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Today at GCreek

I am continually amazed at what some breeders put up with in their cows.
The bad udders, lack of mothering ability, bad dispositions etc.

Last spring I had a couple bulls I wanted semen checked early and the vet had two anugs cows there penned up. My bulls were checking them out pretty closely, but the vet just laughed and said she is in the process of induceing these two black cows. Apparently they both prolapsed last year before they calved and they thought if they induced them early, they wouldn't have to sew them up. Never would have beleived it either if I hadn't witnessed it myself.

I don't own a set of hobbles, never use Ace, and about 75% of the time I can get calves up and nursing without headgating my heifers or cows.

These cows that don't claim calves or won't let calfs nurse is bad genetics. Get rid of them and save yourself the trouble. I remember growing up having some of the problems you guys are talking about, but since running my own herd, they only had one chance to do it and they were gone. Culling does reduce the problems. I can't remember the last time I had a cow that wouldn't claim her calf or let it nurse. Maybe it is gentecic, maybe it is management as I calve out in the open when weather cooperates so the udders stay cleaner.

I have lived and culled by the rule that if they need help for other than a weather issues, they won't be here long. That is one of the reasons why I am considering calving later into May and then string my bulls through the winter and then sell them as May coming twos. The extra feed I feed the bulls would be more than offset by the feed savings I would get by calving later.

I have always wondered why the oldtime Hereford breeders put up with the things they did.
 
Brian did you get my e-mail yesterday in regards to your bull. Can you put up a picture of his mother under a new thread-a Hereford breeder up here would like to see her.
 
I will do that later today. I don't know if I have one of her in production yet. I have been takeing a lot of pictures of cows this past couple months and I will see what I can find.

I know I have one of her grazing stalks this winter.
 
Northern Rancher said:
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.
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I grew up in a wonderful home, with kind and loving parents. The only "child abuse" that I suffered usually had to do with "inconsiderate" Herefords, and the problems thus encountered. It is hard to erase those memories. :wink: :-)

SMN Herf said:
I am continually amazed at what some breeders put up with in their cows.
The bad udders, lack of mothering ability, bad dispositions etc.

I don't own a set of hobbles, never use Ace, and about 75% of the time I can get calves up and nursing without headgating my heifers or cows.

These cows that don't claim calves or won't let calfs nurse is bad genetics. Get rid of them and save yourself the trouble. I remember growing up having some of the problems you guys are talking about, but since running my own herd, they only had one chance to do it and they were gone. Culling does reduce the problems. I can't remember the last time I had a cow that wouldn't claim her calf or let it nurse. Maybe it is gentecic, maybe it is management as I calve out in the open when weather cooperates so the udders stay cleaner.

I have lived and culled by the rule that if they need help for other than a weather issues, they won't be here long. That is one of the reasons why I am considering calving later into May and then string my bulls through the winter and then sell them as May coming twos. The extra feed I feed the bulls would be more than offset by the feed savings I would get by calving later.

I have always wondered why the oldtime Hereford breeders put up with the things they did.
Click to expand...

What about the other 25 percent? Do you have to put them in a headgate to get their calf to suck?

We have only "headgated" about five cows on the whole ranch to get their calves to suck this season. My usual plan if they don't suck is to drench them once with powdered colostrum. That ususally whets their appetite enough that the next time they get hungry, they figure out how to suck. If that doesn't work, once in a while we will headgate her, but usually she gets a free trip to town. With this culling program for the last many years, we don't have much of those types of problems.

I do share your "wonderment" about why the oldtime Hereford breeders put up with the things they did. This brings me to why I am what I am today. :roll: :wink: :-)
 
Funny how what I write and what I meant to say aren't the same thing. I meant that if I need to help calves nurse, most of my cows are tame enough to not need a headgate. I can get them in a pen and they will stand if needed.

We have had about 30" of snow this since the 26th of March. I don't run as many numbers as you, but I do calve them all by myself and I only headgated 3 cows this spring. 2 heifers with one bakwards calf and 1 with head sticking out but no feet and one cow with a backwards calf. My herd here is about 90% straight hereford., Registered and commercial. My 4's and older calve a half a mile north of the place. No headgate there as I feel I don't really need it.

Haven't had trouble getting calves to nurse at all. I figure if it is above zero and no wind a calf should be able to get up and going. Last year I AI'd to a heifer bull born in the southrn US and I had to help a couple calvess get started by just getting in the pen with the cow and calf and helping her start. Thought it was the weather, as it was beow zero, but they were in the barn and once the cleanup bulls' calves started coming, it was noticeably different .Glad I only used 10 straws.

I fully understand your past experiences and don't doubt for a second they are real. I had some of the same. I don't advocate everyone to go back to straight Hereford females either, but I have seen with my own eyes within our own family operation the value of the crossbred female while at the same time not adding to the problems of the past. My family went from a straight hereford cowherd to alot of high percentage Angus cow and now back to a herd with Hereford in it. Incidently, some of the worse uddered cows I have had in my own cows have been sired by Precision 1680. I see there are a lot of sons and grandsons of him out there.


Have a great day, supposed to be in the upper 50's so the grass is gonna get green soon.

Brian
 
I don't care what color or what breed if they have a bad disposition and could get someone hurt they deserve a one way trip to town. A couple summers ago we all learned on this place what keeping one can do. End up with a hurt man, a broken foot and ankle, and surgery. No thanks keeping that cow to put in the fall herd cost way more then what she was worth. :mad:
 
In my thoughts I see many breeders had problems and changed breeds to solve their problems. In all reality they just changed their management practices. I have seen many guys change breeds and when they did they started being more selective. They would pay more for bulls when before they bought market bulls. Once they paid more for bulls they paid more attention to their cattle and the management. They couldn't stand to see a 4000 dolar bull fail with their new breed. Before when they bought a market bull they were just bulls and cows to them.
Why some guys couldn't see that they were picking the wrong bulls. They just thought they were picking the wrong breed. Management. So when they bought their new breed they only tightened up their management. Their turnaround had nothing to do with breed it was management.
When someone has to grasp at straws and condemn a breed for sunburnt udders Angus + Salers temperment or Simm big calves they are showing how narrow minded they are. They were picking the wrong line not the wrong breed. A rancher should not blame their management inadequacies(SP) for a breed and look at their own self.
 
We all have our personal preferences for the breed of choice based on many factors. Before we get our shorts in a bunch on what seems like an ongoing issue about "Herefords vs whatever", lets look at it this way and sit back and enjoy "our" breed.
Psalm 50 vs8-11 tells us that God says "I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine."
Reminds me of the song we sang as children, even though it refers to God's children......"Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight!" :-) ......Herefords and Simmies, Angus and Chars....all God's creatures :D :D I gotta go out and feed my blacks :wink:
 

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