Bull ring

[cowgirl8]

What is your Bull to Cow ratio? Are your heifers just all coming in at around the same time?

We run a bull for every 25 cows. I'm guessing they've all had at least one round of heat since the bulls have been in there almost a month and there are 50 heifers...
Some of our heifers get really big before they are 5 months...as do most people who run a lot of cattle. Its not unheard of to have one bred weanling every now and again. I was watching a few for my daughter who, and i tried to get her to move them, had her weanling heifers with a weanling bull. She had 3 get bred out of 7....hard lesson for her to learn, but sometimes we learn the hard way the best. We had 2 out of 55 and we had 1 out of 50 last year....One was bred by the bull in the pasture, the other a mystery bull. We castrate at around 5 months for the oldest calves, but they arent all the same age, some will be 3 months younger. We just received the vaccinations we ordered so when the guys get their hay up thats on the ground, we will start castrations...Some of the oldest will be near 5, but some are still babies.

 

[Taurus]

I never heard of anyone that always have some teen pregnancies every year.

 

[cowgirl8]

We may have bigger mature heifers than most. Maybe its we keep around 55 a year.....The years we didnt keep any we had 0....lol

 

[TexasBred]

I never heard of anyone that always have some teen pregnancies every year.

I've never seen anyone who thinks these managerial F^*&^ups are funny.

 

[Shanghai]

If you leave your bull in for 6 months to be sure everything gets bred then your going to have some heifers get bred.
Most hit them with lute as a precaution
Used to packer cows were cheap so the slow breeders were culled and palpated at the sale barn and sold as bred for more money than packer prices

Leaving the bull in 90 days still can have heifers bred and more open cows

To each his own

 

[slick4591]

We don't need piedmonteses I guess!

:shock:

 

[Chuckie]

Nesikep, we know you meant that as a joke.

 

[cowgirl8]

If you leave your bull in for 6 months to be sure everything gets bred then your going to have some heifers get bred.
Most hit them with lute as a precaution
Used to packer cows were cheap so the slow breeders were culled and palpated at the sale barn and sold as bred for more money than packer prices

Leaving the bull in 90 days still can have heifers bred and more open cows

To each his own

In the big herds, we have 1 bull for every 25 cows. We also have helper bulls, the yearlings pick up who is missed since the place is big and the cows spread out. Sometimes we keep the helpers, sometimes we dont after the first year. This year out of 250 cows, we had 2 open cows, one aborted. We sold 2 open heifers who were open early on before calving season started i dont count them...so i guess a total of 4. Not bad %....and, we got at least one from an Uh Oh who is healthy and fingers crossed that the one at the vets will do ok and bring home a calf...that brings up our calf loss at out of 250, 2....
I watch the heifers we keep closely and if i see a Uh Oh, i bring her up and keep her at the house. I'd say in 10 years, we may have had a total of 4, and this year 1 bred before weaning. The one at the vets is a mystery since our heifer pasture is away from any neighbors bull and the fences are new and good. So i dunno, bad management, maybe that i dont lute them at weaning but when you get 4 in 10 years is it cost effective to go to the trouble to haul 50ish heifers to get a shot they probably wont need..... and i get a calf out of the mistake...so, there you go. TB I would think bad management would be not watching them and finding a dead heifer..

 

[Kingfisher]

You must have a photographic memory..... just saying...Peace.

 

[cowgirl8]

You must have a photographic memory..... just saying...Peace.

This is my job, my only job and has been a very long time. I do not like to lose an animal or see any suffer. So, in a sense, i have a good memory for how the cows are handled, may not transfer here well, but in the field my memory is on spot.

 

[Shanghai]

If you leave your bull in for 6 months to be sure everything gets bred then your going to have some heifers get bred.
Most hit them with lute as a precaution
Used to packer cows were cheap so the slow breeders were culled and palpated at the sale barn and sold as bred for more money than packer prices

Leaving the bull in 90 days still can have heifers bred and more open cows

To each his own

In the big herds, we have 1 bull for every 25 cows. We also have helper bulls, the yearlings pick up who is missed since the place is big and the cows spread out. Sometimes we keep the helpers, sometimes we dont after the first year. This year out of 250 cows, we had 2 open cows, one aborted. We sold 2 open heifers who were open early on before calving season started i dont count them...so i guess a total of 4. Not bad %....and, we got at least one from an Uh Oh who is healthy and fingers crossed that the one at the vets will do ok and bring home a calf...that brings up our calf loss at out of 250, 2....
I watch the heifers we keep closely and if i see a Uh Oh, i bring her up and keep her at the house. I'd say in 10 years, we may have had a total of 4, and this year 1 bred before weaning. The one at the vets is a mystery since our heifer pasture is away from any neighbors bull and the fences are new and good. So i dunno, bad management, maybe that i dont lute them at weaning but when you get 4 in 10 years is it cost effective to go to the trouble to haul 50ish heifers to get a shot they probably wont need..... and i get a calf out of the mistake...so, there you go. TB I would think bad management would be not watching them and finding a dead heifer..

I wasn't saying you're right or wrong.
Just stating cattle are managed lots of different ways and heifers sometimes get bred
I know a brangus breeder in the Texas panhandle that has some of the best cattle around and people waiting in line to buy heifers and he turns his heifers in with the bulls as yearlings.
He claims he wants them to bred as early as he can and raise a calf. If they can't have a calf and raise it before 2 years old he doesn't want them.
I wouldn't do it but I aint telling him he's wrong either

 

[cowgirl8]

I wasn't saying you're right or wrong.
Just stating cattle are managed lots of different ways and heifers sometimes get bred
I know a brangus breeder in the Texas panhandle that has some of the best cattle around and people waiting in line to buy heifers and he turns his heifers in with the bulls as yearlings.
He claims he wants them to bred as early as he can and raise a calf. If they can't have a calf and raise it before 2 years old he doesn't want them.
I wouldn't do it but I aint telling him he's wrong either

I'm sorry, read a few post and thought i clicked on one, was bringing in groceries and taking out trash...commented in a hurry. Most of that comment was for TB..
We breed our heifers as yearlings, but they have to be big enough. And we use LBW angus, almost never have a problem unless its with the bull. Our heifers get big and are very prolific and it would be a waste to hold them back another year. No one around here does any different. Even if you show a heifer, she better be heavy bred at 2.. Branguscowgirl, is that how it is there with your show heifers? Its been a while since my kids showed...

 

[branguscowgirl]

cowgirl I think you watch and know your cattle pretty darn well!
Just because you may not have every animal documented to a tee, does not mean you are "not keeping track of them well enough" as some may think.
It sounds like your odds have been good for the number of head that you run, and I would wonder if some of the people that have criticized you have any better odds.
It works for you.

 

[cowgirl8]

cowgirl I think you watch and know your cattle pretty darn well!
Just because you may not have every animal documented to a tee, does not mean you are "not keeping track of them well enough" as some may think.
It sounds like your odds have been good for the number of head that you run, and I would wonder if some of the people that have criticized you have any better odds.
It works for you.

Thanks.... If asked about a certain cow i do have to sit and think if i'm in the house. But in the pasture, i know every cow and any ongoing thing i'm watching. Calving season is mindboggling. Remember whose udder is filling, whose backend is showing, who looks like they are starting labor, in each of the 5 herds...I go out 3 times a day during calving season at about 20 miles each time on a 4wheeler. I know it sounds scatterbrained here, but, its not when i'm standing in each herd. I have records, but i only need those when we retag..

 

[branguscowgirl]

Branguscowgirl, is that how it is there with your show heifers? Its been a while since my kids showed...

Oh yes. If you are breeding at 18 mos. obviously they are about 6 mos. along.

 

[cowgirl8]

Ugh, we have another bull out. One of the older registered angus bulls....ugh Not sure what is wrong, have to wait till morning to go check him out. I know it was a back leg and he wasnt putting weight on it...ugh Did see someone who is into black herefords and was able to get info on bull breeders. I'm liking how my daughters half herefords are looking and her cows are a lot like ours so the mix is obviously good. She has some really nice calves.

 

[Lazy M]

Black hereford? Ha! You're really going to push people's buttons on here now! Awesome

 

[Lazy M]

Btw: sorry about the bull. I just had one come up lame on me too. Found that he somehow had gotten an old nail stuck in foot. Took him to the vet and had his foot drained, but I doubt that I'll get much out of him this breeding season..

 

[wacocowboy]

Ugh, we have another bull out. One of the older registered angus bulls....ugh Not sure what is wrong, have to wait till morning to go check him out. I know it was a back leg and he wasnt putting weight on it...ugh Did see someone who is into black herefords and was able to get info on bull breeders. I'm liking how my daughters half herefords are looking and her cows are a lot like ours so the mix is obviously good. She has some really nice calves.

You have bad luck with Angus I think I might try a different breed. I don't like Black Herefords at all but the best I have ever seen are on a ranch in Mexia TX I see them sell bulls every once in awhile.

 

[TexasBred]

Calving at 24 months has pretty much become the industry standard. No reason to wait any longer regardless of size. Those that calve at 14-15 months are the ones that shouldn't happen...the same for finding out a cow is 8 months bred and not even knowing it.