RobertMac
Well-known member
Northern Rancher said:
Northern, I've always said the best mentor was the guy down the road that has been in business for 30+ years...I got to rethink that idea beings I'm approaching that milestone!!! :shock: :?
Herd management
- Thread starter Big Muddy rancher
- Start date
Northern, I've always said the best mentor was the guy down the road that has been in business for 30+ years...I got to rethink that idea beings I'm approaching that milestone!!! :shock: :?
Soapweed
Well-known member
On the Soapweed Outfit, we run a cow/calf operation. We used to always turn the bulls out about the tenth of May, but waited until the 21st of May this past spring. This should make the calves start coming just before March 1st.
We sell all of the steer calves right off the cows, starting in early October. We usually sell about five weeks in a row, so play the averages just a little bit and don't have all the eggs in the same basket on the same day. The light end of the heifer calves also sell at this time, along with our big heavy red heifer calves. This past fall we sold all of our red cows, so we will no longer have any red calves to sell. We kept back about 60% of the total number of our heifer calves to winter and breed next summer. These weaned heifer calves are put out for the winter with two different reputable backgrounding lots.
Our cows are mostly Angus, but we also have a few black baldies. There could be just a tad bit of Gelbvieh back a ways, but it is getting more diluted all the time. The cows are being wintered on left-over summer grass, two pounds of 20% cake per day, and will get hay when the grass runs out or gets covered up by snow.
Some of our hay is low quality slough grass, so it is necessary to feed this during the cold part of the winter. The cows like it during this time, but will turn up their noses at it as the weather gets warmer in the spring. This swamp grass is not grazable in the summer time, because it is too wet and boggy. Besides, the cows won't eat it anyway. They do eat the swamp hay.
We brand the calves at about two months of age. At this time they get our one-iron Spearhead brand, Bova-Shield Gold, Alpha 7, a Synovex implant, and the males are knife cut. (One of my favorite order buyers much prefers that steers have been knife-cut.) Any horns are burned off at this time, also.
About three to six weeks before the calves will be sold, they are run through and given preconditioning vaccinations. These consist of Ultrabac7/Somubac, Bova-Shield Gold, One-Shot pasteurella, and pour-on Dectomax.
We try to keep salt and mineral out for the cattle at all times. Windmills supply most of the water on this ranch, which is appreciated by the cattle and by us.
We don't work particularly hard, but we work pretty steady. :wink: It is a great life.
We are eagerly anticipating the time when the Kosmo Kid arrives on the scene full of college knowledge.
We sell all of the steer calves right off the cows, starting in early October. We usually sell about five weeks in a row, so play the averages just a little bit and don't have all the eggs in the same basket on the same day. The light end of the heifer calves also sell at this time, along with our big heavy red heifer calves. This past fall we sold all of our red cows, so we will no longer have any red calves to sell. We kept back about 60% of the total number of our heifer calves to winter and breed next summer. These weaned heifer calves are put out for the winter with two different reputable backgrounding lots.
Our cows are mostly Angus, but we also have a few black baldies. There could be just a tad bit of Gelbvieh back a ways, but it is getting more diluted all the time. The cows are being wintered on left-over summer grass, two pounds of 20% cake per day, and will get hay when the grass runs out or gets covered up by snow.
Some of our hay is low quality slough grass, so it is necessary to feed this during the cold part of the winter. The cows like it during this time, but will turn up their noses at it as the weather gets warmer in the spring. This swamp grass is not grazable in the summer time, because it is too wet and boggy. Besides, the cows won't eat it anyway. They do eat the swamp hay.
We brand the calves at about two months of age. At this time they get our one-iron Spearhead brand, Bova-Shield Gold, Alpha 7, a Synovex implant, and the males are knife cut. (One of my favorite order buyers much prefers that steers have been knife-cut.) Any horns are burned off at this time, also.
About three to six weeks before the calves will be sold, they are run through and given preconditioning vaccinations. These consist of Ultrabac7/Somubac, Bova-Shield Gold, One-Shot pasteurella, and pour-on Dectomax.
We try to keep salt and mineral out for the cattle at all times. Windmills supply most of the water on this ranch, which is appreciated by the cattle and by us.
We don't work particularly hard, but we work pretty steady. :wink: It is a great life.
We are eagerly anticipating the time when the Kosmo Kid arrives on the scene full of college knowledge. 
Occasionally, I'll find one or two cows with dirty tails in the fall, so I'll worm them just to keep from having trouble with them over the winter. I used to worm all of the cows in the fall, but decided to skip it one year just to see if it made any difference. I never could tell any difference, so I just dropped it.the_jersey_lilly_2000 said:
My cows have built up such a tolerance for worms that they don't really suffer any, but they're still walking worm factories. That's why I worm calves at branding and again in the fall at weaning and boostering and try to have a clean pasture for them to go to.
cowzilla
Well-known member
On the Cowzilla farm it's mostly cow calf with some grain oats,barley for backgrounding and greenfeed corn for silage or grazing. calving starts around 1 of March however some bought bred cows calve earlier. Green grass doesn't come till May then it's a rotational grazing program. Turn cows out on corn by October then wean calves by mid November and turn cows back out on new corn field. Starting to feed some hay now to the cows as the corn is getting picked over pretty good. Calves are here at home being bunk fed corn silage with a bit of grain. Hope to sell them by Feb or March. Also buying light wht calves to background till end of April,May. Goals are to learn cheaper feeding systems and extend grazing season so that I can spend a bit more time with my better half seeing the country :wink:
Kato
Well-known member
I've seen it. More than a couple of times, too. (Not at home though, at work in the vet clinic. :shock: ) A cow getting insufficient nutrition in a cold snap will fill up on as much of whatever she can find. It's not a nice way to die. :!: :!:
That said, 8) , on our place we are those crazy people who start to calve in January. :lol: What else is there to do in January? Sit and watch TV? Seriously though, we use a lot of rented pasture, since buying local land is almost impossible. Any small bit of land that has changed hands within fifteen miles of us in the last thirty years has been sold before anyone knew it was on the market. With rented pasture fifty miles from home, the calves absolutely must be born before they go out to grass. We don't get all tied up over a short calving period, especially since the BSE troubles and next to nothing return on open cows. If she's bred, she can stay, for now. If she's late, she stays in our own pasture which is only twelve miles from home. :roll: :roll: :roll:
Calves get the Pfizer gold vaccination program when they go to pasture. We also put Dectomax on the calves. It will keep flies off for about a month, which is a bonus. We revaccinate the calves in the fall. Cows get BVD,IBR,Lepto/Vibrio in spring. Usually peel a bunch of heavy steer calves off and sell them in September, and wean the rest in October. Any late calves get fed with the light calves we buy to background every fall. The rest get sold over the next few months as they hit about seven to eight hundred pounds. We like to spread the marketing out. Don't like putting all the eggs in one basket by depending on the market being good on the day we might pick to sell all at once. If the market is really bad, we've been known to finish them too, but we don't like to do that unless we have to.
In December we give the cows Jencine for scour prevention, ADE, and Dectomax or Ivomec. They are on corn until about New Years, then on hay until spring. No extra grain, but they get lots of minerals.
Works for us.
rancherfred
Well-known member
The first part April of '97 we had a vicious winter storm roll in with 70+ mph winds and driving rain that quickly turned to a horrible blizzard. We started calving that year in early March. After the storm was over we had lost 10% of our calf crop. We had calves scattered for 8+ miles and a nightmare task to get pairs put back together. That was the last time we calved in March
We now have a projected start date of May 15, if we can keep the neighbors bulls out. We calve on summer pasture as much as we can and utilize the Sandhills calving method. The calves are tagged, tattooed, castrated, vaccinated with 7-way, dehorned, and branded as soon as they are dry enough to brand.
Calves were sold in July on Superior's video auction. They were preconditioned in October and weaned the first of November. Delivery on the steers is Dec 20 and the heifers are delivered in the middle of January.
Our cows run on cornstalks all winter with very little supplementation until the third trimester. We usually try to bring them home from stalks by the tenth of April and put them out on pasture. Usually the cheat and crested wheatgrass is greened up by then.
Cows usually only get mineral 60 days pre and post partum. They only get hay if the grass and cornstalks are buried or if they need some protein supplementation in the spring.
Our calving season has actually made me enjoy calving again. I get to spend all spring running around in green pastures on a four wheeler working calves. The cows get checked a couple time a day with no night checks and the heifers get checked once during the night. Talk about low stress calving season, now when there is a nasty March blizzard I get to spend it inside with a hot cup of coffee instead of dragging calves out of a snow bank and throwing them in the bath tub to try to save them. I would quit ranching before I would go back to February and March calving.
We now have a projected start date of May 15, if we can keep the neighbors bulls out. We calve on summer pasture as much as we can and utilize the Sandhills calving method. The calves are tagged, tattooed, castrated, vaccinated with 7-way, dehorned, and branded as soon as they are dry enough to brand.
Calves were sold in July on Superior's video auction. They were preconditioned in October and weaned the first of November. Delivery on the steers is Dec 20 and the heifers are delivered in the middle of January.
Our cows run on cornstalks all winter with very little supplementation until the third trimester. We usually try to bring them home from stalks by the tenth of April and put them out on pasture. Usually the cheat and crested wheatgrass is greened up by then.
Cows usually only get mineral 60 days pre and post partum. They only get hay if the grass and cornstalks are buried or if they need some protein supplementation in the spring.
Our calving season has actually made me enjoy calving again. I get to spend all spring running around in green pastures on a four wheeler working calves. The cows get checked a couple time a day with no night checks and the heifers get checked once during the night. Talk about low stress calving season, now when there is a nasty March blizzard I get to spend it inside with a hot cup of coffee instead of dragging calves out of a snow bank and throwing them in the bath tub to try to save them. I would quit ranching before I would go back to February and March calving.
Soapweed said:On the Soapweed Outfit, we run a cow/calf operation. We used to always turn the bulls out about the tenth of May, but waited until the 21st of May this past spring. This should make the calves start coming just before March 1st.
We sell all of the steer calves right off the cows, starting in early October. We usually sell about five weeks in a row, so play the averages just a little bit and don't have all the eggs in the same basket on the same day. The light end of the heifer calves also sell at this time, along with our big heavy red heifer calves. This past fall we sold all of our red cows, so we will no longer have any red calves to sell. We kept back about 60% of the total number of our heifer calves to winter and breed next summer. These weaned heifer calves are put out for the winter with two different reputable backgrounding lots.
Our cows are mostly Angus, but we also have a few black baldies. There could be just a tad bit of Gelbvieh back a ways, but it is getting more diluted all the time. The cows are being wintered on left-over summer grass, two pounds of 20% cake per day, and will get hay when the grass runs out or gets covered up by snow.
Some of our hay is low quality slough grass, so it is necessary to feed this during the cold part of the winter. The cows like it during this time, but will turn up their noses at it as the weather gets warmer in the spring. This swamp grass is not grazable in the summer time, because it is too wet and boggy. Besides, the cows won't eat it anyway. They do eat the swamp hay.
We brand the calves at about two months of age. At this time they get our one-iron Spearhead brand, Bova-Shield Gold, Alpha 7, a Synovex implant, and the males are knife cut. (One of my favorite order buyers much prefers that steers have been knife-cut.) Any horns are burned off at this time, also.
About three to six weeks before the calves will be sold, they are run through and given preconditioning vaccinations. These consist of Ultrabac7/Somubac, Bova-Shield Gold, One-Shot pasteurella, and pour-on Dectomax.
We try to keep salt and mineral out for the cattle at all times. Windmills supply most of the water on this ranch, which is appreciated by the cattle and by us.
We don't work particularly hard, but we work pretty steady. :wink: It is a great life.
Soap, on the Swamp Hay..We have found a lot of hay or straw that cattle find moe Pallatable after it has sat a few years. I was wondering if that could also be the case on this stuff.... Always great to find a use for something that is generally thought to be worthless.... As long as it doesn't cost more to feed than it's feed value.
We are setup with Supreme Mixer. It allows us to do a lot, but you have to have the ability to match cattle location with feed delivery,
PPRM
Soapweed
Well-known member
PPRM said:Soapweed said:On the Soapweed Outfit, we run a cow/calf operation. We used to always turn the bulls out about the tenth of May, but waited until the 21st of May this past spring. This should make the calves start coming just before March 1st.
We sell all of the steer calves right off the cows, starting in early October. We usually sell about five weeks in a row, so play the averages just a little bit and don't have all the eggs in the same basket on the same day. The light end of the heifer calves also sell at this time, along with our big heavy red heifer calves. This past fall we sold all of our red cows, so we will no longer have any red calves to sell. We kept back about 60% of the total number of our heifer calves to winter and breed next summer. These weaned heifer calves are put out for the winter with two different reputable backgrounding lots.
Our cows are mostly Angus, but we also have a few black baldies. There could be just a tad bit of Gelbvieh back a ways, but it is getting more diluted all the time. The cows are being wintered on left-over summer grass, two pounds of 20% cake per day, and will get hay when the grass runs out or gets covered up by snow.
Some of our hay is low quality slough grass, so it is necessary to feed this during the cold part of the winter. The cows like it during this time, but will turn up their noses at it as the weather gets warmer in the spring. This swamp grass is not grazable in the summer time, because it is too wet and boggy. Besides, the cows won't eat it anyway. They do eat the swamp hay.
We brand the calves at about two months of age. At this time they get our one-iron Spearhead brand, Bova-Shield Gold, Alpha 7, a Synovex implant, and the males are knife cut. (One of my favorite order buyers much prefers that steers have been knife-cut.) Any horns are burned off at this time, also.
About three to six weeks before the calves will be sold, they are run through and given preconditioning vaccinations. These consist of Ultrabac7/Somubac, Bova-Shield Gold, One-Shot pasteurella, and pour-on Dectomax.
We try to keep salt and mineral out for the cattle at all times. Windmills supply most of the water on this ranch, which is appreciated by the cattle and by us.
We don't work particularly hard, but we work pretty steady. :wink: It is a great life.
Soap, on the Swamp Hay..We have found a lot of hay or straw that cattle find moe Pallatable after it has sat a few years. I was wondering if that could also be the case on this stuff.... Always great to find a use for something that is generally thought to be worthless.... As long as it doesn't cost more to feed than it's feed value.
We are setup with Supreme Mixer. It allows us to do a lot, but you have to have the ability to match cattle location with feed delivery,
PPRM
We usually try to feed this swamp grass hay on sandy ground, or on sandy trail roads. The hay helps to keep the sand from blowing. It is amazing how well the cows eat this kind of stuff. Usually when they get done, all that is left are the clumps of moss.
I know what you mean about poor quality older carry-over hay often being more palatable than new crop poor quality hay. Personally, I think it spoils and ferments enough that they kind of get a "buzz" out of eating it. :wink:
