster horses]

Oh yes, they do. I should have qualified that by saying "unless the wind is blowing." Keep watching, you will be amazed at what you see or what the cattle will tell you. At times they will tell you when they are out of 'desirable' feed when we think they have plenty. Same with hay. Put out a bad bale and put out a good bale, then notice which one they eat first. You can't fool 'em.

Merry Christmas to all!

 

[DejaVu]

Sorta like driving into a pasture and you just know they're unhappy or restless. Awhile back I had a young bull meet me at the pickup. He was growling-not a bellar-just a low growl. The mature bull had jumped the fence and went to the neighbors. There were several things the young bull was saying. He was for sure tattling on the old bull and then he was probably asking me to not bring him back as the young one had all the cows to himself.
On another site there was an interesting topic about the tail switch on bulls and using it as an indication of fertility. A lot of bulls don't even have a switch. They look almost like a rat tail. Hum........
One more- I was told if you take a bulls weight and divide it by .66 you will know what his daughters mature weight will be. So a ton bull will leave 1320 lb females.

 

[Faster horses]

If you take a bulls weight, gee, at what age and what time of year. That makes it vary a lot.
I've heard you can tell if a cow is bred by the way the hair stands up on the tail head. Never mastered that tho.

 

[DejaVu]

Sorry-my mistake-mature weight of the bull. I'd say it would be an guesstimate as to time of year but I wouldn't do it when he's just come home from breeding.
Bonsma had a lot of ways of telling a bred cow. I wish I could have met him. When the hair on a cows tail head stands up, it's usually a sign in my herd she's been ridden and is open :lol:
We were preg-checking this fall and my other half started calling them before they got to the chute and with accuracy. He said he was looking at how full they were under their belly, right in front of the udder.
There's so many signs we never notice. Too many distractions..cell phones, money worries, family, weather.................

 

[Silver]

This fall I was quite confident calling a yearling open at preg testing time. Much to my surprise she was announced bred by the vet. I had never seen a freemartin come in bred before.

 

[DejaVu]

About 10% of heifers born twin to a bull are fertile. Your lucky day Silver.

 

[Faster horses]

This fall I was quite confident calling a yearling open at preg testing time. Much to my surprise she was announced bred by the vet. I had never seen a freemartin come in bred before.

Me either. But given enough time and circumstance, cattle will make fools out of anyone.

I was helping sort cattle one day; we had the cows separated from the calves and everyone was in the barn getting things ready, but me. I decided to try to sort the steers from the heifers while we were waiting. I put a few in the alley and went down to the gates. As the dog brought the calves to me very slowly for me to sort, I noticed something. The heifer calves wanted to go around a gate and into a pen while the steer calves preferred to go straight through a gate and down the alley. So I started working them like that. By the time they were done setting up in the barn and came outside, I had the calves all sorted. (Or the calves had themselves all sorted depending on how you look at it ). They were as surprised as I was that the sorting was all done. You know usually, there are people on the gates putting calves one way or another, never noticing how the calves wanted to work. That day it was just me and I learned that it is male and female of every species that want to do things differently.

Anyway, it was a fun day for me. One I never got to repeat.