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gcreekrch

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 22, 2008
Messages
11,768
Location
west chilcotin bc
Snow on the ground.......but none blowing around. :wink: :D
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A couple of my "bale processor". The local steel fabricator built this for us in 1991, it's been repaired a few times but after 25,000 bales it's still going strong.
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NR, I was reading some old posts last night where you were asking about construction of a rail fence. This is called a Russell Fence, the closest one was built in 1987 from green jackpine rails, the old one was built about 1940 out of fire-killed rails.
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An easy keeping cow.
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Another good kind of bovine
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We built this barn in 1989. Sawed all the lumber on our own mill.
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Herefords :mad: :roll: :wink: :lol:
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Beef
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Rug? This has been a good cow, to date she's always had a solid black calf and we've never had to mess with her.
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Good pics Gcreek,I like that bale processor,might have to fabricate one.Nice little barn too.That jack fence is a good way to save money on fencing material,thay look good to,but how do the cattle do with them?
 
It's too far to haul much for treated material other than posts. Jackpine are the weeds of this country, there are thousands of miles of wood fences here. Fire killed logs from burns last a long time. The best fence--easiest to build, least wire, stongest, is the snake fence. I'll post a pic later of one. There are no nails in any of these fences.
 
Wow, that's some kind of barn...great place to bring back the old barn dances..my g-ma tells stories of those days and what fun they had...I've seen fences similar to yours in Wyoming, they make for great pictures too after sunset. Great pictures Thanks
 
Nice pictures, gcreekrch. I like your barn. Is that "ventilation" on the top of it? Looks like a good way of feeding bales.

We built fence like that in Wyoming. There they called it "buck fence." After graduating from high school in 1970, I got a summer job on the Moose Head Ranch, which is a beautiful dude ranch in Jackson Hole. Wages weren't too elaborate, but it felt like a paid vacation in comparison to real ranching and raising Herefords. :wink: Another young man from Illinois showed up at the same time I did. It was still about a week before any paying guests would arrive. John Mettler was the owner. He was a prosperous lawyer who also owned a thousand cow Charolais ranch in Florida at the time. Mr. Mettler told this other boy and I to build a buck fence lane through the cabins, so horses could be wrangled right up the lane. He told us to curve it around through the trees. We went right to work, trying to look good on our first day on the job. We had several lengths of fence put up curving through the trees, when Al Kleeman, the ranch manager showed up. He harped on us a bit for not making the fence straight, so we took loose a few poles and proceeded to line up the fence to Al's specifications. Another couple hours went by and then Mr. Mettler showed up again. He said, "I thought I told you to curve it through the trees."

We justified what we were doing and told him that Al had told us to make it straight. He said, "Put a curve in it. If Al complains, you tell him that I write out his paychecks as well as writing yours."

Aye, aye, sir. We promptly proceeded to put a curve back in the fence. :-)
 
Soapweed said:
Nice pictures, gcreekrch. I like your barn. Is that "ventilation" on the top of it? Looks like a good way of feeding bales.
:-)
Click to expand...

That "ventilation" is a result of running out of lumber, the mill engine dying and mainly being too chicken to finish it by myself. :-) An old friend
helped to build it, he was all of the brains and 1/2 of the work. It took us on and off 18 months to construct. When we were done I ask what he wanted for pay as he would never answer in the several times I had asked him before.
His wages ended up being an 8 day cariboo hunt in the Itcha Mtns about a days ride from home. I supplied the horses and gear and a third guy helped out with the grub. I've never enjoyed paying someone as much before or since. :D In addition he got the biggest bull.

The old fellow who builds that bale roller is still building them at 69 years old. He was selling them for $850 this winter complete with cylinder.

I took some close-up pics today of the wiring of Russell fence for the other folks today, will get them on later.
 
Denny said:
Doe's that lovely hereford have hobbles on? Sure looks like it.I like your barn.
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I got 8 Polled Hereford cows in a load I bought sight-unseen from an old guy in 2002. The fella I had go look at them for me neglected to tell me they were polled. Sorry you Polled guys but I really dislike P H's.
That cow is the last one left, the other 7 left after the same treatment. I don't know why 1 cow, regardless of breed will let a calf suck no matter what and B!!!!!'s like this one will kick their calf's head off because of a few little cracks. They wear those hobbles until they quit kicking, the one last year had them on for 5 weeks.
I think there are about 5-6 Hereford cows left here, they do slowly weed themselves out.

Thanks for the compliment on the barn, I always wanted one like my Dad had in North Dakota way back when I was a young'un
 
gcreekrch said:
Denny said:
Doe's that lovely hereford have hobbles on? Sure looks like it.I like your barn.
Click to expand...

I got 8 Polled Hereford cows in a load I bought sight-unseen from an old guy in 2002. The fella I had go look at them for me neglected to tell me they were polled. Sorry you Polled guys but I really dislike P H's.
That cow is the last one left, the other 7 left after the same treatment. I don't know why 1 cow, regardless of breed will let a calf suck no matter what and B!!!!!'s like this one will kick their calf's head off because of a few little cracks. They wear those hobbles until they quit kicking, the one last year had them on for 5 weeks.
I think there are about 5-6 Hereford cows left here, they do slowly weed themselves out.

Thanks for the compliment on the barn, I always wanted one like my Dad had in North Dakota way back when I was a young'un
Click to expand...

Last evening, Peach Blossom and I ended up in town to get a weeks' worth of mail. We decided to have supper at the local eating emporium and asked our welder son to dine with us. While there, some friends came in so we asked them to sit at our table with us. The conversation centered around the snow storm of the past couple days, and I'm not sure how :roll: but the subject came up about sore uddered cows.

Our neighbor told about working out in Colorado on a ranch back in the 'eighties. This place ran about 600 head of Hereford/Simmental cross cows, which all had white udders. He said that the ranch concentrated on having very gentle cows, because each one calved in a barn, whether the temperature was below zero or 60 above. He said when it snowed, sore teats were a big problem. The cows were fed 150 head at a time, in feed bunks. On the snowy days, after the cows were lined up eating, his job was to go down one side of the feed bunks with a container of A & B udder ointment. While the cows were jammed together eating, he was to reach in between the hind legs and apply A & B ointment to the teats of each cow. Another hired hand was going down the other side of the feed bunks doing the same thing to that row of cows. They did this to all 600 head every day when bright snow was a problem.

My neighbor is a cowboy at heart. Times were tough back in the 'eighties, and he said he was just thankful to have a job. He only got to ride a horse three times in the 14 months he worked on that outfit, but he said it was good experience. Anything else having to do with ranching now seems pretty enjoyable. :-)
 
Ok guess time to fight fire with fire-I'll be packing the camera looking for spoiled uddered Angus cows to share with everybody lol. I shipped an EXT with two nice pump handles last summer-I'd of posted a pic of her but I was ashamed to admit I ever owned her even for a little bit and I sure as hell wasn't a good enough hand to hobble her to get a calf sucking. My Dad's third cousin knew a guy who had breakfast with somebody back in the '70's that had heard that somebody somewhere might of had trouble once with an Angus cow but it's just a rumour so I won't pass it on lol.
 
I've tried to remember a cow that wasn't Hereford or Simmental that had to be hobbled so she would feed her calf. My cows are pretty multi-cultural and I just don't recall another kind/breed that get chapped bags as bad as those. If there was, that cow is long gone also.
I have a neighbor couple who have about 300 Simmental cows. At any given time during calving you can drive by and see 2 or 3 hobbled cows from the highway. :shock: Her job at feeding in the field is to drive down the cows on her 4 wheeler and spray some kind of healing oil on the chapped ones with an Ivomec gun. :roll: I don't have the time or patience for that, no matter if their calves do weigh more than mine at weaning. :-)
 
I guess for 90 years on this place we dealt with problem cows with a loading chute or a rifle so don't have much experience at hobbling. We have neighbors just a mile south have run 150 so Hereford and Hereford cross cows for as long as us and I don't remember seeing many hobbles or bottles of bag balm there either. I have seen ACE tranquilizer by some maternity pens at Angus outfits so they can quiet their heifers down to let the calf suck. Gee Whiz Soapie there's in a little bad in every breed if you look for it lol. We can sling breed mud back and forth here til the proverbial cows come home lol.
 
gcreekrch said:
I've tried to remember a cow that wasn't Hereford or Simmental that had to be hobbled so she would feed her calf. My cows are pretty multi-cultural and I just don't recall another kind/breed that get chapped bags as bad as those. If there was, that cow is long gone also.
I have a neighbor couple who have about 300 Simmental cows. At any given time during calving you can drive by and see 2 or 3 hobbled cows from the highway. :shock: Her job at feeding in the field is to drive down the cows on her 4 wheeler and spray some kind of healing oil on the chapped ones with an Ivomec gun. :roll: I don't have the time or patience for that, no matter if their calves do weigh more than mine at weaning. :-)
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Well, we got plenty of angus cross cattle (of the red variety) and I can tell you it's just as common to put hobbles on them as any other cow. I grew up with mostly simmental and they were no better and no worse. I don't believe that chapped / cracked teats were ever the main culprit though, just ornery critturs that decided they weren't very motherlike. I will say that as far as udders / teats go, blonde d'aquitaine has them all beat hands down. Which isn't to say that they are all good, but by far better than the others I have dealt with on a regular basis.
I can also say with some confiedence that I've come far closer to serious personal injury at the hands of angus cattle than any other. :wink:
 
As I stated in an earlier post " I don't care what colour they are just make em' so they grow"
I'm not an advocate of any breed they all have their merits and drawbacks. For this country a Red Angus cross cow with 1/4 to 3/8 Fleckvieh blood is hard to improve on. One of the best bulls we ever owned as far as weaning weights and productive daughters was a Line 1 bred bull we purchased from Ulrich's back in 1983.
The Hereford breed still has a lot to offer for crossbreeding but until the 8 to 10 cent spread in Hereford LOOKING calves goes away I won't be looking for many Hereford or traditional Simmental cattle
 
That's why I started retaining ownership twenty years ago and collecting carcass data. Fleckvieh/Hfd or Fleckvieh/Angus cattle are hard to beat-there are alot of those cattle up here too. The problem with Fleckvieh cattle are they milk less and keep easier than some of the modern Angus lol.
 

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