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YOUR #1 REASON FOR CULLING A COW

HAY MAKER

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Joined
Feb 13, 2005
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Location
Texas
Age ?temperament ? bad bags have to be right up there at the top,I seem to have a run on bad udders this year,and I didnt have any last year,I got some first calf heifers that aint gonna make mama cows,believe they will be going for a ride next Wed.............good luck
 
I would say temperment is a big one here... I can handle a few over protective cows during calving... But wild fence jumping cows, head to market pretty fast around here.. But like you said sometimes age and bad bags.

I have some cows that are 13 years old and really good shape and pretty good bags.. Yet this spring I had a few heifers with bad udders and one bad bag, kinda sad on nice young cows..
 
Fertility is my biggest concern, temperament and udders are so rarely a problem in Tulis that I have never considered them a problem in over 30 years of breeding them. I will not tolerate a missed calf, mom must make up the lost profit.
 
I saw that you had responded and was waiting to see EXT..... :o :lol:

We go with temperment and age generally here... Or if they just don't fit the program.. Fertility takes care of itself if you have a tight calving season and you ditch.. To me ditching the open ones isn't even a culling issue.. They culled themselves.
 
Northern Rancher said:
Three Little Letters can anybody guess what they are lol.

How would it work to AI the wild EXT daughters to Bodacious? Wouldn't the offspring fit well into your bucking bull program? At the very least they should be able to sing the right tune to make matador music. :wink:
 
Soap,

Buckin Bulls that jump outta the Arena don't do much but cause troubles, LOL.....Hmmmmmm...Maybe we should genetic test EXT's, they might have Saler Breeding, LOL....

Tempermant and Open are automatic.....I almost said bad Bags, but I do have one cow that raises top calves every year. I keep takin a chance on her and she keeps raisin them. It is a bad habit though as you can almost predict an orphan or dead calf with a bad uddered cow....

The one I have kept has two huge front ones and two small back ones. Calf gets onto the back ones and then the front ones as it gets stronger. And te calf is always big. This cow didn't show an udder problem until she was 8. None of the hiefers from her show it.

The guy with the Four O's is probably from Kansas State! I have heard him before, pretty entertaining guy,

PPRM
 
Open would be first bad feet and udders second old does'nt come into play because until you come up open you've got a home here.Ornery should but how do you sell a productive cow for doing what she should.My rankest cows raise good calves and no way a coyote is going to eat their calves.Good fence and corrals can handle those wild cows you actually only handle them 3 or 4 times per year so its not a big deal to me.
 
I don't think they'd make good buckers to be honest-too counterfeit for that I think theyu'd just run off down the arena. We've ran a few in the practice pen and nothing special. A'I'ed the 4H cattle today and sorted a few cows off with one of our young buckers-he shows enough potential to get a treat lol.
 
If they're not bred, or... heaven forbid... they turn up BLACK :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
I'd hafta say OPEN. That's the first thing that'll git you a ride to town around here. Prolapse is a guarantee ride too, but we've only had one of those in I don't know how many years.

Disposition, I"m kinda in the same thinkin that I want them to be a lil aggressive in defendin that calf. I'm not gonna cull one for doin her job. I'd much rather have one that will fight the dogs and buzzards off than one that just walks away. Which I think we've had one of those this year, and she'll prolly git a ride to town too in the next couple weeks when we work cows.

Had one ole cow for a longggggggg time, that had one bad quarter for the last 4 or 5 calves she had, she raised a good calf ever year and stayed till she finally came up open. I think she was 16 years old.
 
Open used to be a trip to town sometimes now it means a chance at getting bred for the fall herd. All depends on the price of a cow at the time.

A cow that is a problem to deal with here mad, mean, and just out to eat your lunch leads to a quick trip to town in the trailer. I feel strongly cows like this are a strong risk to a person's operation. If the operator gets hurt by such cow then the entire outfit suffers.

Prolapse is another quick trip.

The discrepancy of when a cow goes to town around here is a poor calf. My opinion is why give her a chance at another dink when in the long run those calves cost a person money. If the reason it is small is she bred late she will likely bred late again the next year. If she was just a poor mama her first year why give her the chance to do it to another calf?


Oh yeah and a red cow for the spring herd that should be a quick trip to town. :)
 
Alot of old ranchers up here used to sort off any cow that wasn't wet at branding-kind of cleaned up all the management troubles in one shot. Our cows calve pretty much unobserved-if the calf gets sucking on it's own the udder is probably ok-we don't keep heifers from the poorer uddered cows though-other than prolapses-which is a shootable offence-my next thing we'd always cull on is -poor mothering-I won't tolerate a cow that doesn't mother her calf-next time your at a branding watch how many cows know exactly when their calf is dragged out-I like those cows alot better than the ones that go off grazing a half mile from the branding pen.
 
Open is the biggest here and wild and bad bag are next
If I have to keep looking over my shoulder when in the pasture she needs to watch for the truck and trailer.
:x :twisted: :-)
 
Temperament and raising poor calves are the main reasons here. I can't say bad bag because I'm guilty of owning cows with bad bags. But since we spend alot of time with our cows when they calve, and all my cows are quiet, I put up with the bad bags and helping the calves get their first suck, because those cows raise fine calves. Age isn't much of a factor either. If they're still having calves and maintaining body condition, they stay. Oldest cow here is 18 years old, I imagine she'll come back open this fall.
 
I'd have to say, whenever she causes me trouble. That pretty much covers all the things that have been mentioned.

If you always run more cattle than you should, you'll never keep a bad one as your always looking for any that you can sell to cut down on the herd size. :wink:
 
I think being broke will sort off the poor cows I know when I need cash the worst I can pick out goes.But there is no way I am going to help some swing bag with their calves around here a calf that wont or cant nurse is a goner.
 
Denny, your post reminded me of the old fellow we had a sort of lease
deal with in the Powder River Country of Wyoming. It was a big ranch, 28,000 acres in the one we were on and he had two more for a total of 70,000 acres. He ran like 1500 mother cows plus some yearlings. It was a cake and grass deal. His son-in-law was a really good hand with horses and cattle. But old Tom, he wasn't the best stockman you ever came across. Sometimes the cattle got a little thin in that deal. We heard more than once that if Tom came across a cow that looked real good, he'd say,
"By garsh, that ole girl looks pretty good. She's worth a lot of money.
We better haul her to town and cash in."

We weren't there very long and it was somewhat better by then, but
when that old guy was putting all that land together, he did some strange things. But you have to hand it to him, he got it done. Went from being a hired man to owning and controlling 70,000 acres. He put some
money away too, because he died a wealthy man.
 

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