Calving 2023

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greybeard said:
That's a lot of hay string or net. I always tried to pick up what was visible in my compost pile. Maybe I worried too much tho.
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It is alot. This property only been leasing it a couple years now. Shoved a lot of that crap into that hill from the previous tenants, which just exposed more net wrapping. Now, where we feed hay, i keep that picked up pretty good.
 
I had a place leased a few years ago that had baling twine all over; picked some up, but I was not going clean up his place. Pretty sure I lost a calf because of the twine that year. Luckily it was the only one I lost. That place was a mess, I had to fix his corals just so I had something to ship them out of. He had cut all the pole off the coral, I put up some of the guard rail he had there, just enough to hold my cows so I could get them loaded.
That place cost me a lot of money, I ended up having to leave mid July as I ran out of feed; he said it would last me until end of August first part of September. He tried several times to get me to come out to his ranch to give him a had. I knew if I ever went out there I would never get away from him. He worked all the angles. None of his neighbors liked him, of course I found that out after I had leased that farm.
 
lithuanian farmer said:
125,6lbs before feeding.
View attachment 27734
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I've had cows that produced big calves because I always tried to go for maternal traits in producing heifers... and since they were experienced cows I avoided easy calving/birth weight bulls. But yours seem to be averaging bigger than mine by quite a bit. I gotta say, I'm impressed. And I'm also impressed by the bulls you are using. We do things so differently, apparently, in the states. I'm not impressed by the bulls here and the average cow's ability to deliver decent sized calves has gotten pathetic.
 
Travlr said:
I've had cows that produced big calves because I always tried to go for maternal traits in producing heifers... and since they were experienced cows I avoided easy calving/birth weight bulls. But yours seem to be averaging bigger than mine by quite a bit. I gotta say, I'm impressed. And I'm also impressed by the bulls you are using. We do things so differently, apparently, in the states. I'm not impressed by the bulls here and the average cow's ability to deliver decent sized calves has gotten pathetic.
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Thank you. My one of the main goals is improve calving ability in our herd, so very easy calving bulls aren't really wanted. Rarely an easy calving bull produces daughters with better calving ease. There are some, but it's very uncommon.
Culards are terminal sires, as they reduce pelvic area for their daughters, but some people do keep crossbred daughters as cows and they do well. If I'll get any heifers and wi decide to keep them, plan to use something like salers on them, for abit easier direct calving and improved pelvic area to the offspring.
Never wrote something like that here, but I do agree on the lack of calving capacity. If I got a calf of 60-70lbs I would think that something isn't right, that either I need to search for the second calf or cow is sick.
Our average birth weight is somewhere in 100-110lbs range I would say. It did increase with time, but cows became more capable as well. 13 years ago 110lbs calf was big to us, now it's normal size. Of course I would rather do not have calves at 120lbs and above, but as long as they are managable for cows and aren't unwilling to live themselves it's not a big problem.
 
Lithuanian - I had your kind of BW calf the other day. 297 days (12 days late for Simmental). Cow spit it out in few minutes, calf popped right up and found the bag. 123# HEIFER!!!! Beautiful - red, blaze face out of a black bull.
And the best thing - she was the end of calving season (of course they were the LAST one due and made us wait 12 days)
 
Jeanne - Simme Valley said:
Lithuanian - I had your kind of BW calf the other day. 297 days (12 days late for Simmental). Cow spit it out in few minutes, calf popped right up and found the bag. 123# HEIFER!!!! Beautiful - red, blaze face out of a black bull.
And the best thing - she was the end of calving season (of course they were the LAST one due and made us wait 12 days)
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That's some big heifer!
 
Another charolais sired bull calf born today. Haven't expected him to be this big, but cow wasn't progressing, so knew that something wasn't right. Checked feet and knew that it's going to be some work. Not an easy assist. It took some time to get the first half out.
289 days gestation, had three calves from the same sire, max 100lbs, two were around 90lbs.20230319_112658.jpg
 
lithuanian farmer said:
And we're off with the new AI season. Already had 7 cows to cover and one more for tomorrow. A couple new bulls added and three more will arrive in a couple weeks.
View attachment 27834
First calver in the pic. If only all were as easy manageable as she is!
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BTDT.. Thanks goodness, We no longer AI ..
Use to do that with our Angus.
 
UDF said:
BTDT.. Thanks goodness, We no longer AI ..
Use to do that with our Angus.
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I actually enjoy AI. Sometimes it's not that easy as in the photo, but the end result is what matters to me. Out new bull actually wasn't that good at his main job last year and left me a couple empty cows, so going to AI as many cows as possible this year too. This year will have around 70-80% of calves from AI and the rest by the bull.
Today had AI'ed two more cows. In total 12 in 13 days. All AI'ed just like in the photo, except for two, which needed their rope to be tied somewhere to restrict their movements.
 
lithuanian farmer said:
I actually enjoy AI. Sometimes it's not that easy as in the photo, but the end result is what matters to me. Out new bull actually wasn't that good at his main job last year and left me a couple empty cows, so going to AI as many cows as possible this year too. This year will have around 70-80% of calves from AI and the rest by the bull.
Today had AI'ed two more cows. In total 12 in 13 days. All AI'ed just like in the photo, except for two, which needed their rope to be tied somewhere to restrict their movements.
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Lithuanian Farmer: Do you breed on natural heats or do your synchro?
 
That's pretty damned amazing! A.i in the field. And I thought my cows were easy going....


O! Love the blue pony tail 💙


Edited to add...
The feed bucket cracks me up. I watched my bull breed Sally at the feed bunk one year. 😆
 

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