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What would you do?

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
I have 13 bulls running with about 300 cows in a section and a half. The water is located in the middle. My bulls look to have been working hard in this heat and some are looking a little sore and swollen one a little sore footed but not footrot. And a couple at times go off and lay in the brush. I have 13 yearling bulls here at the yard that I could turn out 6 or so but should I pull the tired looking ones or just dump the yearlings in with them?
 

DJL

Well-known member
I like to pull the tired ones before the fresh ones go out. They may be tired, but they seem to find the energy to fight a little. Its good to have fresh bulls to put out midway. Wish we did, but not this year.
 

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
Faster horses said:
How hard do you want to work? :wink: :p :shock: :? :lol: :lol:


Oh I'm a brute for punishment :!: :wink:

The big bulls have been out for 3 weeks so have the first cycle covered.Would the ones left catch the few cows left? It wouldn't be to hard to gather the older bulls but the would just be across the fence and probably want to go back in a few days. Maybe I just answered myself. :???:
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
Well, if it were me, (us) we'd just leave them in to finish up.
They are used to being together and I bet you'll be just fine on
breed up. It is nothing here to get 80-90% bred in the first heat
cycle. In that case, you should not have many cows left to come in.
20% of 300=60 for 13 bulls. That's only 5 cows per bull.

Hope this helps. :???:
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
Today was day 21 of our breeding season and I have already removed two bulls from the pasture... One who sufferd the near bobbiting and his half brother who suffered a mear sprain in the same area :roll: Half brothers... Hmmm. We are down to 9 bulls but we run in much, much smaller pastures than 1.5 sections, heck the whole rotation doesn't cover that much ground. We have 4 bulls left, They are going in tomorrow, most of the bulls are in great shape but those 2 wounded ones.

I would probably pull the tired/sore ones because it does seem like no matter how beat up they are they want to fight..
 

cowsense

Well-known member
BMR; The only sure answer is to gather up all them suicidal Black Bulls and turn out a battery of better coloured tougher bulls!!! Feel free to contact me if you need any advice on different breeds!!! :twisted: :p :p :lol: :lol: :lol: :wink:
 

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
cowsense said:
BMR; The only sure answer is to gather up all them suicidal Black Bulls and turn out a battery of better coloured tougher bulls!!! Feel free to contact me if you need any advice on different breeds!!! :twisted: :p :p :lol: :lol: :lol: :wink:

I don't think it would help to trade with my neighbors cause their "better coloured " bulls were looking pretty tired today when I saw them along the hiway. This heat has been tough but mostly they just look a little sore from breeding so many cows. FH is probably right and not many cows left to breed.
 

cowsense

Well-known member
BMR; The heat has been hard on the bulls; hope it don't show up as a slowdown in calving next spring......one thing is for sure ; the grass is hard cured; I've always had cows breed back better in drier years. We turned out extra bulls on Monday; left the old ones out as they are several miles from the corrals; hope they don't cripple any of the yearlings!
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
I turned out a homegrown bull by himself with 200 cows yesterday-we'll give him a week than start A'I'ing-only way to be sure which calves will be his-if he doesn't get many bred it won't back us up any. He's a perfect EXT antidote quiet as a dead pig-were setting up his 15 year old mamma to flush today.
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
P1011084.jpg


Here's the old girls feet-not bad for 15 years in our marshy ground-she's an old commercial cow but have sold alot of bulls from her.
 

alabama

Well-known member
Faster horses said:
Well, if it were me, (us) we'd just leave them in to finish up.
They are used to being together and I bet you'll be just fine on
breed up. It is nothing here to get 80-90% bred in the first heat
cycle. In that case, you should not have many cows left to come in.
20% of 300=60 for 13 bulls. That's only 5 cows per bull.

Hope this helps. :???:

FH; I just had a thought. :???:
It is just too hot in alabama to bred cows this time of year and the heat in your area is hotter than normal. I think you better keep close eye on your cows. They may not bred as well in the heat so you may end up with late calves or a lot of open ones if you pull the bulls too quick.
Just a thought :???:
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Wouldn't even be a question for me- With this heat I'd just turn the young ones out and pick them all up later- hopefully when its cooler...They'll probably honk and fight for a while but these hot days have even taken a lot of the fight out of most of them...Its a lot easier gathering a bunch of yearling bulls if they've got some old troopers with them--And they'll have to be together sometime anyway if you keep any over...
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
You have a good point there, alabama. But if these cows can't breed
for any reason, then they go to town. We won't tolerate a long calving season. We turned the bulls in June 13, 45 days on the cows means we
gather them tomorrow. It hasn't been hot that long, but sure has been
for the last two weeks. Guess we'll see how it turns out. We already
have pulled the bulls from the yearlings. If they breed in 30 days
as yearlings, it seems they breed up well all through their lifetime.

Thanks for the caution, though. We need all the help we can get.
If we had more cattle like Soapweed, we would have to consider
keeping the bulls out longer, like he does. With a much smaller bunch
we need the calves to be as uniform as possible.
 

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