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JBC

Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2008
Messages
8
Location
Western Arkansas
I have been lurking around on several sites for quite a while now and it seems that this particular site has more producers of the same mind set as I. I recognize several of yall from the other forums both in name and attitudes. We are strictly commercial, use alot of AI, and run the cows on as much grass/hay and as little supplement as feasible. Just wondering if everyone else is finding ways to cut costs or are you trying to increase production?



JBC
 
Welcome aboard, JBC. We are in Montana, getting anything delivered to us kills us in freight costs. We are trying to increase our cow herd, kinda hard when you have loans to pay. We have lots of grass but not enough cows to graze. We are leasing this ranch from an out-of-state landowner so we are pretty much tied up with the lease agreement. I can see your face...??????

Anyway, welcome aboard! :D
 
Hanta Yo
Thanks for the welcome. We to are trying to increase the cowherd but we are doing it from within. Retaining heifers is never easy when steers are cheap. We are decreasing the mature size of the cowherd. It is hard to find quality heifers for sale in our area that aren't going to make fairly large cows. As for seeing the face I just got on here don't want to break this thing first night.

JBC
 
Welcome to Ranchers! It seems only a few days ago I was getting welcomed myself. To be up front, I am the HS kid on here who has lots to learn. I also tend to tell others on no uncertain terms what I know or my opinions. :roll: However, I'm learning how to sorta control myself. :D My soapbox? Reducing cow size and breeding cows that forage for themselves and wean a good calf each year. My cows aren't midgets, just smaller than most. :wink: Consequently, I can run more cows on less acres which is imperative around here. I believe running more 1100-1200# cows weaning 500-550 pound calves produces more beef and therefore more $ than fewer 1300-1700# that wean 600-750 pound calves, not to mention I save more $ not feeding bigger, less efficient cows more than my pocketbook can afford. Well, now you have my take, and I look forward to hearing others' takes and philosophies, including yours. :-)
Once again, welcome to Bull Session and have a good time!
 
Welcome JBC. Personally I have just recently moved my calving to May and June to try to save feed. Calving on green grass and not fighting snow storms and mud is something I am really looking forward to. I don't intend to use scour vaccine or tag calves anymore. Hoping to save over $150 per head. Time will tell. Calves will be lighter but I don't sell till spring anyway to try to hit a better market. Conception rates didn't decrease any which is one of the things I was worried about with the breeding season later in the summer.

What are you doing to survive this recent bust in the economy?
 
Big Swede said:
Welcome JBC. Personally I have just recently moved my calving to May and June to try to save feed. Calving on green grass and not fighting snow storms and mud is something I am really looking forward to. I don't intend to use scour vaccine or tag calves anymore. Hoping to save over $150 per head. Time will tell. Calves will be lighter but I don't sell till spring anyway to try to hit a better market. Conception rates didn't decrease any which is one of the things I was worried about with the breeding season later in the summer.

What are you doing to survive this recent bust in the economy?
Click to expand...

First, Welcome JBC. I am the Canadian with the sarcastic sense of humour. We ranch in probably the most adverse conditions of anyone on here. Why are we here? No one has explained that to us yet.


Second, Big Swede, a friend of mine that ranches in similar country to S Dak.... moved his calving to Aug/Sept.....quit doing this and that..... had a bout with viral scours ON Pasture last year.....calves lost and costs incurred would have paid for 20 years of vaccine.
Not telling you your business, just giving a heads up to a neighbor. :D
 
JBC said:
Just wondering if everyone else is finding ways to cut costs or are you trying to increase production?
Click to expand...

Calving in april/may and roughing out cows all winter have cut costs greatly. Running steers over and marketing as yearlings 1st week in August has been a pretty good deal the last few years too.

Welcome
 
Hey gcreekrch did your neighbor have a history with that type of scours? Were they in a single pasture or were they being rotated to different ones? I can see a problem if new calves were being born on the same ground as calves several weeks older no matter what time of year.

In my case the herd will be rotated every 5 days or so to new ground, I can't believe there will be a problem but I appreciate the info. I have been tempted for years to quit using Scourguard even in our Mar-Apr calving in a lot but it would only take one wreck like you say to pay for a lot of vaccine. It's a good product because I only doctor a couple calves a year out of 600 for scours. Overeating(Perfringens) is my biggest problem now, lose maybe 1% per year which according to my vet isn't a problem really, but I think it is.

Do any of you pasture calvers have any other advice?
 
Do any of you pasture calvers have any other advice?
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How many acres/hd are you calving on. I haven't had a scour deal since moving calving on green grass. The purebred herd calves on roughly 320 acre pastures on a 3 year rotation and gives them just about 3 acre/hd. The cows aren't being supplemented hay or anything either so that might be a difference. I don't have any artificial wind breaks/shelters either on the calving pastures - just some taller varitey tame grasses, the natural draws and Marias breaks. I don't know but moving them every 5 days to fresh ground sounds your pretty serious about fixing the problem.
 
Big Swede said:
Hey gcreekrch did your neighbor have a history with that type of scours? Were they in a single pasture or were they being rotated to different ones? I can see a problem if new calves were being born on the same ground as calves several weeks older no matter what time of year.

In my case the herd will be rotated every 5 days or so to new ground, I can't believe there will be a problem but I appreciate the info. I have been tempted for years to quit using Scourguard even in our Mar-Apr calving in a lot but it would only take one wreck like you say to pay for a lot of vaccine. It's a good product because I only doctor a couple calves a year out of 600 for scours. Overeating(Perfringens) is my biggest problem now, lose maybe 1% per year which according to my vet isn't a problem really, but I think it is.

Do any of you pasture calvers have any other advice?
Click to expand...

This guy moved from Mar. and April to fall....confinement to pasture calving. Thought he could forego the scour shots....then got a stretch of wet cold weather in early Sept. Moving as you are you may avoid problems. I read an article where the management moved the uncalved cows and left the calved ones behind, fresh calves had clean ground and problems stayed in the last pasture. With your chances of late storms, I don't think I would be confident enough to stop vaccinating, but it's your call. We also give our cows a 7 way with the scour shot, don't have much trouble with overeating.
 
I think it was BRG that said when they moved to pasture calving their overeating problems seemed to go away so that's what I'm hoping for too. My one herd has 425 head on 12 pastures of 320acres give or take. The first time through the rotation I want to move fast as the grass is growing fast so I get through it in 60 days. My next time through the rotation starts about the middle of July and the moves aren't as frequent. I am confident that my herd health will be better than ever with this new calving system. If not I will need to make adustments.
 
JBC said:
Just wondering if everyone else is finding ways to cut costs or are you trying to increase production?
Click to expand...

Welcome to Rancher's JBC.

I'm still in the rebuilding faze after struggling through to many drought years. This calving season I'll have 85 head to calve out, which is just a little over half of what I used to run. I have lots of pasture on the hay fields left to graze off, so hopefully the big snows will hold off for another month. Last year it snowed 3 feet on Dec. 11th & didn't melt off till the 2nd week of April. It made for a long cold winter.

Happy Posting :)
 
We calve on grass usually on our hay meadows that are stockpiled bermuda. Try to keep herd size on each one under 100 head. Thought about strip grazing it but the dormant bermuda is about 8 to 12 inches deep and that keeps it from geeting muddy even in really wet weather. Moved calving season to Feb/March to be closer to grass time. Cows have been weaned from the feed truck over the last couple of years with the ones that go into withdrawal end up where someone feeds better than we do. Have been using A.I. on the entire cowherd for the last 3 years to cut down on walking bulls. Seems like whenever we buy bulls our choices are always alot more expensive than can afford. So just breed to their sire and cut out the middle man.

I always enjoy talking cattle with progressive thinking producers and finding out how things are done in other parts of the country.
 
Welcome,

I'm still pretty new myself! This is definitely a great place to learn from others and have the chance to view other operations throughout the world :D . Of course, if you've lurked here, you already know this.

Like Triangle Bar, we're trying to add numbers and get back to where we were pre-drought. Not saying the drought has ended, but it has eased a little in the area, and now seems like a good time to start building again.

I'm one of those "crazy" producers who still calves in early spring and feeds hay in the winter. A forest permit dictates a lot of my management , but even without one, I probably would still be doing it about the same :D . Afterall I'd hate to sleep through a March snowstorm :D .

I look forward to your posts!
 
Thanks to whoever straightened my mess up.

Big Swede, something that has helped our health problems over the last 8 years has been to add Bovatec to our mineral as a coccidiostat. Doing it this way has been the easiest and most cost effective way to get it into the cattle.
Better feed utilization is noticable also.
 

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