Moved Cows Yesterday

[Dylan Biggs]

Moved the mature cows to fresh pasture, 5 and 1/2 miles to the North. This past growing season provided ample winter pasture, if conditions stay favorable should be able to graze well into February. They are being supplemented a bit over 4 lbs a day of a 17% pellet (cake). I led them with the tractor and bale processor and Zeke made sure all of them came.

My help for the move.

They had worked this pasture over well enough.

Ready to leave.

Just inside the gate of the pasture we had to cross after the first mile and they wanted to stop and eat already even though that pasture had been grazed later in the fall by our yearlings.

A 3 yr old purebred cow in good sahpe for a young cow IMO.

At about the 3 1/2 mile mark.

At the 4 1/2 mile mark, the Sun was down and it had clouded over, the cows were starting to frost up a bit.

Our destination.

Shelter if needed at an old homestead.

Just inside the gate and heads are down.

They must be Happy.

Zeke made it also and left nothing behind.

 

[floyd]

I love it when a plan comes together.

 

[Faster horses]

You will know they are happy when they lay down around noon.

They look in good body condition. It's amazing what cows can do
with just a little help. We always helped ours a little too much.

If the city folks could see what range cows exist on it would certainly
be helpful since so many think they are fed lots of grain. :???:

Thanks for the pictures!

 

[Dylan Biggs]

I love it when a plan comes together.

Floyd, that is for sure, especially since I didn't get to the cows to start until 1:30 and it is dark here at 4:30 this time of year, I didn't leave myself much room for error. I had to lighten the last 6 photos on this post so they weren't so dark.

FH, thanks, we dug around in the snow a bit today after we cut ice and there is lots of grass and some of it is still green. :shock:

As regards helping your cows a little to much is better then a bit to little.

 

[little bow rancher]

good dog that Zeke :wink:

 

[Justin]

thanks for the pics Dylan. your cows look to be in fine condition. i enjoy seeing cattle in that kind of condition and doing it basically on their own. :tiphat:

 

[leanin' H]

Winter grazing is pretty dear in this country. I'd imagine that good grass is priceless up your way as well. How often will you have to chop ice or do you have a warm spring?

 

[Soapweed]

The cattle are in good flesh, and look to be plumb happy. Even though the afternoons are short, at least the moon would have been shining to help you out had darkness overtaken your cattle drive. :wink:

 

[Dylan Biggs]

Justin, thank you.

LeaninH, no warm flowing springs here, we cut ice once a day, I will post some ice chopping photos. Watering cows out of dugouts this time of year takes careful management because if you get sloppy with your schedule and cows start going out on the ice in search of a drink you can have a disastrous wreck in a big hurry.

Soap, the cows have definitely benefited from the early weaning this year. It clouded over pretty thick about a mile from our destination so I don't know how much help the moon would have been, but luckily I didn't need the poor mans flashlight.

 

[jedstivers]

Huge difference between your world an mine. Great pictures.

 

[per]

Good thing for the follow up dog. Those grazers can get distracted by suspected grass under the snow on the way. We moved a bunch a couple of miles down a road the other day and they were pretty interested in the grass the MD mowed and left. It took a couple of hours to go a couple of miles. Of course we are never in a hurry to pass by unutilized grass that has no owner.

 

[gcreekrch]

Good thing for the follow up dog. Those grazers can get distracted by suspected grass under the snow on the way. We moved a bunch a couple of miles down a road the other day and they were pretty interested in the grass the MD mowed and left. It took a couple of hours to go a couple of miles. Of course we are never in a hurry to pass by unutilized grass that has no owner.

Didn't Robert Duval and Kevin Costner get in trouble for that kind of management?

 

[Northern Rancher]

Hate to see the 'long' pasture go to waste Per-mine camped and grazed the last time we moved too.

 

[Dylan Biggs]

Good thing for the follow up dog. Those grazers can get distracted by suspected grass under the snow on the way. We moved a bunch a couple of miles down a road the other day and they were pretty interested in the grass the MD mowed and left. It took a couple of hours to go a couple of miles. Of course we are never in a hurry to pass by unutilized grass that has no owner.

Free grass, nothing better.

 

[Soapweed]

Good thing for the follow up dog. Those grazers can get distracted by suspected grass under the snow on the way. We moved a bunch a couple of miles down a road the other day and they were pretty interested in the grass the MD mowed and left. It took a couple of hours to go a couple of miles. Of course we are never in a hurry to pass by unutilized grass that has no owner.

Didn't Robert Duval and Kevin Costner get in trouble for that kind of management?

One of the early ranch owners in this area had a similar reputation. It was said, "If you ever see a thousand cows being trailed, and it looks like they don't know where they are going, they belong to so-and-so."

 

[Northern Rancher]

Well it's never good to be too hasty moving stock lol.

 

[nortexsook]

How much per head per day is feeding 4+ pounds of cake costing you?

I am always intrigued by the feeding our norther neighbors do.

Thanks!

 

[Northern Rancher]

Dylan said it was costing him 35 cents a day on another thread. Our wintering costs are higher up here in Canada but a lower capital cost for our land base usually helps keep us in the business. Right now our bale grazing is costing us about 75 cents a day feeding costs included. We quit grazing on dec. 1 so we'd have some grass left for early April when the snow goes. Dylan has stronger grass over in his area. Our cows are licking snow right now-I saw something interesting at weaning time-I was pumping water-some cows came up drank-shivered for a bit then walked away and started licking snow. Right now the snow is perfect for them about 8-10 inches deep and fluffy.

 

[nortexsook]

4 lbs a day around here would be about 50 cents for the cake. Then what is the value of the grazing? Then Labor (or Labour as friends north of the border say)?


How much does an acre of decent (not great but not bad) grazing land sell for around there?

Thanks again for the answers. Just trying to wrap my head around the numbers. Land here is too high.

 

[Northern Rancher]

Not sure what the good farmland is selling for kind of trying to pay for what I have lol. Lots of time it's better to buy farmground and fence it then some of the tougher ranchland unless you have some good meadows alot of the bush pasture is alot of fence to maintain for not much gain. Mind you it's impossible to ranch here because of winter and predators. The bale grazing cost I quoted are labor in-we haul feed in with a self unloading truck and he scatters bales as he unloads-it takes maybe a half hour a week to cut twines. Depending on the cattle you run and when you calve the winter feeding period is from 120-210 days.

http://remaxmeadowlake.com/listings/listings_display.php?mls_number=360892&pagenumber=1&new_listings=&type=

This is a pretty decent turnkey outfit for sale it's all native bush pasture and meadows-I think they run about 200 cows up there-it's been for sale for awhile.