Flies, Spoke to soon

[George]

I was amased that the fly spray was keeping the flies at bay with all the rain we have had - - - well now that we are having about 0.2" every day the flies are here with a vengence!

I know the spray says it will last 9 to 14 days but by the third day they are covered! I'm spraying every third day - - - easy to do when you only have 21 cows.

I take about 1/4th of a bale of alfalfa hay and even though they are in knee high grass I can spread out about 4 or 5 flakes and while they are indulging I can walk thru and cover them pretty well. One thing about doing it this often even the calves are just standing as long as I don't spray head on in the face.

I know I shoud not be complaining with all the problems other areas are having.

I guess a good side to this is the mean cow has decided I'm not that bad - - - she is still on shaky ground but she might get a reprieve as she has gone from wanting to kill anything on two legs to coming up and pulling hay out of my hand. And she always has raised a great calf - - it is a wonder to me that none of her claves have had a behavior issue, although I have never kept one back so I can only go by how they behave thru weaning.

 

[Faster horses]

Cattle build a resistance to spray after awhile, George. Maybe
if you change brands, you'll see less flies for awhile.
Have you ever tried Cylence? That worked the best for us until
they built a resistance to it. Then we had to go to something else.
The Cylence applicator works really good too.

 

[Silver]

I guess a good side to this is the mean cow has decided I'm not that bad - - - she is still on shaky ground but she might get a reprieve as she has gone from wanting to kill anything on two legs to coming up and pulling hay out of my hand. And she always has raised a great calf - - it is a wonder to me that none of her claves have had a behavior issue, although I have never kept one back so I can only go by how they behave thru weaning.

Off topic I guess, but you know, I'm not convinced that it's necessarily genetic. We've had some pretty nasty cows whose mother's were quiet. On the flip side, we had a cow here that we should have got rid of a few years back that was a danger to have on the place and I'm ashamed to say she stayed around as long as she did. But we do have two replacement s from her and both are maybe the most gentle cows on the place. It happened the older of the two daughters ended up in the barn a couple of years ago because I was trying to graft a calf on her. Seemed like a bad idea considering her heritage, but she would allow me in the stall and physically put the calf to sucking. A quieter heifer I haven't dealt with. Just my thoughts on the subject.

 

[Faster horses]

Nasty comes from the BULLLLLLLL. :shock:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :wink:

 

[Soapweed]

Nasty comes from the BULLLLLLLL. :shock:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :wink:

Years ago I bought fifteen bred heifers. One of them was a real snake. Amazingly enough, her daughter was sweet and gentle. Then the daughter had a heifer calf, and this one if anything was wilder than the old Grandma cow. The only thing for sure is that nothing is for sure. :wink:

 

[gcreekrch]

We aquired a Red Angus snake in a group of cows I bought at a sale. She stayed long enough to have 3 really nice heifers that we kept as replacements. The youngest is now a second calver, judging by her older sisters, age is a factor in showing their true temperament. I was often questioned at the sale barn on why I bought the wildest cows that came through the ring. Most of them settle down at home and they are considerably cheaper than their gentle herdmates. :wink:

We have probably owned 50 Saler cross cows over the years. All but one of them had/have acceptable behavior. The one would fight her own shadow on a sunny day! Thankfully the first year's preg test sorted her off and saved the decision of whether we would "run 'er another year".

 

[hypocritexposer]

Thankfully the first year's preg test sorted her off and saved the decision of whether we would "run 'er another year".

did the vet/preg. checker call her "open" from 10 feet away? :lol: :lol:

 

[lefty]

( HAD ) AN EXT, cross cow For awhile . she would make sure she was always last in a pen so she could show her wares . She was in a calving pasture with heifers & instead of coming to drink in the corral pen would crawl the fence break ice at the creek , then come back in to eat hay . The calf lived she didnt .
Only takes 1 cow made of the devils spawn to mess up your whole deal .

George , I have seen a fly tape made of white paper with flies painted on it . for a small bunch of cows one of those hung by the mineral feeder might clean up a bunch of flies for you

 

[Soapweed]

( HAD ) AN EXT, cross cow For awhile . she would make sure she was always last in a pen so she could show her wares . She was in a calving pasture with heifers & instead of coming to drink in the corral pen would crawl the fence break ice at the creek , then come back in to eat hay . The calf lived she didnt .
Only takes 1 cow made of the devils spawn to mess up your whole deal .

George , I have seen a fly tape made of white paper with flies painted on it . for a small bunch of cows one of those hung by the mineral feeder might clean up a bunch of flies for you

"One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel." :wink:

 

[gcreekrch]

( HAD ) AN EXT, cross cow For awhile . she would make sure she was always last in a pen so she could show her wares . She was in a calving pasture with heifers & instead of coming to drink in the corral pen would crawl the fence break ice at the creek , then come back in to eat hay . The calf lived she didnt .
Only takes 1 cow made of the devils spawn to mess up your whole deal .

George , I have seen a fly tape made of white paper with flies painted on it . for a small bunch of cows one of those hung by the mineral feeder might clean up a bunch of flies for you

"One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel." :wink:

I agree with both of you but having a lot of experience in bringing home "sale darlings" a good dog can teach those cows to stay in the bunch quite well. I would rather handle a few that are wild than the same amount of breachy, spoiled, "back yard farmer" cows.

 

[Soapweed]

( HAD ) AN EXT, cross cow For awhile . she would make sure she was always last in a pen so she could show her wares . She was in a calving pasture with heifers & instead of coming to drink in the corral pen would crawl the fence break ice at the creek , then come back in to eat hay . The calf lived she didnt .
Only takes 1 cow made of the devils spawn to mess up your whole deal .

George , I have seen a fly tape made of white paper with flies painted on it . for a small bunch of cows one of those hung by the mineral feeder might clean up a bunch of flies for you

"One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel." :wink:

I agree with both of you but having a lot of experience in bringing home "sale darlings" a good dog can teach those cows to stay in the bunch quite well. I would rather handle a few that are wild than the same amount of breachy, spoiled, "back yard farmer" cows.

One year I took seven open cows to the sale barn just after the first of April. They brought $365 per head selling by the pound, and some wild red bred cows came through later in the sale. I made one bid on the reds, and bought 14 head for $415 per head (just fifty dollars apiece more than what my opens had brought). My bumper hitch trailer only held seven cows, so it took two trips to get the 14 hauled home.

These red and red brockle faced cows were all wild as snakes, and most of them had horns. When I branded them, the horns came off with the help of some obstetrical wire with two handles. This wire is a good way to dehorn, because it cauterizes as it cuts off the horns. With the horns off, the cows at least looked more civilized. They were too wild to put in with our other cows at the time, so they calved on their own out in a close pasture. The weather was nice enough by then that this worked fine. During breeding season they were put in with our own red cows, which we had quite a few of in that era. Those cows lasted for a good many years, and it wasn't long before they gentled down so we could handle them like our own. There were two or three though, that we never put in close proximatey during calving. When sorting heavies, they always stayed with the outside bunch and were on their own. They would have wreaked too much havoc otherwise.

 

[gcreekrch]

"One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel." :wink:

I agree with both of you but having a lot of experience in bringing home "sale darlings" a good dog can teach those cows to stay in the bunch quite well. I would rather handle a few that are wild than the same amount of breachy, spoiled, "back yard farmer" cows.

One year I took seven open cows to the sale barn just after the first of April. They brought $365 per head selling by the pound, and some wild red bred cows came through later in the sale. I made one bid on the reds, and bought 14 head for $415 per head (just fifty dollars apiece more than what my opens had brought). My bumper hitch trailer only held seven cows, so it took two trips to get the 14 hauled home.

These red and red brockle faced cows were all wild as snakes, and most of them had horns. When I branded them, the horns came off with the help of some obstetrical wire with two handles. This wire is a good way to dehorn, because it cauterizes as it cuts off the horns. With the horns off, the cows at least looked more civilized. They were too wild to put in with our other cows at the time, so they calved on their own out in a close pasture. The weather was nice enough by then that this worked fine. During breeding season they were put in with our own red cows, which we had quite a few of in that era. Those cows lasted for a good many years, and it wasn't long before they gentled down so we could handle them like our own. There were two or three though, that we never put in close proximatey during calving. When sorting heavies, they always stayed with the outside bunch and were on their own. They would have wreaked too much havoc otherwise.

You made a good investment Soap.

Those kind will make you better at "cow whispering" if you are quick enough to hear what they are saying back. :wink: