For Your Critiqueing Pleasure Update

[randiliana]

I'm not sure that critiqueing is a word, but oh well..... I know I don't post here all that often, but here is one of our girls for you to critique. Don't worry, you cannot hurt my feelings about her 8) . Pretty as she is, she is a reliable cow. I'll post a pic of her last calf later on. Gotta go take it first.....

 

[little bow rancher]

least her belly full we have had a few one more year cows too javascript:emoticon('')

 

[WyomingRancher]

I'm betting she's been profitable . How old is she??? If she doesn't have a name, you could call her Mathusula .

 

[Kato]

One of the best cows we ever owned was one we'd just as soon didn't stand by the road too much. :wink: She was almost as pretty as your cow! But she also raised a steer that our son took to the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair, and earned a Reserve Champion ribbon with. Go figure.

I'm going to predict your cow has a good chunk of a calf. If she didn't raise that kind she wouldn't get to be a senior, would she?

 

[MsSage]

She is ugly as sin, only a face a mamma could love.
You had all the info you needed before you asked for opionions....

she is a reliable cow

I love her with her cute lil bear ears

 

[Triangle Bar]

If the number of calves she has raised is her age minus one, then she deserves a Champion ribbon.

 

[Denny]

I bet she's old enough to vote.She'd fit in here with some of our old cows.

 

[Shortgrass]

You can bet that ol gal isn't ther because she is pretty. She must look prettier with a calf at side.

 

[gcreekrch]

Cows don't get that old without being good.

As Soapweed captioned a photo of a frozen eared heifer earlier this year ......

We are an equal opportunity outfit. :wink:

 

[randiliana]

Well, the thing is she isn't that old. She is a 2001 model, just in her prime. There is quite a story behind her, and I will tell it later. I am rushing out right now, can't miss coffee :wink: .

 

[WyomingRancher]

Well, the thing is she isn't that old. She is a 2001 model, just in her prime. There is quite a story behind her, and I will tell it later. I am rushing out right now, can't miss coffee :wink: .

Hurry up on the coffee break... this is a story I've got to hear .

 

[randiliana]

Well, the thing is she isn't that old. She is a 2001 model, just in her prime. There is quite a story behind her, and I will tell it later. I am rushing out right now, can't miss coffee :wink: .

Hurry up on the coffee break... this is a story I've got to hear .

Okay, okay :wink: , I am back, it was more than just coffee. Had to grind up about 120 bales for the cows to eat, and go to the 'Select Sale' to see if we could get a deal, but no such luck. Prices for bred heifers were $750- $1250, for 650-720lb open heifers $570- $650 and for dispersal cows $675 - $910 (the 6 year olds brought the big money and the 2-3 year olds the least amount, go figure :? )

Anyways, here is this girl's story.

She was born on a rather chilly morning, I found her curled up under her mama's nose and she looked OK. It wasn't that cold. 2 hours later when we checked again she was flat out, to the bawling point. That is when we found out we had Selenium problems. We grabbed her and took her up to the neighbour's to use their hot box. I figured she was a lost cause, but I don't give up til they do. Well, the hot box, some colostrum and a shot of selenium later, and she was up and around . Her mama gladly took her back and after a little more babying, things were looking good. But, her ears were a major casualty, and that is why she ended up in the herd. After all, she is no-one's idea of the ideal cow :roll: .

Well, it turned out that she did get bred, and in fact her performance wasn't that bad either. She calved early as a heifer, and it was cold out (colder even than when she was born). Her first calf it turns out got sick on us, and before we realized the problem and treated the baby, mama froze her 2 back teats. One is completely gone and the other is about 1/2 gone. I think the calves can still suck it though.

So 7 years later, here we have #219, a pretty ugly cow, with poor, poor conformation, short ears and only 2 1/2 teats. She is too ugly to sell, so it seems we are stuck with her. It is a good thing she can raise a good calf or I just don't know what we would do with her......

 

[WyomingRancher]

Oh my, that is quite the story .

Kinda reminds me of a heifer calf from 2007 that threw a huge fit in the chute while weighing/vaccinating her in the fall. She injured a hind foot, and couldn't be sold with the rest of the calves. I put her in with the "keeper heifers". Anyhow, you guessed it, I couldn't justify hauling one crop-eared (yes, she was born on a cold morning too) heifer with a knot on her foot to the sale and so I Lutalysed her along with the others... afterall she does have a uterus . Naturally she was one of the first heifers to get bred this spring :roll: . We'll see how she calves out, her disposition really hasn't improved much .

 

[randiliana]

It is, I like to think she is just paying us back for the work we put into her as a baby. I think we all have the odd one in the herd like that.

We have a few short eared cows in the herd, if they have decent performance behind them I see no reason to take a hard dock on them just because their ears are short. They don't usually raise short eared calves, unless they happen to calve on a very cold morning.

We have another younger cow in the herd with a knot on her hind leg, don't really know what happened to her, but we went out one day and she was really, really lame. She was just a baby at the time, and we threw her down to check it out, but couldn't really tell what was wrong. I don't know if it was broken or what, but it did rupture and drain a couple weeks later. Now you would never know, unless you look close at the one hind leg.

Yours may just surprise you, I know I have been a few times over the years. Sometimes those 'unsaleable's' end up being some darn good cows. None of ours have had temprament problems. But, we have had some wild heifers really settle down after they calved the first time. They seem to either settle, or turn into complete nuts.

 

[randiliana]

I'm not sure that critiqueing is a word, but oh well..... I know I don't post here all that often, but here is one of our girls for you to critique. Don't worry, you cannot hurt my feelings about her 8) . Pretty as she is, she is a reliable cow. I'll post a pic of her last calf later on. Gotta go take it first.....

And here is the calf she raised us this year. She is in the replacement heifer pen.
Born Mar 13/08
BW 82,
Sept 20 wt 561,
ADG 2.52 lb/day