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Nice day for a January cattle drive

Great pictures from both ends of the drive :) Everyone gets stuck sometime so no point getting upset about it, right :P
 
We always expect real good Soapweed pictures and they're always delivered :clap:

We've sorted off steers to run as yearlings since we didn't utilize our grass last year, and have extra hay, and selling the rest (of the steers) tomorrow. It looked like the semis would have trouble getting in and backed up to load, but the ground's firmed up some and supposed to freeze good tonight, also hauled in some gravel...so should go ok in the morning.
 
Hope all goes well with your cattle loading and selling Cal! We sold some this past thursday and got along pretty well at the sale,but for some reason they loaded rotten on the pot.
Thanks for the outstanding pixs-Soapweed and the details! Glad Peach Blossom was not in trouble for the stuck truck and worked out well getting the heifer home. !st calf heifers started calving a few days ago so guess I won't be going too far for awhile-not much different than normal.
Have a great day everyone!
 
Thanks.

They came into the corral good, first load couldn't seem to see the gate coming out of the tub, after that was alright.

Soapweed, were you there? I didn't see you, but had to sneak out after ours sold to go home and feed.

Sale was pretty good, first load weighed 834#, next 3 loads av. 761#. At least they're gone. Next sorting project is to pick out around 270 replacement heifers to send to Heartland next month to get them out of here before calving starts and have them AI'd.
http://www.heartlandcattle.com/heifers.html
 
Sorry, Cal, I didn't get to the sale. It was too nice of a day so I stayed home to get some projects done. Sounds like your steers weighed heavy, and knowing your good cattle I'll bet they made the buyers sit up and pay attention to business.

You have the fun part still ahead--picking out replacement heifers. We sorted through ours, and trailed the best half up by Tuthill to spend the rest of the winter, and to get AI'd next spring. We hauled the rest of the heifers up to your neighbor last Friday (that was probably you feeding your cows by the road when the trucks went by). They will spend the rest of the winter at your neighbor's, and we will probably bring the best half of that bunch home to turn bulls with next summer. The smaller half might get hauled directly to a sale barn in April or May. All of our baldy heifers went that direction, and also the smaller end of the straight blacks.

You and I probably don't get as emotionally attached to the cattle, as do our more tender-hearted female peers of the business. It is, however, satisfying to watch the young frolicksome calves turn into good-looking marketable feeder cattle. We always like to sit at ringside and know that we've done our best to have the cattle looking as "dressed up" and presentable as possible. And it is always fun to keep back our best heifers, and watch them turn into useful young cows.

It's a great life, don't you agree? :wink: :)
 
I just had to tease a little, Seriously what better way to run a little test on the effects of heterosis. The only drawback I can see is that you would get some red hided calves.

Those are some nice looking replacements and I am sure you will select a bull worthy of their quality.
 
Hereford bulls on Angus cows makes a good combination. I just don't think it would be a good idea to breed first-calf black heifers to a Hereford. Any Herefords I've been around have fairly good-sized birthweights, besides the fact that the hybrid vigor would also add a few pounds to the calf. The red-hided calves don't bother me, as quite a few of our cows are red. Our red cows (Red Angus x Gelbvieh) are bred to red Simmental.
 
425calf.jpg


First calf heifer with 60 lb calf out of one of our home raised (yes hereford) bulls. Will be calving out 45 heifers all bred hereford this year. I know that's not many compared to lots of you but it's the most heifers we've kept. Have had 6 of them calve so far, heaviest calf was 70 lbs.
 
Nicky, that's a good picture and a beautiful setup. Makes me jealous for that kind of scenery. We get to drive 7 hrs. before we get any scenery like that.
Phil
 
Thanks, right now it's raining and quite muddy :( Like everyone we have a love/hate relationship with moisture. Don't dare complain about it, but don't like calving in the mud. Just think of the grass :)
 
The only time we have ever had to have C-sections, was when we were running Herefords and we bred all the heifers to Black Angus bulls.

At that time, birthweight EPD's were not known. We felt that, along with hybird vigor is what got us into some calving problems.

Since then we have always straightbred the heifers and gotten along fine.
 
Soapweed: If it a calving ease issue I think you can get around that by selecting a well proven calving ease bull but that might involve using EPDs. LOL.

I will calve about a dozen angus females bred to a Hereford bull this Spring and don't anticipate any problems and wil let you know how it goes.
My dad has some of his heifers bred Hereford that I get to clave out and will be interesting how they will compare to the females that are bred Angus.

I am not that old but feel that the best place for the calf puller is on the wall in the calving barn collecting rust.
 
WB said:
I am not that old but feel that the best place for the calf puller is on the wall in the calving barn collecting rust.
Click to expand...

Good point, but don't let it get so rusty that it won't work when you need it. :wink: Also, don't let yourself get so "rusty" that you don't know how to make it work when necessary. :wink: :wink:
 

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