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The happiest pen of Fat Cattle around!

PPRM

Well-known member
It is Hot here....Where I live we will hit 100 degrees quite a few days from now through Mid August.

I have worked in feedlots and always thought it was horrible having pens of fat cattle this time of year. They sit there uncomfortable with no shade in many places. It s a challenge to thier health, lungs and gain......

I am small enough to do something about this....This new place I am at has a lot going for it, even if it is on a small scale...


Several weeks ago I set sprinklers up..There are some small Rusian olives in the pen the calves huddle up around. The sprinklers helped as well. However, watching them they were still huffing a lot, but much better off....TYhe sprinklers were creating real muddy areas that I just do not like.

The pen is next to the corrals and the corrals have huge trees along one side. The dirt has some moistness just under the surface there, so it is maybe 15 degrees or so cooler in the corrals....

The challenge is digging post holes through rock to hang a gate. I worked through the 100 degree heat, drinking lots of water and at a "Southern Summer Day pace"...The heat did not bother me....Some of it was restretching fence, some of it was blocking of the squeeze chute in the corrals and setting some gates in there as well so the cattle don't get into things they should not, LOL.

As I worked, I did not want the nosey bovines rummaging though my tools if my back was turned, so I went and set the corrals up first and turned them in there.... 6 hours later, I was done with the gate and fence...First gate I have ever put in the middle of a fenceline BTW, LOL, but it just worked out that way. I think they are smart enough to go through it to find shade, LOL......

Anyways, I went to open things up and those cattle were all lounging around in the shade, chewing thier cud and content as could be! I am looking forward to see them gain rather than hold through this heat and to not be fighting the challenged cardio and respiratory systems you can see this time of year with Fat Cattle,

PPRM
 

katrina

Well-known member
We sold our last pen of fats today... Only two are left to go into our freezer. Heat really takes out the gain don't it? That and the flies.....
 

PPRM

Well-known member
LOL, that luck took a lot of hard work today!

Anyways, a job like that always feels good when it is done....I went back and added a few Tamarack Stays to the fenceline....Of course, I look around and see about 20 other things I need to do.

Katrina,

Yes, the heat does kill gains. Most pastures around I rent are pressurized irrigaion, this one has flood irrigation where our lighter calves are, so I can use dust bags. It has made a big difference,

Hope you did well on you calvs. The last bunch I sent the grid base was $1.34, I am hoping the recent rise in Choice Cutout is a trend rather than a "Blip",

PPRM
 

Cowpuncher

Well-known member
We have a half dozen yearlings in the pasture around our house. They have about 100 acres with all kinds of trees, rocks and buildings to lay around in.

It has been between 90-95 degress for the past three weeks. Not very much humndity.

I guess I am surprised that these yearlings seem to have no preference for shade as opposed to laying around in the sun. Neighbors have a bunch of yearling heifers and they don't seem to care for the shade either. Just plop down where every they happen to be.

We are at 7000 feet altidude. I guess it must be the low humidity that does it.
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
Minus twenty is alot easier on cattle then plus 90 I think. We cleaned out the last of a pen the end of June they grade pretty well and averaged 1.57 on the grid-our market has went south pretty well here too.
 

Mike

Well-known member
Your heat problem is one thing that makes parts Central/South America attractive for feedlots. The temps are much more stable year round as you get closer to the equator, plus the temps are lower than we would expect.
For instance, in Panama, the average temps are 88 degrees in Summer and 78 degrees in Winter with very little variation.

Down here the variation in temps is a factor in cattle comfort along with high humidity's year round.

Some people's calving season is dependent on the comfort factor and what season his cattle will feed. After all, that is the period in a calf's life when the most money is being pumped in to them.
 

Mike

Well-known member
Northern Rancher said:
Minus twenty is alot easier on cattle then plus 90 I think. We cleaned out the last of a pen the end of June they grade pretty well and averaged 1.57 on the grid-our market has went south pretty well here too.

I don't know so much about "Minus twenty" being easier every time.

Decatur County Feedyard in Kansas had a long hard spell during the snow storms of this past winter. I was told by one of the guys that there was no gain at all and maybe even losses during that period.

A dry -20 would definitely be better than a +90 temp with a 100% humidity though.
 

PPRM

Well-known member
Cowpuncher said:
We have a half dozen yearlings in the pasture around our house. They have about 100 acres with all kinds of trees, rocks and buildings to lay around in.

It has been between 90-95 degress for the past three weeks. Not very much humndity.

I guess I am surprised that these yearlings seem to have no preference for shade as opposed to laying around in the sun. Neighbors have a bunch of yearling heifers and they don't seem to care for the shade either. Just plop down where every they happen to be.

We are at 7000 feet altidude. I guess it must be the low humidity that does it.


Cowpuncher,

I agree that pasture yearlings don't seem to get near as stressed by temperature......

These are Fats getting ready for slaughter. They are a lot fleshier as they are on feed than pasture yearlings. These cattle definetly have a preference for shade from what I am seeing.......

We have pretty low Humidity, but it is supposed to hit 108-110m degrees here on friday! I am not sure what our elevation is, but it is pretty low,

PPRM
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
I visited the lot today out in southwest Iowa where I have some cattle entering the final 30-60 days of feed and noticed the lack of shade but it sure ddidn't matter today as it was 78 degrees.. I bet if I had been out there last week they would have been pretty miserable (Maybe as miserable as I am now after 12 hours in the car :lol:) Fairly educational visit to the old feedyard, lots of different looking cattle there from some local Angus, to some Gelbvieh crosses out of Tennessee and even some sraight Brahma out of Alabama.. I told the manager that I think all those ears and humps were confusing my cattle since they were neighbors, lol.. Interesting conversation, learned a bit, got some advice and now we get to see what they are going to grade at soon..
 

OldDog/NewTricks

Well-known member
Cowpuncher said:
We have a half dozen yearlings in the pasture around our house. They have about 100 acres with all kinds of trees, rocks and buildings to lay around in.

It has been between 90-95 degress for the past three weeks. Not very much humndity.

I guess I am surprised that these yearlings seem to have no preference for shade as opposed to laying around in the sun. Neighbors have a bunch of yearling heifers and they don't seem to care for the shade either. Just plop down where every they happen to be.

We are at 7000 feet altidude. I guess it must be the low humidity that does it.

Not very much humndity.

is a big part of the answer - their personal cooling system works

Evaporation cools
 
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