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Trailing yearling heifers

Soapweed

Well-known member
Our neighbor is undergoing some health problems and it wasn't going to work out for him to AI 200 heifers as planned. I told him that we could just trail the heifers back home, as we still have some hay. I'll eventually need to buy a few more light birthweight bulls to breed to them. On Monday of this week, we hauled our horses up north and drove the heifers back to our place. When we arrived home after about a fourteen mile ride, we decided to take the hobbles off the cow before coming in to eat dinner. That is when my shoulder went kapooie, so I got to go visit the doctor in the afternoon.

Here are the pictures from our cattle drive.

Gettinganearlystart.jpg

Getting an early start
greengrasslooksgood.jpg

Green grass looks good
Mudpuddlesarenice.jpg

Mud puddles are nice
Goingdowntheroad.jpg

Going down the road
Takingupalotofroad.jpg

Cluttering up the roadway
StringingoutthroughtheSandhills.jpg

Stringing out through the Sandhills
Countingthroughthegate.jpg

Counting through the gate
Traipsingthroughthehills.jpg

Traipsing through the hills
Skylined.jpg

Skylined
Goodshapetobreed.jpg

Good shape to breed
Overthehills.jpg

Over the hills
Heiferscheckingoutsoapweed.jpg

Heifers checking out soapweed
Lineofladies.jpg

Line of ladies
Threeofthegirls.jpg

Three of the girls
Saddletrampbringingthemalong.jpg

Saddletramp bringing them along
Almosthome.jpg

Almost home
 

WB

Well-known member
Nice pics as usual. Sorry to hear about your shoulder hope it doesn't slow you down too much. But with all that good help I am sure you will manage.

I suppose now we won't need to convince you to AI them girls to a Hereford bull. Oh well I guess there is always next year. LOL.


On my own heifers I had 10 AI calves out of a Hereford bull and had to help one smaller heifer. (she was a twin at birth and never did seem to gorw much) It was an easy assist but I would not have wanted the calf any bigger. It goes to show that there are good Hereford calving ease bulls out there if you want some hybred vigor.
 

Shelly

Well-known member
Pretty nice heifers, all fat and sassy. They're in fine shape. Only one thing I could see wrong with them, though.

They're all black!!!! :) :wink:
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
As for me, I think they look excellent, Soapweed...including the color.

Your country looks a far cry from ours today. I will have to post some pictures. Yep, everything looks good in Nebraska. (wish I was there~ :wink: )

Sure sorry about your shoulder. You must have needed a rest and it was provided for you. That's what I always think when these things happen. :p

After all there has to be a reason.
 

Red Robin

Well-known member
I can't remember who told me the story or any of the particulars actually but I remember something about someone I know breeding swamp cattle down in LA . They were catching natural heats, head and heeling them and breeding them on the ground. Anyone ever done that? I've bred them behind gates a couple times for different folks but never bred one laying down. I can't imagine the conception rate being all that good. I'd be in trouble if they fell on their right side. I use my left hand in a cow.
 

Rowdy Ranch

Well-known member
Excellent set of replacements!! WEll, it should work good to put a few heifer bulls on them.Sorry about your injury,Soapweed and about your friend. So how is everyone doing today? We loaded out 2 loads of replacements that were sold 2 months ago to the same man who has purchased them for the 3rd yr. Never seen them look much better or load any better-we had good help so that was a plus. Still branding calves,but today fencing on my part and field work for a couple others. Not enough help to run thru the number of cattle we need til tommorrow. All have a great,safe, and blessed day :)
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
Dad was actually one of the "pioneers" in AIing. In either the spring of 1959 or 1960, Raymond Andrews from Cody, Nebraska, did the "technical" part of the deal. Dad had bought a good looking Pioneer-bred bull from Chamberlin Herefords of White River, South Dakota, and Raymond came out to our ranch to collect the bull. This consisted of putting a hot cow in the chute, and collecting the bull as he tried to breed the cow. The semen was mixed with condensed milk and kept fresh. Dad said they got about 130 calves out of that bull the next year, and had to collect the bull three or four different times during the course of the spring to make it all happen.

Harvey Thayer did AIing for Dad throughout the 'sixties, but the procedure had modernized quite a bit by then. He used frozen semen, and Dad mainly used a bull called Princeton that Fulchers from Holyoke, Colorada, had raised. The corral set-up wasn't the best in those days, and once in a while a cow that was too rambunctious would get out. Then it was time to head and heel her, and Harvey would perform the needed procedure as she laid on the ground. Our summer pasture was thirty miles from home back then, which required a three-day cattle drive. Harvey would meet us at designated locations, and we'd head and heel a few cows for him to breed. It was always exciting.

Back to the present, I just peeked at the cow that we took the hobbles off of on Monday. She is sucked out, and she even mooed at the calf in motherly fashion. This is a case where I'm not sure who won the battle and who won the war. The mission was accomplished but the casualties were high. :wink:
 

Ranchy

Well-known member
Those are some great lookin black heifers! And your country has greened up so good! Wish ours looked like that!

Feel better soon, shoulders are nothing to mess with......ripped out my AC joint 17 years ago, and it still gives me troubles...... :roll:

Hope your neighbor is better, too!
 

WB

Well-known member
"The mission was accomplished but the causalties were high"


Been there done that. My wife says it is easier to let the cow have her way but there is a side of me that won't let the cow win. Altough I had one last year that got "her way" straight to the local salebarn. Ha ha I won in the end.
 

George

Well-known member
The worst cow I have ever worked with was a Simnital about 1,500# of pure mean.

The man that owned her tried to sell her several times but could not handle her well enough to get her loaded.

Any human in a field with her was in real danger. One saterday morning I was loading out some calves to move and she saw me from the back of a 40 acre field and boy did she come !!!! I had some calves in the front compartment of the trailer and at a dead run she went in the trailer and I got the door slammed before she came to a stop. I went to the local sale barn and warned the owner to clear the area and put her in a bull pen - - before the sale she tore down two bull pens. They did not take her to the ring but sold her where she was and I never saw her again.

I agree that a little protective ness around a calf is good but I don't feel you have to keep the real bad ones.
 
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