Chevylove4450
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Hey so I hope I'm posting in the right place, got a few questions.
To start off, I'm an ex-dairy farmer. Market forced me out in spring of 2019. I'm no idiot when it comes to cattle, but the differences in beef and dairy has me feeling like an idiot.
So when I sold my herd I kept back one heifer (jersey x lineback) for a couple reasons, one being she's tame. Two being she didnt have any good bids, which was odd because all of my other line backs sold quick and not. Three being my wife and I wanted to have atleast one bovine around yet to kick steers out of and just because I can't live without some type of bovine.
I bred this heifer to a gyr bull, don't remember the sire name, but got the seman from ST Genetics. My wife likes them floppy eared things so we thought it would be cool to breed that heifer to one and either raise a gyr cross steer.
I didn't pull him off the tit until he was around 8 months old, milking a single cow isn't on top of my priority list. When do beef guys typically wean calves? I'm assuming 8 months is later then normal beef weaning. My dairy calves were obviously bottle/bucket fed and weaned at 2 months, so not sure when to wean beef calves from the tit. Along with that, some back story.. we ride too. And have a jack that we use for breeding mares for mules. The way our new place that we bought is set up, we have two dry lots for over wintering. Currently the mares are on one side with the steer, and the jack on the other with the cow. Where the cow is is set up for cattle, and I'd like to have the steer on that side to, but anytime he gets close to that cow he just can't stop sucking. Are those nose rings for weaning worth it? I used them to keep heifers and cows not sucking on each other in the cow yard, but I don't know if this steer having one in will make that cow hesitant to nurse in the future or if it doesn't work that way?
Second, are gyr/Brahman cattle really dumb? I've read every where they're typically very intelligent cattle. But man, this steer has zero brain. It won't eat grain unless it's fed in a pail hung from a gate, if I dump grain in a bunk it won't even touch it.
I'm sure I'll come up with more questions. Amazes me how much dairy and beef are different, coming from dairy cattle atleast.
Thanks for any replies!
To start off, I'm an ex-dairy farmer. Market forced me out in spring of 2019. I'm no idiot when it comes to cattle, but the differences in beef and dairy has me feeling like an idiot.
So when I sold my herd I kept back one heifer (jersey x lineback) for a couple reasons, one being she's tame. Two being she didnt have any good bids, which was odd because all of my other line backs sold quick and not. Three being my wife and I wanted to have atleast one bovine around yet to kick steers out of and just because I can't live without some type of bovine.
I bred this heifer to a gyr bull, don't remember the sire name, but got the seman from ST Genetics. My wife likes them floppy eared things so we thought it would be cool to breed that heifer to one and either raise a gyr cross steer.
I didn't pull him off the tit until he was around 8 months old, milking a single cow isn't on top of my priority list. When do beef guys typically wean calves? I'm assuming 8 months is later then normal beef weaning. My dairy calves were obviously bottle/bucket fed and weaned at 2 months, so not sure when to wean beef calves from the tit. Along with that, some back story.. we ride too. And have a jack that we use for breeding mares for mules. The way our new place that we bought is set up, we have two dry lots for over wintering. Currently the mares are on one side with the steer, and the jack on the other with the cow. Where the cow is is set up for cattle, and I'd like to have the steer on that side to, but anytime he gets close to that cow he just can't stop sucking. Are those nose rings for weaning worth it? I used them to keep heifers and cows not sucking on each other in the cow yard, but I don't know if this steer having one in will make that cow hesitant to nurse in the future or if it doesn't work that way?
Second, are gyr/Brahman cattle really dumb? I've read every where they're typically very intelligent cattle. But man, this steer has zero brain. It won't eat grain unless it's fed in a pail hung from a gate, if I dump grain in a bunk it won't even touch it.
I'm sure I'll come up with more questions. Amazes me how much dairy and beef are different, coming from dairy cattle atleast.
Thanks for any replies!