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Smart butts! lol I was simply responding to Lucky's comment about beef calves not being much to look at when raised on the bottle.

I'm feeding some crossbred calves. 50% Gelbvieh 50% Holstein. Man they can grow far better than my Holstein heifers. However, they do get a 26% protein milk replacer so they are putting the muscle on. The beef crosses seem to build muscle whereas the Holsteins seem to stay leaner and frame up more.

Put a stick or something in the tank to check the level of nitrogen in the tank. You can't glance in and see liquid and forget about it.

Butterfat always falls off in the summertime. The heat is killer on dry matter intake and that is one important aspect to producing butterfat. Dairymen always struggle to keep components up through the summer months.

Wheat straw is nothing more than a filler with minimal nutritional value. Some guys will soak straw bales with molasses to add palatability and protein but as TB said treatments like this are expensive and added labor. If you are short on hay and need to stretch your forage straw would work...

I haven't had the best of luck using CIDR's. I prefer to give a shot of prostaglandin and watch for heats. If they don't come into heat give a second round of prostaglandin 7-10 days later. You'll have heats within 2-3 days of giving the first shot and be on your way to getting cows bred. Fewer...

I think if you are serious about AIing you would be best served to take a class. Yeah you could do like pollinator and figure out how to get semen in the cow but your success will likely be significantly less than if you had taken a class and learned the ins and outs of AI. It's far more than...

I have an MVE. It works fine but then I got it new 3 years ago so it better not have any issues yet. I think if you are looking at new I would let price dictate which one I bought. Used is hard to say. I wouldn't be all that keen on buying a 10 year old tank and filling it full of expensive semen.

Huh?

I have heard that there are cases where a cow conceives twins but loses one sometime early on. If it were a heifer/bull twinning the heifer is likely sterile with no evidence of a twin at birth. I doubt it would happen 3 times in the same year but just something interesting I heard. I don't even...

That has been my experience as well. They say 90% heifers.

Have a neighbor that swears this works. Says she is about 98% accurate at determining the sex before it is born.

Wow that was a helpful post. Thank you

I wouldn't use any of the bulls you listed. Reliability is 60-61%! I can pick up genomic bulls with absolutely zero progeny that are in the 74-75% range.

Like I said it's night and day difference. I can tell without ever asking when they start putting it in the feed. This time of the year is the worst because they aren't putting it on yet and with these 60 and 70 degree days it doesn't take more than 5 days and there is a lot of mold showing up...

I would ask you to back that up by shooting up a few of your cows that are in early pregnancy with dex.

Curious where you got your information. It sounds nothing like what my vet told me.

I've been told that Land O Lakes is a top notch replacer. Nobody around my area handles it because it was quite expensive. Like all things though, you usually get what you pay for. Cutting corners on milk replacer will likely result in reduced gains and more sick calves.

Use a higher quality engine oil and you can stretch the 150 hour change interval. John Deere now has Plus 50 II engine oil that they claim will go 500 hours. I wouldn't push it that long but it should still be good for 300+. I've used Schaeffer's oil before and they give free oil analysis kits...

The plant I buy from puts a mold inhibitor on the modified through the summer months. If you do indeed go through with this, assuming the plant you buy from uses an inhibitor, make sure they are applying it at the time you buy. They don't like to start none to early here as it can be in the...