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Mestizo Maute Madness! Photos!

Whitewing

Well-known member
I was visiting my neighbor last week and he mentioned that he had a group of mautes (young bulls) that he was selling. He'd actually done the deal once but it fell through AFTER the animals were loaded on trucks and in transit!

Anyway, it's unusual at this time of year to find a decent group of young bulls to purchase for fattening and resale because everyone has plenty of pasture and there's no urgent need to sell. My neighbor seemed motivated so we quickly came to terms and put the wheels in motion.

We started moving the animals via truck to a nearby scale on Saturday morning. It was raining most of the day so that really slowed things down. We finished weighing the last group at dark thirty and left 25 of the 63 animals there at the scales for the night. By mid-day Sunday all the animals were at my place.

The average weight was 227 kilos (500 lbs) on the hoof. The largest bull came in at 447 kilos (980+ lbs) and the smallest 100 kilos or 220 lbs. Fortunately, these animals are amazingly tame which is rare in my area. Overall I am very pleased with the timing of this deal as I've got extra capacity right now with the decent rainfalls we're still getting and some of these guys will be ready to move by Christmas when prices are usually higher.

Today everyone got injections for parasites, vitamins, and a bath to kill the ticks...and boy did they have ticks!

Here's some shots of the activities:

The animals penned at the neighbor's place.
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Loading up on a rainy Saturday morning!
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Animals in cue to get ear-tagged and weighed.
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Scale owner Hector doing his thing.
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The Venezuelan equivalent of the Sheriff's department was there all day...not sure why. Being on duty didn't stop them from enjoying a few cold ones.
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Unloading at my place on a sunny Sunday morning.
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Getting settled in to a new routine.
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Epifanio sweetening up the hay with some molasses and water.
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We decided to give the feed wagon a try. I wasn't sure if the new guys would know what to do with it.
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Uh, they figured it out quickly.
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Some shots of the average mestizo maute. You can see the strong Brahman influence in these cattle.
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This is the guy that weighed in at 447 kilos!
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Is that a Holstein????? Yup, at least that's what they claim. There were several in the group.
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This young 'bull' was dog-tired at the end of a long weekend.
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Soapweed

Well-known member
Interesting transaction. It's always fun when a person comes across a good deal "out of the blue." Opportunity knocks, but it doesn't insist upon coming in. Looks like this one should work well. Go for the gusto. :wink:
 

High Plains

Well-known member
Looks like you are providing ample care for your critters. Pretty special treatment with that molasses and water elixir. :wink:

Sounds like you made a good transaction.

HP
 

Whitewing

Well-known member
Thanks guys! Like I said, it seemed like a good opportunity and I jumped. The best part though is that I'm enjoying it.

Based on some really helpful feedback via PM from forum members, I've decided to separate the smaller animals from the larger ones and give them some grains and perhaps commercial feed to really give them a boost.

I'll keep you guys posted on the progress.
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
I was just wondering....if this time of year you have plenty pasture for grazing....why put them on hay now? Or was that just to get to know them for handling purposes?
Will you be cuttin them or banding them so they are no longer bulls? I'd think that many would be quite a handful if left intact.
 

Whitewing

Well-known member
the_jersey_lilly_2000 said:
I was just wondering....if this time of year you have plenty pasture for grazing....why put them on hay now? Or was that just to get to know them for handling purposes?
Will you be cuttin them or banding them so they are no longer bulls? I'd think that many would be quite a handful if left intact.

Excellent questions JL!

First off, I plan to keep the animals corraled versus putting them in the pastures. I'm rotating my cows and their young right now and don't want to add this group to the mix.

The reasons for the hay are numerous. First off, it was the quickest way to get something in their stomachs. Also, this is hay from my first cutting and it's not of the quality of what I'm producing now. My hay storage space is still limited so I figure if I'm going to store anything, I'm going to store the best for the future. To me it makes sense to feed the lower quality stuff now and save the best for later.

Also, Sunday was election day here. Our guys all wanted to vote and so I was short-handed throughout the day as they rotated into town to cast their ballots. Short-handed meant that with the moving of the animals still at the scales, it just wasn't practical to cut green pasture and deliver it to the animals as we're doing every day now. Also, everything was really wet from Saturday's rains and I don't like to tear up my pastures with heavy equipment if I don't have to do so.

I think I've mentioned here before that it's not the custom in Venezuela to make steers.....outside of my place, you just don't find steers. That means that the majority of the meat sold is from bulls. Some of it is tasty, and some of it tastes like bull. There's no quality control so it's a real crap-shoot when buying meat.

Fortunately, this group is really tame and well-behaved with humans and with each other. That's not to say that there won't be problems in the future, but for now aggressive behavior does not seem to be a problem.

I mentioned in a previous post that I'm going to separate the smaller animals and put them on a better diet. I'll probably band some, but not all, of them and reweigh the entire group of small ones in a few months to see how they're doing.
 

Whitewing

Well-known member
OldDog/NewTricks said:
He'd actually done the deal once but it fell through AFTER the animals were loaded on trucks and in transit!

How did The Deal fall apart at that late time? Must be a story there.

Indeed there is.

The owner's son negotiated the deal with the son of the fellow who was going to buy the cattle. They'd agreed on a price per kilo and on weighing the animals where I had them weighed, which is quite close to my place.

Apparently once in transit, someone on the buyer's side decided the animals would be weighed on the scales at the buyer's ranch, not at a third party scale. The owner balked and told them to bring the entire load (64 animals) back to his place.

When I visited him to discuss other business he told me about the deal. He also told me that another rancher from about 2 hours away had seen the cattle and wanted to buy them. However, because of the distance the deal was going to involve a lot of paperwork and costs involved in transporting the animals.

In a nutshell, our deal was much faster, cleaner, and cheaper.
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
Ok...if left as bulls, at what weight do you butcher them? Or market them for beef?

And if making them steers would make better tasting beef...why not go with cuttin them. Could be a plus in your pocket when folks figure out that it is more tender and tastes better???

Are you planning on keepin any bulls for your own use?
 

Whitewing

Well-known member
the_jersey_lilly_2000 said:
Ok...if left as bulls, at what weight do you butcher them? Or market them for beef?

And if making them steers would make better tasting beef...why not go with cuttin them. Could be a plus in your pocket when folks figure out that it is more tender and tastes better???

Are you planning on keepin any bulls for your own use?

Bulls that weigh 350 kilos and up tend to be the most in demand here from what I've seen. There are 20 in this group that are already there or near there though I don't know if I'll sell them all because, yes, I may keep a few for my own use. There are 2 or 3 of the strong Brahman-influence animals that I really like. I'll wait and see how they develop.

I may cut some of them though my preference has been to castrate animals when they're much younger. I agree that better tasting and more tender beef could be a plus for me and it's why I've started making steers out of many of my male calves.....Charolais crossed with mestizo.

I'm actually in conversation at this time with a Chinese merchant in the local pueblo who is building a new food market. Almost all food markets here are owned by Chinese families.

He doesn't plan on selling beef, pork, or poultry products and he and I are discussing my opening and operating a 'carniceria' inside his place. Don't know if it'll pan out, but I think it could be a deal that would work for both of us.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
You are doing what a very successful rancher told me several years ago.
He said, "you gotta keep turning over rocks."

Good luck in whatever you decide to do, Whitewing.
 

balestabber

Well-known member
thanks for the pics ,whitewing

when i worked for Hormel/Exel,i worked with several folks from Mexico and other southern countries.they shared that few animals were nuetered.
several stallions and bulls.same way in Hatai,bulls instead of oxen.

different cultures and customs i suppose.hope all works out well for you.
 

Whitewing

Well-known member
Dylan Biggs said:
Thanks for posting the photos, neat to see some of your countryside.

When will the bulls need to be dipped for ticks again?

We actually sprayed them as opposed to dipping them for ticks. They were also injected for internal parasites and given vitamin shots as well.

The ticks these cattle had were impressive especially considering this guy is my neighbor.....and I'm not talking about a few kilometers away, I mean we share a fenceline.

I can't recall the last time we sprayed my cattle for ticks. We just don't have that problem. Having said that, my cattle stay in the pastures and my neighbor has lots of rough areas.....small trees, brush, etc. I also suspect these animals spent some time on the base of the mountain to the north of us. He's also got lots of horses and my guys claim they're a tick attractant too. Dunno.
 
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