Silver said:I like to keep birthweights down, but down in proportion to the size of cow I'm running. I sure don't want a bunch of 65 lb calves very bad, but I like to keep them around 80 - 100.
:shock:
What on earth do your cows weigh!?
Silver said:I like to keep birthweights down, but down in proportion to the size of cow I'm running. I sure don't want a bunch of 65 lb calves very bad, but I like to keep them around 80 - 100.
Jinglebob said:Silver said:I like to keep birthweights down, but down in proportion to the size of cow I'm running. I sure don't want a bunch of 65 lb calves very bad, but I like to keep them around 80 - 100.
:shock:
What on earth do your cows weigh!?
mn said:This past year I used a Char bull on blk/b cows for the first time, thinking about doing more . What's your guys thoughts on this. Thanks
Ben H said:I've recently returned to my home after living out of state a few years only to be sent to Iraq, in about 2 weeks I'll be headed home again. I'm thinking about taking over and expanding our beef operation. As of right now we're pretty small scale, about 20 herefords. I have two choices as I see it, get bigger or get out. One of the biggest things holding me back is the idea of having to build a shelter for the winter. From what I've been reading recently, people out west who likely have as bad or worse winters then us sometimes provide nothing more then a good wind break for their animals. I read an interesting article about research done at Colorado State making wind brakes in the shape of a 90 degree V made of stacked round bales. They also allow blowing snow to drift down the sides of the stacks providing all winter long access from the back side. What are people using for minimum shelter for their animals in areas that have winter conditions as bad or worse then Southern Maine (altitude is about 250 ft, about 20 miles from the ocean, Jan/Feb is usually in the 20's but can dip occasionaly to 10-20 bellow)?
I live in an area with a lot of housing developments going in and health consicous people. I see a good potential for a market of direct market beef as well as grass finished. I've heard a lot of mixed feelings about both. I'd like to hear about peoples experience with both. Personally I'll take a corn fed steer any day, but if people are paying for grass finished then maybe I should try it.
Also I've been somewhat convinced that cross breeds are the way to go due to better rates of gain and feeding efficiency. I'm planning to cross my herefords to some Angus, then maybe a third breed for the next generation. How many people have gone that route?
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Broke Cowboy said:It is not the winter that is the problem - it is the moisture. Most cows can take a good amount of cold if they can get out of the wind and you poke the feed to them. How much rain or wet snow you get? Where is the prevailing wind from? Do you have natural shelter? And possibly the most important question - do you have drainage?
We run a bunch of cows - horned herfs - outside year round in an environment similar to yours. They get no over head cover - other than some trees that stay green year round and the ground slopes fairly well to the south. So the wind break is basically natural and there is good water drainage.
I figure we get about 35 inches of rain a year, and the ground is quite muddy on the flats - but the hills do well.
Calving can be a prob - so you got a few choices.
Calve out in the good weather - on grass. You will have to make some feed and marketing adjustments.
Calve out in the winter on snow. Most British breeds do this fairly well and with little attention other than good bedding and a little extra feed to get the girls through to spring in decent shape. I have done this in the prairies, the mountains and on the east coast. I like it for a bunch of reasons, but it requires a lot of extra work.
Build a shelter for the calves and do it during the wet season.
I have written them in MY favourite order - but you do as you see fit.
I think you are from Maine - I will tell you right now from my east coast experiences that you are not going to have a real prob with cold - it will be the wet and cold combo that will get you. If you can keep the cows sheltered in a bush and calve on grass - or calve out with those good portable calf shelters - you should be ok - just make sure you have good drainage.
If the cows start to get a real good build up of tag due to mud, lack of drainage or poor bedding - they tend to get cold -then you got probs. Give them some place to get out of the wind, stand on decent ground and they should do ok.
Drainage and cedar trees will save your bacon if you got them.
As for the various breeds there are so many to chose from I fingure you will get plenty of advice on that - but cross them you should.
Regards,
B.C.
I'm not sure what our total precip is, it's usually significant and never in the same form. We can have rain in February and Snow in June (not the norm). We usually have about 12-20 inches of snow on the ground in the middle of the winter but it can be gone in a few days. I've had some cows calve in the winter before, brought them in ahead of time if they aren't too early. We have gotten fudning from NRCS to put up fencing to keep animals out of wet areas. My cows usually are pretty dry as far as mud goes. We had a bad mud hole last winter, we had a pipe break feeding the waterer. No way to fix it until last spring; we also added a culvert. When I get home I'm going to start scouting some spots in the woods to fence in. The challenge is that my woods are probably 500 feet plus from the waterer.
Ben H said:BC
What part of the Country are you from? What kind of population base do you have around you? Right now we sell Several animals a year direct, some whole, some halves. My town population is about 15,000 and I'm 20 min from Portland. Maybe 100,000? Do you provide bedding somehow to the wooded area? If so what about snow, just keep piling more?
As Mountain Infantry we do our weekend drills outside in the field Jan, Feb and March. We make sure to bring a self inflating matress to sleep on because your body can't produce heat fast enough if you're on bare ground allowing it to suck the heat out of you. Can cows produce heat fast enough? Nature never provides anything for animals and they do allright.