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Old Cows

shorthorn said:
I have some cows like that. I cull by who doesant wean an average calf and by who looks the roughest after a winter. So far that has been working well. I will baby them a little but not much. We strive to feed no hay to our cows. They get hay in times of ice or a deep snow. We stockpile grass all fall for them and let them earn their keep. But you would be surprized at the age of some of my cows. They are crossbreds and they hang right in there at the 12 and 15 years old with no supplement or problem. When they do become a problem we hold them over the winter with the fat cattle and put some weight on them and than ship.
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Shorthorn - I see that you are from So. Indiana. Is the grass that you stockpile for winter grown on fertile and/or limed soil? Do you provide a complete mineral supplement for them? Is your summer pasture adequate for them to get a good start on winter? Do you run your cows on corn stalks at all? Do you calve in Fall or Spring?
 
George said:
Is it possible also that the cows in a commercial herd might be older than what the owner thinks? :o I know if I didn't keep records I could very easily loose track :roll: - - - and as time goes by I can still look at a cow and have to think of how long she has been here. :D
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We "double tag" our replacement heifers when they get their permanent ear tag numbers to become a cow in our herd. We also year brand, by putting a one-digit hot iron brand on their left shoulder designating what year they were born. It is pretty easy for us to tell the age of any certain cow.
 
Jersey stockpiling grass is leaving a pasture with an excess of regrowth to graze later in the season-dry cows in early pregnancy can get by on some pretty rough pasture. It really cuts costs because your cows do the harvesting for you.
 
We keep a mineral out year round to these cows and keep our last grass for spring. That way they are getting as i call it old filler growth mixed with new growth. We try and sometimes this is hard to do but we try to make sure our stockpiled grass is still growing when the frost hits it. That way it doesant get over mature. This is a fescue ladino mix. We havent had much luck on anything else orchard grass does okay but not as good as the fescue. The ladino clover will be there durn near all winter so that is a big help. The cows will look 10 times better than if they were on hay for the reason the fescue if stockpiled right is a lot better feed standing than in the bale. I did feed some tubs last winter for about 2 weeks when we had a lot of ice and heavy fogs off the river. But i went from feeding 450 bales a year to 25 or so counting the bull pens and feeder pens. So my accountant thinks i am learning something anyway.
 
the_jersey_lilly_2000 said:
Can't, our hayfield is outside the fence with a train tracks between it and the pasture. We are in the process tho of cross fencing. So maybe when that gets further along we can try it there.
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Many, many years ago this 'stockpiling' idea was tried in central Missouri by some of the larger acreage farmers, and if they ran dry cows on it it was okay - IF - they had good combination grass and clover. Most of the clover there was Lespedeza, and that did - okay - and that is about all. Nowadays the varieties and combinations are so much better than they were then that I think it is a marvelous idea. I don't know how Buffalo Grass or Bluestem or Crested Wheatgrass or Smooth Brome with Birdsfoot Trefoil or some othere compatible clover would work in the West. Does anyone stockpile for fall and winter grazing in the Sandhills or Montana, Wyoming or Colorado now? What mixtures do you use if you are doing that?
 
Sorry to redirect but; In 98 or 99 we went to McGinleys dispersal in Gordon. We got there late ( I didn't know where the sale barn was) and had missed the two's and three's; they were selling solid-mouth cows after we got our number. We sat there about 15 minutes, and they cut three cows back to make somebody's load even. I don't remember if they cost $620 or $640, but I had spotted a neighbor, and I hoped his trailer wasn't full yet.
It wasn't. I hired him to do my trucking, which consisted of mostly waiting on a "ground-loader" trying to load 33 open-range Red-Angus looking cows to go to South Dakota. He must of been used to milder cows, because he tried three times before he finally sorted and gated them. I offered my neighbor a drink in the meantime, but he politely declined. We were next, and the chute help was tickled to see 24' backing up for three cows.
On his way home, he swung 225 yards off to the right, pulled through my gate, and we turned 'em loose! in 200 acres. I was in front on the scooter, and thanks to pretty hilly ground, they wore out about the property line.
I didn't check cows for three days (Feb, no calves even close) and when they saw the pickup, it had a bale on the back. By calving time I was able to tag all three of their calves, two on the way out (almost) and the third underneath my 86 F-250. They had calmed down alot!
My point is, relative to this post, when I bought 'em, they wore an 8, a 6, and a 4, on their left shoulders. And no she wasn't 4 or 5 .
One had two calves and checked (they setteled down) open; one lost her third calf, and I shipped her, and one had six calves for us, and brought $945 in Jan, 2004; bred.
Her shoulder read "4".
 
Well I'd think it would really work well here, since we usually always have growth thru the winters because our winters are mild. Trees loose their leaves but what grass is there is green most of the time.

edit:
Just did a search. and with our grass here..this is what I found.

The stargrasses/bermudagrasses are the forages that least lend themselves to stockpiling. They are very sensitive to frost and freezing temperatures, and once exposed to these conditions become unpalatable within days and offer little nutrition until they grow back in the spring. These grasses need to be fertilized with a complete formula (56-28-56 lb/A N-P2O5-K2O) in September and grazed relatively hard, but maintaining a stubble, until frosted. These grasses will grow all winter in the warmer, frost-free areas of south Florida. In these areas stargrasses/bermuda grasses need to be managed to prevent overgrazing, but not stockpiled.
 
I know a chap who runs 800 top santa cows & he age brands all of the females, his ritual is to sell all cows at 7 yrs rising 8 after he weans their 5th calf . His reasoning being that if you cannot produce a replacement heifer in those 5 calves that is better than her mother then you are not going ahead.I can tell you that when he lines up 140 odd cows genuine 7yr old & heavy in calf they look & sell very well indeed.I have got into the ritual with our wagyu cattle of joining angus heifers then as they begin calving I put an angus bull in with them , we wean the calves at 4 months onto irrigated pasture ,freshen up the mother for a few months ,preg test them & sell them . I dont know about your markets but a rising 3yr old angus female preg tested in calf for her 2nd calf always makes ridiculous money over here.The calves we either export to Japan live or sell to feedlots here that feed for that market.The calving ease of the wagyu is a dream to behold we don'ty go any where near them whilst they are calving,just manage them with a pair of binoculars.The upshot being we pay about $450 for heifer calves at about 8-9months ,get a calf out of them (average about $850) & sell the female for between $800-$1000 so we get two bites of the cherry & we find we get into less binds during dry spells as everything can be sold without crueling our enterprise.
Just a different slant on breeding
regards
Tully
ps we are thinking of you in the gulf states at this awful time lets hope the worst is over.
 
Doc there are lots of us utilizing stockpiled grasses up here 500 miles north of the medicine line. Our growing season is short but fast and furious-20 plus hours of daylight in June. If we pull cows off a pasture in early July there is usually a heavy regrowth to graze in spring or later in the fall. Another thing that works good is pasture that has been heavily manured by feeding across it-the next summer cows don't really graze it well but after a winter under the snow they will graze it readily. We will have alot of carryover this year as alot of ground is flooded and cows won't get to it this fall. This is totally different country to ranch in than Nebraska and Colorado for sure-very productive but can be very harsh at times but always fun.
 
There is quite a few in the west that stockpile. Kit pharo does in colorado while he is in a drought so i know it can be done out there. If you need some good information on stockpiling or rotational grazing theres only one place to look. Its a magazine i couldnt raise cows with out and make money. The Stockman Grassfarmer. Their website is www.stockmangrassfarmer.com
 
shorthorn said:
There is quite a few in the west that stockpile. Kit pharo does in colorado while he is in a drought so i know it can be done out there. If you need some good information on stockpiling or rotational grazing theres only one place to look. Its a magazine i couldnt raise cows with out and make money. The Stockman Grassfarmer. Their website is www.stockmangrassfarmer.com
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shorthorn - I notice that you just joined our group - Welcome! You have, in effect, justified your space here by this last post! The web site for "The Stockman Grassfarmer" is worth it's weight in GOLD! :shock: :wink: What a Great source of information it is. Why - - for Cryin' Out Loud - - it's ALMOST as important as - - EPD's :shock: - - -ALMOST!

DOC HARRIS
 

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