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New Babies - Todays pics

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the_jersey_lilly_2000

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Keepin an eye on me


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"Oh that's some good stuff!!!"


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My lil travelin buddy.


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The Cow that started prolapsin two weeks ago that we stitched up, finally had her calf this mornin, alls well, she didn't prolapse while havin it. Yeah!!!


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The moon comes up.

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And the sun goes down.

Was a gorgeous day today, other than the wind blowin a lil harder than I like. But the calves were playin and cute, so I shot a few pictures of em.
Hope everyone else that's calvin now, is havin good luck.
 
Jersey - These are quality-lookin' calves - the kind that will make a rancher proud of the BUSINESS of beef production. You are definitely on the right track for doing it right.

DOC HARRIS
 
With the mud here I turn the bull in on the 4th of July ( his independance day) so I can't wait till the first of April. He really does double duty as I own him with another farmer and he has 25 Angus cows that he calves inside so he turns the bull in first of April for January calves then comes here to breed my 30 Charolis. He is a 5 year old now but when we replace him we will pare him with a yearling bull the first year so they keep each other working and then the second year he will go and the young bull should be able to work on his own.

I keep hearing about the north west but we got 18 stright days of rain and then we have been getting it about every other day since - - - at least an inch a day the last four days.

The pastures and crops should be good this spring buut I sure wish I could redirect some of it to the needed areas.

Well I need to go fight the rain and mud to put out feed - - - the cows go to the woods to bed down but then spend most of their time on concrete the rest of the day. At least it gives their feet time to dry. I poured the feeding area ( 50' X 100' ) with a slope of 1" per foot down to a 10' wide flat alley with 8" curbs on each side that is easy to clean. Even in the rain the floor is basicly dry. Some of the people around here just keep moving the bale feeders to new areas each day and the cattle don't have dry feet for two to three months - - - then they womder why they have foot problems.
 
George said:
With the mud here I turn the bull in on the 4th of July ( his independance day) so I can't wait till the first of April. He really does double duty as I own him with another farmer and he has 25 Angus cows that he calves inside so he turns the bull in first of April for January calves then comes here to breed my 30 Charolis. He is a 5 year old now but when we replace him we will pare him with a yearling bull the first year so they keep each other working and then the second year he will go and the young bull should be able to work on his own.

I keep hearing about the north west but we got 18 stright days of rain and then we have been getting it about every other day since - - - at least an inch a day the last four days.

The pastures and crops should be good this spring buut I sure wish I could redirect some of it to the needed areas.

Well I need to go fight the rain and mud to put out feed - - - the cows go to the woods to bed down but then spend most of their time on concrete the rest of the day. At least it gives their feet time to dry. I poured the feeding area ( 50' X 100' ) with a slope of 1" per foot down to a 10' wide flat alley with 8" curbs on each side that is easy to clean. Even in the rain the floor is basicly dry. Some of the people around here just keep moving the bale feeders to new areas each day and the cattle don't have dry feet for two to three months - - - then they womder why they have foot problems.
Click to expand...

Hey George - do you have a pixture of this concrete feeding area? We're thinking of trying to do something like that with concrete, and we'd love some ideas!
 
Nice pics LiLLY.....I always love calving season.We don't start till end of March beginning of April.Its been so foggy last few days I'm happy we haven't been trying to find babies in that.
 
Nice pictures....I'm surprised seeing the wide open spaces!Much different from a lot of your pictures.
a little advice...watch that prolapse cow .Many times the vaginal prolapse will return after calveing,sometimes months later.If it were me I would give the calf to another cow and tank the mother. Also not keep the calf when it is grown and cull all maternal relatives.May sound a little crude but could save you a lot of trouble down the road.
 
Kentucky said:
George said:
With the mud here I turn the bull in on the 4th of July ( his independance day) so I can't wait till the first of April. He really does double duty as I own him with another farmer and he has 25 Angus cows that he calves inside so he turns the bull in first of April for January calves then comes here to breed my 30 Charolis. He is a 5 year old now but when we replace him we will pare him with a yearling bull the first year so they keep each other working and then the second year he will go and the young bull should be able to work on his own.

I keep hearing about the north west but we got 18 stright days of rain and then we have been getting it about every other day since - - - at least an inch a day the last four days.

The pastures and crops should be good this spring buut I sure wish I could redirect some of it to the needed areas.

Well I need to go fight the rain and mud to put out feed - - - the cows go to the woods to bed down but then spend most of their time on concrete the rest of the day. At least it gives their feet time to dry. I poured the feeding area ( 50' X 100' ) with a slope of 1" per foot down to a 10' wide flat alley with 8" curbs on each side that is easy to clean. Even in the rain the floor is basicly dry. Some of the people around here just keep moving the bale feeders to new areas each day and the cattle don't have dry feet for two to three months - - - then they womder why they have foot problems.
Click to expand...

Hey George - do you have a pixture of this concrete feeding area? We're thinking of trying to do something like that with concrete, and we'd love some ideas!
Click to expand...
-

Kentucky - George's concrete Feeding Area is a terrific idea - practical, common sense and labor-saving. One suggestion (which you might already be aware of), I would offer: they make concrete now that does NOT require RE-BAR! Nor does it require wire mesh! It is mixed with NYLON threads at the Batch Plant and the mixer delivers it, pours it and when it dries - it is as strong or stronger than with re-bars! It resists cracking and breaking. Of course, you should prepare the base under the concrete with gravel foundation just as you would with any other structure. But it is supposed to be cheaper (by the time you figure the cost of the re-bar, mesh and labor) and a lot quicker. I would imagine that 6" (or 8" to be absolutely sure) would support anything that you would put on it. The Internet has great hints about making it 'slip-proof' and how to drain properly.


George - Is the width of the slope 100', or is the length of the slope 100'? Have you incorporated a 'gutter' at the end of the 10' wide flat alley, or does the rain etc. flow into a grassed waterway or a field? Your management idea is a great one! The financial savings you will realize on veterinary and foot health problems will pay for the feeding area in a short time, to say nothing of the ease and convenience of cleaning and savings on feed and hay! You get the DOC HARRIS "GREAT IDEA OF THE WEEK" AWARD with Alfalfa Stem Cluster!

DOC HARRIS
 
I have not been able to post pictures so I will try to explain. It is easy really!

I started by contacting Purdue University for information on livestock facilities. A neighbor had built a facility a year before me and I picked his brain as well. ( My son married his daughter last November and they bought her parents farm so he runs shorthorn cattle there.)

I went to the top of a south-facing hill and laid out two separate floors. The east one comes out of a lean to on my machinery shed then a 20-foot space then the other floor. The space between the floors is gravel as it is not in heavy traffic.

My clean out alley runs the length of both floors so it is 220' long and 10 feet wide. The floors are 50' by 100' each with a 20' by 100' loafing shed at the top of the west floor ( I keep brood cows there) and a 20' by 100' lean to at the top of the east floor. I have my working chute in the East End of the machinery shed so I can work cattle in almost any weather in comfort.

The floors slope 50" in the 50' run south down the hill with an 8" drop into the alley with an 8" curb on the other side. The alley slopes 7" from east to west ( almost flat in 220' ).

If the alley over flows the material has to cross about 1000' of grass before going in the woods. I built the floors in 1974 and have never had that happen yet.

The floors are 4" of 4000# concrete with wire reinforcing - - no nylon in 1974. I put an 8" wide by 2'deep footer at all edges to reinforce where equipment comes and goes and to keep ground hogs from getting under. About 10 years ago the concrete started looking like the new "exposed aggregate" but still is holding together well.

When I built the facility I was runing about 50 brood cows and fed out about 700 calves a year - - - If I could find someone to run the gravel pit to my satisfaction I would probably expand the cattle operation again as I enjoy it much better.

If you have any more questions you can email me at [email protected]
 
Kentucky, the oldest calves were born about the middle of Dec, had three early ones, the rest came between Christmas n now.

Juan, That cow that started to prolapse will be on her way to the salebarn, figured we'd keep her penned for a week or so, see how things go, then turn her out to raise the calf, then when we sell calves, Her and it both will take a ride.

Thanks for all the nice comments. Can't really take a bad picture of cute calves tho can ya??? lol

Tibbs, that's my new lil Wiener dog, she's almost 4 mo old. Wrangler's doin fine, and he likes to ride too.......can't handle both of em in the truck at the same time by myself, they play too much. He rides with me in the Mornins, and she goes with me in the afternoons...make em take turns....just like kids :lol:
 
I should note I do not keep the cattle confined to the floors - - - the brood cows have access to a 22 acre woods and normally bed down there. The calves have a 2 acre sheltered grassy area but seem to prefer to bed down in the shed.

The shed floors only slope ½" per foot.

The loafing shed for the calves is a lean to on the machinery shed and I built it so that hey stick their heads through and eat off the floor of the machinery shed which is 8" above the floor they stand on. That makes it easy to feed as grain or hay I spill can be swept to them.
 
It's hard to believe but we have not had rain since Thursday night - - - 4 days of sunshine is hard to beat at this time of year.

The forcast calls for rain / snow mix Tues, Wed and Fri / Sat

But our temps have been about 20 degrees above normal since the moddle of Dec low last night was about 33 degrees and high today should be about 50.

I think the ground has finally gotten thawed ( the last half of Nov and the first half of Dec was around 0 ) as the mud is setteling - - - - one of the problems we have with mud is when the ground gets frozen about 2' down then the temps stay in the 30s and the water cannot soak in but it doesn't get warm enough to thaw thru. This is why I delay calving till April
 

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