• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Some of Our Best(pics)

IL Rancher, Prayers for your son. My kids are all grown now but I sure remember those Hospital trips. Ain't no fun.

PureCountry, Nice lookin cattle and a great Bull. I'm not quite jealous, but its close. :lol:
 
Nice looking cattle Pure, thanks for posting the pictures.

IL Rancher, glad the little one is ok

NR, when are they going to get your bull on the internet????
 
It was a long night but he seems mostly back to himself today.. He is generally the smiliest 9 month old kid you can imagine.. I know all the older folks at the church just adore him because he is such a smilier and a giggler... Of course they all warned that with what he has it could sart up all over again tonight so we have the humidifier running for him, had him in a steamy bathroom and gave him his medication to try to keep thsoe airwaves nice and relaxed... I think I need to lay down but it is a bit to early to go to bed, don't want to wake u at 3:30.
 
Good lookin' stock Pure. What kind of daily growth are you seeing from the Galloway calves crossed with your commercial cows?

I think I'll pass on the smurf crossbreds, but I think a few good Shorty/WB cows would do a guy proud. If I can ever get caught up on my bills around here, I'm going to be bothering Mr. Kaiser for some of his heifers...

Rod
 
You wouldn't be disappointed with his Welsh heifers Rod, that's for sure. In general, his Welsh females have better udders than the Galloways, but of course, they're bigger. Maybe that's a better fit for what you want though, just not me.

As for growth, the calves are weaning just as heavy as Angus cross calves did, it's just that they're a frame score shorter. The best part of that though, is that they're doing it while staying on the cow and bale-grazing or swath-grazing into Feb. or March. Costs Down=Profits Up. :wink:
 
We just moved the cows with calves to a new bale paddock yesterday-I hired neighbor to move the bales around a bit -the self unloading trailer kind of dumped them in bunches. He couldn't get over how good they'd cleaned up the paddock before-he's an outspoken 80 plus guy who believe me isn't afraid to tell me when I'm screwing up lol. Cows and calves are looking good-over two feet of snow on the level out there so lots for them to lick now. I don't like purebred commercial cows of any breed but a bit of the 'wee hairy beasts' in a range cow sure wouldn't hurt any.
 
PureCountry said:
You wouldn't be disappointed with his Welsh heifers Rod, that's for sure. In general, his Welsh females have better udders than the Galloways, but of course, they're bigger. Maybe that's a better fit for what you want though, just not me.

As for growth, the calves are weaning just as heavy as Angus cross calves did, it's just that they're a frame score shorter. The best part of that though, is that they're doing it while staying on the cow and bale-grazing or swath-grazing into Feb. or March. Costs Down=Profits Up. :wink:
Click to expand...

Thanks Pure, appreciate the info.

As for what I want, I'm not just sure yet :) I know what currently makes me money (FS 4, 4.5 British cross cows weighing around 1300 lbs. Got a few slightly bigger (FS4.5, 5, 14- 1500 lb) Simm/Shorties that rake in the bucks too). I expect I can keep my cow weight down to 1300 lbs, drop a 1/2 point on FS, and make good money. The feed conversion of the WB animals impresses me, whereas many of the PB Angus cows I've seen these days will eat you out of house and home.

NR, as far as the bale grazing goes, whose a good source that I could yap to about it? As I mentioned in the other thread, I can't seem to get away from heavy waste, and I'd like to know just what it is that I'm doing wrong. Its working for others besides yourself, so I'm obviously doing something wrong. Its bound to be something stupid, like wrong placement or something along those lines....

Rod
 
I've been doing a little reading on this since it came up Rod. Here are some sites that I have bookmarked.

http://www.pasturemanagement.com/balegrazing.htm

http://www.wbdc.sk.ca/publications/factsheets/060306_Winter_Feeding_Beef_Cows.pdf

http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/forages/bjb00s38.html (Scroll down to bale grazing & tips if you don't want to read it all)

http://www.wbdc.sk.ca/publications/Livestock%20Forage%20Gazette%20Oct03.pdf (Bale grazing featured on page 10)
 
I will go ahead and admit that I am a skeptic here on "bale grazing" and "licking snow". BUT, I am always interested in hearing of new ways to skin a cat. So this is interesting to me. fedup2, I read the first link you posted, and a few ? came to mind for anyone that wants to answer them.

1. How do you control feed consumption other than letting the cattle have access to only x amount of bales/day? I thought I understood Northern Rancher to mean that he puts out several days worth of hay at a time. So after they go through the hay, do you hold them off it for a time, or go ahead and let them into the next "feed"? Here, if we are rolling out hay to cows, and they did not clean up everything from the day before, we give them less the 2nd day. We have never fed extra to let them bed in it, and I also have to think that with bale grazing, the cattle would rather bed on the eaten down bales than out in 2 ft. of snow.

2. As far as licking snow goes, do younger animals do ok also? I assume they must have to get used to this, as we have had the water freeze up, etc. and our cattle almost won't eat hay again until they get a drink. And this is with snow on the ground.

I don't know if this is generally an option for us anyway, as we winter cows many miles apart, and we try and not feed them any hay until either the grass runs out, or we happen to get too much snow. Or the snow crusts. Our grass is strong enough that you would never need to feed hay if we could avoid it. Just a few # of cake every other day or so will do the job when winter sets in. It's the droughts that raise as much cane with that as it is the deep snow.

Don't shoot any arrows at me here, I seriously am interested in learning. :-) After all, we are doing a lot of things now that our ansestors would have laughed at. :shock:
 
I put enough for however many days they are going to be in that field and when those days are up I move them. Cattle do just fine licking snow in fact you'll see less shivering than when then come to a waterhole and tank up once a day.Actually deep snow is pretty comfy for cows to lay in-in our country if your not bedding them to their chin your better off not bedding at all-nothing worse than cattle with wet taggy hair coats they can't take much weather at all. As for feeders-there s as much or more waste around the feeders for the yard cattle than is out in our bale fields-I'll take a pic next move and show you what's left behind. You have to look at it from a total picture-we get alot of extra grass growth also with no manure hauling costs. Bale grazing probably won't work where you can get by winter grazing but where we ranch it works fine-it's a pretty sickening feeling haveing equipment troubles in -40 and not being able to get feed out-alot easier to just open gates. Like I said before bale grazing isn't a two day experiment-try it for a month and go from there. Maybe my cows are adapted to that management scheme because they do ok at it. Rod you better come up and buy another Shorthorn bull and go on a little winter feeding tour. Trust me we have both ends of the scale operating up here lol.
 
Tap, I found this one, starting on page 10 called producer perspective to probably give you some of the information you are looking for.

http://www.wbdc.sk.ca/publications/Livestock%20Forage%20Gazette%20Oct03.pdf
 
I have been experimenting with bale grazing and snow as a water source. I know it can work, but it can be a pain in the butt.
I had a small group of cows across the river a couple of miles at a rented pasture. The crossing washed out with all the extra rain we got this year, and I hadn't made time to trailer them home. I was just taking 10 bales over every week with a self-unloading trailer. They drank from a spring until we got lots of snow and cold weather and it froze up.
You sure find out who your most helpful neighbors are if you aren't watering your cattle in traditional ways. They all keep a close eye on things for you. Tuesday night a friend down the road from this pasture phoned to tell me my cows were out "looking for a drink". I said thanks a lot for calling and went over to have a look. Sure enough he was right. There was a spring flooding the railway ditch outside the fence and cows were reaching through to drink. When ever I have animals reaching through a fence it's not long until you develop fence crawlers.
I set up some panels and trailered them home.
I haven't given up on the idea of bale grazing and licking snow, but I know you can't have water near the fence. I have another pasture that I had similar problems where a little pool forms under the wire in a low area. When it first freezes up they crowd in and some can get pushed out.
 
Northern Rancher said:
Rod you better come up and buy another Shorthorn bull and go on a little winter feeding tour. Trust me we have both ends of the scale operating up here lol.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure when I'll get back to your neck of the woods again. Next year, I'll be AIing my purebreds and any Shorty F1s that I want to get crossbred bulls and heifers from. What have you got for good Shorthorn semen in that catalog of yours?

Rod
 
To be honest it's been awhile since I've sen the type of shorthorn bull I like in any A'I' catalogue but I'll see what we've got in store for next year. Does anybody remember the Mandalong cattle from the '70's I always thought Mandalong Super Flag and Mandalong Super Elephant looked pretty good another bull was pretty thick was Butte Lea Major.
 
I like this Captain Mark bull. He reminds me a bit of the Mandalong bulls you mention.

http://www.diamondshorthorns.com/mark.html

Saskvalley Navajo looks OK too:

http://www.saskvalleyshorthorns.com/herdsires.html

I prefer those old fashioned, heavy hind quartered working bulls. Alot of the Shorthorn stock I look at these days look real nice until you get to the last rib, then pfffffftttttttt. I may end up talking Diamond or Saskvalley out of some their semen.

Rod[/img]
 
no I sure don't but if I did I'd sure use it. What about Coronet Leader-Bob Gordon who was our sire selector at Western Breeders used to own him -he was a good old bull. You could tell when Bob really liked a bull because he was always 'As Good As Leader'.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top