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Great Weekend

W

WyomingRancher

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 7, 2007
Messages
1,811
Location
Wyoming
Saturday I branded and the weather was great.

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Sunday I re-tagged and vaccinated the yearling heifers. The only thing left to do to them is give them a shot of Lutalyse the day I turn bulls in with them.

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My new set-up worked great, and since this was the second time the heifers had worked through this system, they filed through faster. HOORAY!

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Today the last cow calved, and I'll brand the late calves a few weeks from now (I'll use a calf table for that). Now I better get started on fences and dragging meadows... I'm way behind :lol: . Hope everyone has a good week.
 
Glad you had a great day to brand...we brand this saturday, so I hope the weather is good. First time I ever saw the way you brand with the headcatch thingy..lol(can't recall it's name) was at the Ycross Ranch in WY just outside of Cheyenne. That contracption works pretty slick once ya get the hang of it. See ya got a little snow left...ours is all gone, thank goodness...now a few rains to get the grass growing and we'll be good to go...thanks for sharing..
 
Wonderful pictures!! We used to brand like that, but have moved to using a calf chute.

Tell me a little about using Lutalyse on your heifers. We are considering doing the same thing this year, but want to make sure we have enough bull power!! We have 3 bulls we can use on 40 heifers.
 
randiliana said:
Wonderful pictures!! We used to brand like that, but have moved to using a calf chute.

Tell me a little about using Lutalyse on your heifers. We are considering doing the same thing this year, but want to make sure we have enough bull power!! We have 3 bulls we can use on 40 heifers.
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Randiliana, here was my experience the one other time I tried it (discussion from a previous post, for entire post: http://ranchers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17278&highlight=lutalyse:

My response:
I Lutalysed my heifers the day I turned them out with the bulls, and I will definately do it again. I didn't feed mga. Out of 28 bred heifers, I'm half done. Their "due date" was March 1.

I used three bulls (a 2 year old and two yearlings). Looking back, it wasn't necessary to put that many with them, but I had an extra bull and didn't know what to expect with the yearlings. I did take one of the yearling bulls out and put him with the cows after a week.

The heifers weren't in a very large pasture (200 acres) and only had one water source and so that may have helped.

I would definately recommend trying it. I love the fact that half of my heifers are done so early in calving.




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katrina
Rancher



Joined: 14 Feb 2005
Posts: 4846
Location: East north east of Soapweed
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 6:35 pm Post subject:

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We do all of our AIing with just lutalyse... Run lots of bull power. because one bull might get stuck on one hiefier and miss the others... I would kinda watch the progress to see that everything that comes into heat gets covered.. We have locked a hiefier up away from the bull after we were sure she was bred.....
I don't know the condition of your cattle, but last year out of 47 hiefiers all of them came into heat the first shot except 8... And if you wait 10 days and give the ones that didn't come into heat another shot you should get them all...



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Don't sweat the small stuff.

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jtg
Member



Joined: 21 Dec 2006
Posts: 16
Location: SD
Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:54 pm Post subject:

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Wyoming Rancher- did you notice a higher amount of opens or any other negative trade off? It seems too simple of a system to sync. the heifers without any bad things. Don't get me wrong the simplier and yet effective the system the better I like it.

JTG




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WyomingRancher
Member



Joined: 07 Jan 2007
Posts: 174
Location: Wyoming
Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:51 pm Post subject:

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I had a 90% pregnancy rate and the bulls were out for two cycles. For some reason I've never had a fantastic heifer pregnancy rate in the past, and so 90% was actually good for me.

I know other people get higher rates, but I've never figured out how without increasing costs. I guess I could feed them up more, but I don't believe in feedlot developed heifers. Actually the opens were some of the heifers I'd seen cycling when they were calves (5 months old).

It seems like grain-fed heifers have "fraudulant fat", and after calving as twos, my experience has been the condition just melts off of them. If they do breed back, it usually takes until they are coming fours before their body adjusts to my forage, and they look good.

Just my observation!
 
randiliana said:
Awesome, thanks for the info.
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One side-note which may or may not be related to using Lutalyse, out of the 28 bred heifers, three had twins. I felt this was unusual, but can't definitively identify a link between using Lutalyse and them releasing multiple eggs??? One of the heifers who had twins came from a cow family known for twinning, but the others didn't.

Maybe someone else could explain if this could be related, or if it was just coincidence.
 
WyomingRancher looks like you had a great day for branding. :)

I've syncronized my heifers with Lutalyse and then used natural service, sounds like thats exactly what you are doing. One tactic I've used, to keep from overwhelming my bulls, is to stagger my heifer turn out. For example, this year I have 27 heifers and 2 yearling bulls. I'll inject 8 heifers then put them with the bulls. Then wait 2 days and process another 7 head and so on till I run out of heifers. I know this takes more time then doing them at once but I've had good luck with it in the past.
 
per said:
Everyone has a different reason for synchronizing. What are you trying to gain?
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You bring up a good question. In the past my heifers have "trickled" along during calving, and I wanted to try and bunch them up better. Here are my reasons:

1. Get the heifers to calve earlier which gives them more time to get back into shape for breeding again.

2. Get it over with! I calve mostly by myself, and I'd rather get the heifers done since I do watch them more closely.

3. Get more money. Added weight gain = added $. I keep track of my cattle on a computer program, and although I don't weigh them at birth, I do weigh them in the fall. The average estimated WDA has been 2.8 pounds on all calves. If you apply that to the 14/28 calves which were born earlier in the first cycle in 2007 by an average of two weeks you get a possible increase in profit of 14 days x 2.8 pounds x 14 calves x $1.21 (avg. price I got on steers and heifers in '07) =$664 - $90 for Lutalyse cost on 31 total heifers = $574 profit on those 14 calves. Obviously this isn't as significant of a gain in a smaller herd, but it is over $41 per head. Apply it to a large number of heifers, and I believe it would make a significant difference.

This spring will be the second year I try it, and so we'll see if I find it as beneficial next spring :wink: .
 
Triangle Bar said:
WyomingRancher looks like you had a great day for branding. :)

I've syncronized my heifers with Lutalyse and then used natural service, sounds like thats exactly what you are doing. One tactic I've used, to keep from overwhelming my bulls, is to stagger my heifer turn out. For example, this year I have 27 heifers and 2 yearling bulls. I'll inject 8 heifers then put them with the bulls. Then wait 2 days and process another 7 head and so on till I run out of heifers. I know this takes more time then doing them at once but I've had good luck with it in the past.
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That is a good idea, thanks for sharing :D .
 
I couldn't help but notice the UTV with the cab on it in the background. Is it a Kabota ("Kow"bota) :wink: ? I went and bought a new one (RTV1100) a few days ago. I like the fact that it's a Diesel, has filtered heat and AC, and seems pretty darn tough. I do wish it was a little faster, had a little more leg room, and had windows that roll down. How do you like yours? They look kinda crazy going across the prairie....all pumpkin orange and such.
 
Cal said:
I couldn't help but notice the UTV with the cab on it in the background. Is it a Kabota ("Kow"bota) :wink: ? I went and bought a new one (RTV1100) a few days ago. I like the fact that it's a Diesel, has filtered heat and AC, and seems pretty darn tough. I do wish it was a little faster, had a little more leg room, and had windows that roll down. How do you like yours? They look kinda crazy going across the prairie....all pumpkin orange and such.
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:? Ummmmmm, let's just hope yours runs better than this one has. It has had transmission problems, and the door hinges have had to be replaced so far. It is 2 years old. I prefer using my Honda four wheeler which has over 22,000 miles on it, and has NEVER missed a beat :D It is nice to have a cab around you and heater though. Good luck with your new purchase!
 
BMR use those estrotect heat patches turn your bulls out for a week than hit the heifers that aren't marked with lutalyse. I don't think you'll get much synchrony by giving a shot then waiting 21 days. If your going to monkey around needling and running heifers through the chute you may as well be A'I'ing them. The last big bunch-1,000 heifers- that we did a synch job on with just lutalyse we didn't get a very good estrus response. They wrre some groups from 'reputation' outfits in the mix who were so fat I think their ovaries were baked. Green ranch heifers that are gaining weight tend to synch the best of anything I've found. I'm arming my first group of cattle at a neighbors on Friday sure hope it isn't storming.
 
Thanks Cory, My Hfrs were wintered on hay no grain and they hit the grass today. Hope they see a bit of green before July. Guess I will just let my bulls go to work. They have done the job in the past. I turned out lots of Hfrs so i might just pick my bulls up in 30 day and see what I get.
 
I like your set-up.I had one simular to it.If I was to build it over I would set a taller post inbetween each that you have with an overhead.Ours the cows could put alot of pressure on and they ended up wrecking it.I made my new alley out of 7" channel iron.
 
WyomingRancher said:
Cal said:
I couldn't help but notice the UTV with the cab on it in the background. Is it a Kabota ("Kow"bota) :wink: ? I went and bought a new one (RTV1100) a few days ago. I like the fact that it's a Diesel, has filtered heat and AC, and seems pretty darn tough. I do wish it was a little faster, had a little more leg room, and had windows that roll down. How do you like yours? They look kinda crazy going across the prairie....all pumpkin orange and such.
Click to expand...

:? Ummmmmm, let's just hope yours runs better than this one has. It has had transmission problems, and the door hinges have had to be replaced so far. It is 2 years old. I prefer using my Honda four wheeler which has over 22,000 miles on it, and has NEVER missed a beat :D It is nice to have a cab around you and heater though. Good luck with your new purchase!
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Whoa, that don't sound good! Was your problems with the hydrostatic drive, or with the gears for selecting the range? Wondering also if you had a spotlight installed on it. Would be nice to use it for checking cows at night....but got to figure out how to get around that whole window issue, and taking the door off sort of defeats the purpose of buying it in the first place. Hope it ain't a lemon disguised as a pumpkin. :lol:
 

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