2016 calving season on CBJ ranch

[cmay]

Do you work your calves and precondition them or just wean on fumes straight off momma?

Around here tags are a good indication that calves have been worked. Our spring born calves even get a fly tag for their opposite ear.

TT, In my part of the world, if the calves are branded and castrated, they have probably been given at least one round of shots - whether they have an ear tag or not. Any other rounds of shots / weaning / preconditioning are stated at the sale.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Do you work your calves and precondition them or just wean on fumes straight off momma?

Around here tags are a good indication that calves have been worked. Our spring born calves even get a fly tag for their opposite ear.

TT, In my part of the world, if the calves are branded and castrated, they have probably been given at least one round of shots - whether they have an ear tag or not. Any other rounds of shots / weaning / preconditioning are stated at the sale.

No one that I'm aware of brands in our area. I agree it would serve the same purpose as tagging. I bet if we took a poll we'd find very few southeastern operations who do employ branding.

 

[True Grit Farms]

To each their own. But every calf sold by any operation should of been worked and weaned. IMO A good reputation is earned by doing the little things right. I'll just throw something else out there about ear tags that's very important to us.
We match the sale barn number to the ear tag number of the calf. Because I try and keep track what each calf brought as it sells in the ring. Then when I get home we match up the calf to the cow and know what the cow has done money wise.
Believe it or not the same cows seem to have the highest selling caves every year. And those are the one's you want to keep your replacements.

 

[cowgirl8]

TT, In my part of the world, if the calves are branded and castrated, they have probably been given at least one round of shots - whether they have an ear tag or not. Any other rounds of shots / weaning / preconditioning are stated at the sale.

Run a steer though the ring......his proof he's been worked is no nuts. lol
TT We do all the recommended things required. So fear not, they may not have tags, but they've received the attention needed. We'll have them in the corral one more time before we sell, there they'll have a ear clipped to show, Hey, i've been in a chute! if having no nuts isnt enough... i mean, if they can tell i used a band, i'm guessing they can tell there are no nuts. lol
In 2014, we branded all our calves. Prices were just too tempting for someone to nab a calf and haul it to the sale. But that was the only year. The guy down the road does so much to his calves, well, i'm guessing he does. They'll have clip out of the ear, notches off the side of their ear, brands all over.....bless their hearts.
I'm going to bet that every calf bought by experienced buyers, get rounds of every shot whether they've been told they've had it already. I've watched cowhands administer vaccination that they either didnt get enough of, or the vaccine sat in the sun...there is no guarantee. I'm in charge of vaccines when we vaccinate, i'm so careful that it stays out of the sun and stays cold. For the rancher, the vaccines are mainly for the time you have the calf. If you're hauling to the sale barn, it may help when a buyer considers them but i just bet that calf still gets everything that trailer load is getting...

 

[Rafter S]

We match the sale barn number to the ear tag number of the calf. Because I try and keep track what each calf brought as it sells in the ring. Then when I get home we match up the calf to the cow and know what the cow has done money wise.

Same here.

 

[cowgirl8]

We match the sale barn number to the ear tag number of the calf. Because I try and keep track what each calf brought as it sells in the ring. Then when I get home we match up the calf to the cow and know what the cow has done money wise.

Same here.

Buy the time our calves go to the sale, i already know which cow did not do as good of a job or did a extra good job. I take pictures of our calves after they've been tagged. If something comes up, like a calf did not bring as much as the rest, i have a picture of that calf. Most times its the sale barns fault. We try to haul loads of matching calves, so one comes up small, we smell a rat....Doesnt happen often, but it only takes one time to not trust...

 

[MNBelties]

Beautiful calf! Is he a Limousine?

 

[cowgirl8]

Beautiful calf! Is he a Limousine?

Thank you....he gets a chance at being a bull......maybe
I know right...He's mostly angus. I would guess limo too if i didnt know him. The bull is angus/ sim/ with maybe 1/10th simbra. Calf will be at least 75% angus if not more, but looks just like the bull...Cow is sim/angus, black w/f...

 

[cowgirl8]

Here is a heifer i gotta keep..She is out of BBjr..

 

[cowgirl8]

Her half sister didnt want her picture taken, but a keeper too. There is a big group in here that should be kept....

 

[cowgirl8]

More from that herd. BBjr died after last breeding season, after he showed us what he can produce. Ugh....but luckily we kept a bull out of him to keep that line going. he's the 'helper bull this year ;-)

a couple more calves from this herd.

 

[cowgirl8]

Another keeper heifer..

 

[cowgirl8]

Heifer herd calves. Not as impressive, but not bad either. Its been a good year

 

[MNBelties]

Nice calves! Much better than the first ones.

 

[midTN_Brangusman]

Do you work your calves and precondition them or just wean on fumes straight off momma?

Around here tags are a good indication that calves have been worked. Our spring born calves even get a fly tag for their opposite ear.

TT, In my part of the world, if the calves are branded and castrated, they have probably been given at least one round of shots - whether they have an ear tag or not. Any other rounds of shots / weaning / preconditioning are stated at the sale.

No one that I'm aware of brands in our area. I agree it would serve the same purpose as tagging. I bet if we took a poll we'd find very few southeastern operations who do employ branding.

We brand because we run registered stock now, but we have several neighbors that do their commercial herds as well.

 

[cowgirl8]

Nice calves! Much better than the first ones.

The first are more angus, from our younger herds. The ones on this page are from our old gals who are more fleck sim. We use our sim mix homegrown bulls on them. Its a smaller herd of 40ish.. We have one cow in there that is a 2000 model. She's our oldest cow now,most of the older ones are 2003 and 4... We culled real hard back in 2014 when a old bred cow brought over 2000...Down to just a few older gals...We keep many heifers from this herd to keep some sim in our herd.

 

[cmay]

We match the sale barn number to the ear tag number of the calf. Because I try and keep track what each calf brought as it sells in the ring. Then when I get home we match up the calf to the cow and know what the cow has done money wise.

Same here.

Does is make as much difference if you sell 50 or more at a time as one lot to match the price with the dam?

 

[Jessica06]

Nice cattle!

 

[Rafter S]

We match the sale barn number to the ear tag number of the calf. Because I try and keep track what each calf brought as it sells in the ring. Then when I get home we match up the calf to the cow and know what the cow has done money wise.

Same here.

Does is make as much difference if you sell 50 or more at a time as one lot to match the price with the dam?

Probably not. In my part of the world calves are rarely sold in lots at the auction barn. Instead they're run through the ring and bid on one at a time. Different management practices work for different people in different country and different situations.

 

[elkwc]

Same here.

Does is make as much difference if you sell 50 or more at a time as one lot to match the price with the dam?

Probably not. In my part of the world calves are rarely sold in lots at the auction barn. Instead they're run through the ring and bid on one at a time. Different management practices work for different people in different country and different situations.

Around here the bigger the group the better as long as it isn't over one load.