Preg checking cows

[Soapweed]

The working set-up

It's a dirty job but someone has to do it

Peach Blossom handling her side of the chute

Saddletramp keeps 'em coming

Cattle in the corral

These have been processed.

It's a good thing these gentleman are pushing on the alley-way, or it might tip over. :wink:

My job is to "catch and release" and give one shot, Staybred, as well as to write down the cow's number and the year she was born. I make any new tags that are needed. Peach Blossom gives a shot of Alpha-7 and applies the pour-on Warbex. The vet has the dignified job of pronouncing them "good" or "open".

So far we have worked cows on three different days, about 200 at a time. We are batting 5% open so far. Could be better, but it could be worse. I think I'll turn a couple of remaining bulls in with the younger opens and start a fall herd again. There seems to be plenty of winter feed available.

 

[HAY MAKER]

Soapweed,you always have a good picture story,but this one is my favorite,thanks & good luck

 

[Anonymous]

I think I'll turn a couple of remaining bulls in with the younger opens and start a fall herd again. There seems to be plenty of winter feed available.

I'm seeing around here that with the decent calf prices of late, that there are more outfits keeping their late calvers and young opens and running fall herds...When we were gathering cows the first of the week I saw one of the neighbors has a pasture full of cows with about month old calves.......With the warm and open fall, they will probably do good.......

 

[Anonymous]

Oh Soap, send the young open cows down the road. I think I remember you saying you had a pretty long breeding season, and if they can't find a bull in that time, they need a one way trip to town. I think second chances bring second problems most of the time. We kept a bunch of dry cows one spring after a rather vicious spring blizzard, and they had the most opens in them come fall. Young dry cows are worth good money right now, and a person could replace them with a cow that would calve again in the spring and get a paycheck sooner. In my experience there is a reason cows are dry most of the time.

Heather Smith Thomas has some good ideas, and one of hers is too give the youngest good cows a second chance, but I adamantly disagree with her on that one. Put some culling pressure on your cattle, and it will reward you in the future.

We just finished preg. checking today, and our test is just about 2 percent worse than yours, but our breeding is pretty short. And we didn't feed much other than cake last winter, so I figure we still are ahead of the game. The opens averaged about 685 net/head today, so still not too bad.

I'm not trying to ride your horse for you, as you are the boss of your own operation, but that's just my opinion. And it could be wrong. :wink:

 

[Soapweed]

For quite a few years, we kept over our young opens and made fall calvers out of them. It worked well until some drought years made winter feed hard to come by, so I dispersed the fall calvers. Now, after a wonderful summer and buying my neighbor's cheap hay, winter feed isn't so much a problem.

Last year, I took open cows to town and bought back some broken mouthed bred cows on an even-trade deal for the money. It didn't pan out completely successful, as some of these old girls don't look real elaborate now even with the great grassy summer. I don't think I'll do this again.

The younger and middle-aged cows around here know the ranch, and they're acclimated to the Sandhills. They could winter pretty cheap on left-over summer pasture. You mentioned that your open cows netted you about $685 dollars per head today. Normally that is pretty good money, but with today's calf prices, it is hard to buy a good breeding prospect heifer calf for much under $750. The cows could winter cheaper than the heifer calves, and a bull could be turned out with them right away. It would be spring before the heifer calves could be bred, and in just a couple or three more months, the kept-over cows would already have a new baby on the ground. It would be a year from this next spring before the heifer calf would have her own baby, and by then a person would already have a saleable product from the "open" cow kept over now.

Normally, I would agree with your line of reasoning on this subject, but each year is different. With the cheap feed around here this fall, and the high price of young replacement females, this seems the year to maybe go the non-traditional route. I'll tell you if it worked or not, in a couple of years. :wink:

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Soap why would you use Warbex on you cows with the cheap cost of generic Ivomec?


Warbex poisons the cow to kill grubs and lice and Ivomec is much easier on the animal and kills grubs lice and other internal parasites. Ivomes is also much safer for the person doing the pouring .

 

[Soapweed]

Soap why would you use Warbex on you cows with the cheap cost of generic Ivomec?


Warbex poisons the cow to kill grubs and lice and Ivomec is much easier on the animal and kills grubs lice and other internal parasites. Ivomes is also much safer for the person doing the pouring .

It's cheap and it works. We were able to purchase Warbex for about $22 per gallon, and a gallon does 32 head. We've never had a grub or lice problem since we have been using it. Back quite a few years ago, we tried both Tiguvon and Neguvon, which were both cheaper than Warbex, but neither one worked. If something works as well as Warbex, I see no reason to change.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Soap why would you use Warbex on you cows with the cheap cost of generic Ivomec?


Warbex poisons the cow to kill grubs and lice and Ivomec is much easier on the animal and kills grubs lice and other internal parasites. Ivomes is also much safer for the person doing the pouring .

It's cheap and it works. We were able to purchase Warbex for about $22 per gallon, and a gallon does 32 head. We've never had a grub or lice problem since we have been using it. Back quite a few years ago, we tried both Tiguvon and Neguvon, which were both cheaper than Warbex, but neither one worked. If something works as well as Warbex, I see no reason to change.

I heard that the generic Ivomec that I used this year is down to $63 a 5 litre jug that would do close to 100 cows.

 

[Rowdy Ranch]

Thanks for the great detailed pictures! We really like our fall calving herd. Started calving Sept 20th and are all but done-just like in the spring-always a few later ones,but they may catch up next year. What we like with the fall one is that they are in good shape to calf and really some say it takes so much more feed in the winter well we feed pretty good anyway and besides you have a good size calf come spring and can sell then or wait till later summer and hit a good market.I do realize that some areas are too tough for calves in the winter and feed supplies are a factor.Don't get me wrong-we have a few cows that make it to the spring herd if they are younger and later. And like Soapweed said with these right replacement costs sometimes you have to figure something else out.