culling

[jt]

would you be sorry that you took them to the sale barn if they turn out to be 7 months bred?

i would want to know before i sent them to the sale barn.

if you decide to send them on anyway, then yes, i would definitely have them checked.

jmo

jt

OK, I think Ill ship a couple of hay burners. Should I have em preg tested at the sale or no?

thanks!
G&L

 

[la4angus]

OK, I think Ill ship a couple of hay burners. Should I have em preg tested at the sale or no?

thanks!
G&L

If they'll bring more money as bred, have them preg tested. Your call.

 

[SEC]

I have culled every animal that comes up open to date, regardless of how good they were. Thankfully the good ones have had a problem yet, might be something to that though.

I believe that WE all make excuses for the cattle. Sometimes it's clearly our fault but things like........oh, she was just working to hard as a 2 year old to ship even though she is not pregnant. I think to bad! Fertility is the number one trait. It all starts there! We have really good conception and I take pride in taking care of the cows properly after they calve. Before calving I don't worry as much, we limit feed the cows before they calve. After than finding a balance between giving them enough and not wasting feed.

That will usually mean about 40lbs of hay per day after calving. Not so much at the beginning but towards the end of April when they go to grass the January calves are sure gulping it down. Lots of mineral etc.

Usually the good cows are then "held" open for flushing etc. So if it's a truly legitimate reason for not being bred fine. If they are getting later and later, have come open before and now again. I would say they are cheating you!

 

[dph]

Here is an example of what I've been getting out of this board, right or wrong. We use to cull all open cows (which we will keep doing) but we also use to cull any cow with a dead calf in the spring. Didn't amount to many, but still.... Additionally we would get the calf out of and then cull any cow developing a subpar bag or broken mouthed. Someone on here did some figuring on what the cow that lost her calf would bring $ wise compared to a replacement. And the idea was that keeping her without a calf for a year was cheaper by several hundred dollars than keeping a replacement back for her at the current prices. Really made us re-examine how we were doing things. I am not sure how much blame is the cows if the calf doesn't make it. So as long as she got bred in quick order, and has been doing a good job for us in the past, I think we will give that cow a second shot this year.