Fall Calf

[Bright Raven]

Fire Sweep is here this week. Kris took this picture a few minutes ago. She is evaluating my fall calves. She is selecting the bulls we will market at Farm Fest. Hopefully, she will provide some comments.

Calf is an Ironhide. DOB 9/15/17. Birth Weight 93 pounds. This is a big cow. Probably 1700.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Comments?

You over condition your little porkers.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

I hate typing on my phone, so I'll comment later. However, I did want to post this picture. This heifer is an Elevate sired calf, out of a first calf heifer sired by Uno Mas. The picture does not do her justice, but right now she looks good enough to be in our show string.

Ron and I differ in opinions, but I think she is one of his best calves.
I enjoy coming out here and looking at his cattle, and evaluating my breeding choices with his genetics. His calves look good (& they ARE porkers!).

 

[Bright Raven]

Comments?

You over condition your little porkers.

As Grit says, I am not hiding anything.
I have fed my fall calves a good bit of feed. They get access to feed by the time they are a month old.

 

[Bestoutwest]

Comments?

You over condition your little porkers.

It's no different than programs that have 1,100+ lb wean weights....

 

[elkwc]

Comments?

You over condition your little porkers.

As Grit says, I am not hiding anything.
I have fed my fall calves a good bit of feed. They get access to feed by the time they are a month old.

Ron I respect the way you take care of your cattle. We do a lot the same and we are commercial breeders. We creep every fall and winter calf. Going to try to move our calving a little later so we don't have to creep as much. We still have 19 hd of 14 y/o and up cows. They are in good shape for their weight but this will likely be the last year for all but 4-5. Everyone has a calf on them or will calve in the next 45 days. It costs more to keep a cow in good shape but feel in the end it pays. I really like the heifer calve pictured. If you have better I would enjoy seeing her pic. Again congratulations on the good cattle you raise and the care you give them.

 

[Bright Raven]

Comments?

You over condition your little porkers.

As Grit says, I am not hiding anything.
I have fed my fall calves a good bit of feed. They get access to feed by the time they are a month old.

Ron I respect the way you take care of your cattle. We do a lot the same and we are commercial breeders. We creep every fall and winter calf. Going to try to move our calving a little later so we don't have to creep as much. We still have 19 hd of 14 y/o and up cows. They are in good shape for their weight but this will likely be the last year for all but 4-5. Everyone has a calf on them or will calve in the next 45 days. It costs more to keep a cow in good shape but feel in the end it pays. I really like the heifer calve pictured. If you have better I would enjoy seeing her pic. Again congratulations on the good cattle you raise and the care you give them.

elkwc,

I appreciate your post. Animals and in particular, mammals are deserving of proper treatment. There are cases of cattle that are not given the care that they deserve. Rarely, would a person deliberately mistreat their livestock but one sees too many cases in which they are mismanaged.

Thanks. If we get some opportunities, Kris wants to post some more pictures. The weather has not been good!

 

[M-5]

As Grit says, I am not hiding anything.
I have fed my fall calves a good bit of feed. They get access to feed by the time they are a month old.

Ron I respect the way you take care of your cattle. We do a lot the same and we are commercial breeders. We creep every fall and winter calf. Going to try to move our calving a little later so we don't have to creep as much. We still have 19 hd of 14 y/o and up cows. They are in good shape for their weight but this will likely be the last year for all but 4-5. Everyone has a calf on them or will calve in the next 45 days. It costs more to keep a cow in good shape but feel in the end it pays. I really like the heifer calve pictured. If you have better I would enjoy seeing her pic. Again congratulations on the good cattle you raise and the care you give them.

elkwc,

I appreciate your post. Animals and in particular, mammals are deserving of proper treatment. There are cases of cattle that are not given the care that they deserve. Rarely, would a person deliberately mistreat their livestock but one sees too many cases in which they are mismanaged.

Thanks. If we get some opportunities, Kris wants to post some more pictures. The weather has not been good!

you are confusing a for profit business with a hobby. Mismanaged view comes from not caring how much money is spent to maintain the condition that one perceives , while the guy or gal that is actually trying to turn a profit has a different perspective and condition is based on productivity . I realize that there are those that take each to an extreme.

 

[Bright Raven]

Ron I respect the way you take care of your cattle. We do a lot the same and we are commercial breeders. We creep every fall and winter calf. Going to try to move our calving a little later so we don't have to creep as much. We still have 19 hd of 14 y/o and up cows. They are in good shape for their weight but this will likely be the last year for all but 4-5. Everyone has a calf on them or will calve in the next 45 days. It costs more to keep a cow in good shape but feel in the end it pays. I really like the heifer calve pictured. If you have better I would enjoy seeing her pic. Again congratulations on the good cattle you raise and the care you give them.

elkwc,

I appreciate your post. Animals and in particular, mammals are deserving of proper treatment. There are cases of cattle that are not given the care that they deserve. Rarely, would a person deliberately mistreat their livestock but one sees too many cases in which they are mismanaged.

Thanks. If we get some opportunities, Kris wants to post some more pictures. The weather has not been good!

you are confusing a for profit business with a hobby. Mismanaged view comes from not caring how much money is spent to maintain the condition that one perceives , while the guy or gal that is actually trying to turn a profit has a different perspective and condition is based on productivity . I realize that there are those that take each to an extreme.

I agree with that concept.

When I referred to mistreatment in my post, I mean not providing adequate nutrition, etc. There are guys around me who lose livestock on a greater than 3 to 1 basis than I do because they don't have the time or put the effort into proper management. BTW: these guys don't make money in cattle. They do it for the lifestyle. In this county, I will bet my farm, less than 10 per cent of the operations show a profit.

 

[True Grit Farms]

You pour the feed to them they will grow, you breed for carcass they grow even better. That's a proven fact in every bull evaluation sale. There's well known breeding and some breedings that I've never heard of, but all the bulls grow out to be fat slobs that fall apart when you put them to work. The bottom line is animals are food, and you're not supposed to play with your food.

 

[M-5]

elkwc,

I appreciate your post. Animals and in particular, mammals are deserving of proper treatment. There are cases of cattle that are not given the care that they deserve. Rarely, would a person deliberately mistreat their livestock but one sees too many cases in which they are mismanaged.

Thanks. If we get some opportunities, Kris wants to post some more pictures. The weather has not been good!

you are confusing a for profit business with a hobby. Mismanaged view comes from not caring how much money is spent to maintain the condition that one perceives , while the guy or gal that is actually trying to turn a profit has a different perspective and condition is based on productivity . I realize that there are those that take each to an extreme.

I agree with that concept.

When I referred to mistreatment in my post, I mean not providing adequate nutrition, etc. There are guys around me who lose livestock on a greater than 3 to 1 basis than I do because they don't have the time or put the effort into proper management. BTW: these guys don't make money in cattle. They do it for the lifestyle. In this county, I will bet my farm, less than 10 per cent of the operations show a profit.

I know those operations , One place here keep a backhoe parked in the pasture. This year has been rough on him but he has a nice truck and nice fancy hay haulers unfortunately he just doesn't use them enough. but some how these 800# cows have a calf on them every year .

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Fleshy calves are discounted in Owenton.

I background 30-45 days during which time they are feed some Southern States Beef Extender to make sure they are bunk broke.

 

[elkwc]

Ron I respect the way you take care of your cattle. We do a lot the same and we are commercial breeders. We creep every fall and winter calf. Going to try to move our calving a little later so we don't have to creep as much. We still have 19 hd of 14 y/o and up cows. They are in good shape for their weight but this will likely be the last year for all but 4-5. Everyone has a calf on them or will calve in the next 45 days. It costs more to keep a cow in good shape but feel in the end it pays. I really like the heifer calve pictured. If you have better I would enjoy seeing her pic. Again congratulations on the good cattle you raise and the care you give them.

elkwc,

I appreciate your post. Animals and in particular, mammals are deserving of proper treatment. There are cases of cattle that are not given the care that they deserve. Rarely, would a person deliberately mistreat their livestock but one sees too many cases in which they are mismanaged.

Thanks. If we get some opportunities, Kris wants to post some more pictures. The weather has not been good!

you are confusing a for profit business with a hobby. Mismanaged view comes from not caring how much money is spent to maintain the condition that one perceives , while the guy or gal that is actually trying to turn a profit has a different perspective and condition is based on productivity . I realize that there are those that take each to an extreme.

I see too many operations around here where the cows are very poor and many times weak. There is a difference in good condition and being poor and weak. IMO our cows will make more money than those who are starved. Like I said when you can wean over a 90% calf crop on 14 y/o cows and up every year I feel we are doing something correctly. The locals whose cows are underfed and receive little if any mineral don't do that and are 1/2 the age. There is a difference between good condition and obese. On a calf I would rather have him growing than being stunted. What works for one don't for another.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Here is another picture of that Elevate heifer I like. I think I got Ron convinced to sell her to me...

We visited some nice farms today, I am enjoying visiting Kentucky. Very pretty country.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Here are a few pictures I took...
This is a Broadway out of a cow I sold to Ron a few years ago, she is a Steel Force x Macho. She is a twin, my good Macho cow that twins a lot is her dam.

This one is an Optimizer out of another cow I sold Ron, again out of a Steel Force bull I raised and a half blood Upgrade cow I lost this summer.

Here is a far picture of Gimli, and he is a hoot!

 

[bball]

Your fall calves look great Ron. I believe CB is the one who always says, "You can't starve a profit into cattle." I always think about that little nugget when I'm buying mineral or giving a bucket of grain to the heifers.
I don't think the heifers look 'fatty' in the pics, but I will ask, have you ever had issues with poor milkers due to fatty udders from over feeding after weaning?
Congrats on some dandy calves.
Gimli is looking dang good!

 

[wbvs58]

By choosing to calve in autumn I think it is only logical that you feed them Ron. You also wean them early well before the grass starts growing again so feed is needed to develop them. My system I calve mid winter and our winters are much milder and the calves utilise the green pick in early spring and all through summer, they are on the cow longer and get no feed until a few weeks before weaning so they know what it is about when weaned. My weaning weights are 2nd to none but since they are now coming into winter I supplement them with grain throughout winter.

If you are developing high end cattle I think it is important to keep them going forward through the tough times. My system is not that different to Ron's, I just feed mine at the other end.

Calves are looking good Ron.

Ken

 

[Bright Raven]

Your fall calves look great Ron. I believe CB is the one who always says, "You can't starve a profit into cattle." I always think about that little nugget when I'm buying mineral or giving a bucket of grain to the heifers.
I don't think the heifers look 'fatty' in the pics, but I will ask, have you ever had issues with poor milkers due to fatty udders from over feeding after weaning?
Congrats on some dandy calves.
Gimli is looking dang good!

No. I have raised several replacement heifers. All raise nice calves. I ask Fire Sweep about that. She thinks I could cut back about 20 % on feed. Also, she said her show heifers that are feed at a rate about like I am feeding, have never had issues.

 

[jscunn]

Nice Calves ron, The hair on that heifer is nappy looking.. :hide: