The cows were all bought anywhere from $200-$400 each...or given to us. He puts a Corr cleanup bull in after we pull the bulls, and they usually have maybe 10 Corr calves. Last year they had 9, and 4 were heifers. so he gets about that many every year, and I dunno how to figure what they cost. The mjature Corss will go 700lbs or more, and a few are Corr x LH and will weigh 800. He doesn;t feed them anything. In October,after the 1st dove season, we moved them down the road to the dove field I talked about... peanuts, sunflowers, millet and corn. That field is on about 400 acres of row crop land...all fenced in. He plants soybeans, cotton and peanuts on it. And every time he harvested one of those crops in Oct-Nov, he;d open the gates to those fields and let them have them, too. Since I sold 36 of the 120 to people on here, we have 84 and 4 heifers, that we gonna round up on that 400 acres, and drive them back across the road to the Kuszu field. They start calving next week. ( Not the heifers) Only money he spends feed wise, is just for about a dozen salt blacks and a dozen mineral blocks a year. Only time they might see a bale of hay, is when we get them up and sort the calves to take to the sale in AUg or so. If we leave them penned overnight, we will put a round bale in the corral. So, I guess with the salt and 1 bale of hay a year, it is about $1 or 2 per head a year to feed them?
A 10 year old, 9 mos bred Corriente brought $3000.00 Saturday morning!!!!
Well, I left out early Saturday morning, because I wanted to get down there about 6 AM. I carried my horse and one for Scott, and 3 Corriente cows/heifers we had in our practice herd up here. Plan was to bring back the 5 yearling Corrr steers we had down there bring back my SSH I had left there for hunting season, and leave Scott the other QH I took. We were gonna hunt the setters Saturday morning while it was cold (been too hot to hunt them much this season), making sure to ride the efence line as we did, then early afternoon bring the Corriente herd back over to the infamous Kudzu pasture, then go rabbit hunt the land they had been on since October..the row crop and dove field pastures. Then we'd go back over there Sunday and bird hunt it, til early afternoon. Then I'd load my horse, and my SSH., and the 5 steers up and get on back home Sunday before it got too late.
So, it didn't take nowhere near as long to load those horses and CVorr cows as I thought, but I decided to go ahead and leave for south Ga, and just take my time and ease on down there. Well, I have never seen I 75 that empty, even going through Atlanta. I don't think I touched my brakes til I got to me south GA exit. I ended up pulling in the gate to the Kudzu pasture about 4:30 AM. I figured I'd just take a nap in my truck til about 6 or so...whenever someone else got there. So, I turned the cows in the corral and was putting the 2 horses in when I heard a rifle shot across and down the road, where is row crops were and our herd was!! I saddled up right quick, put my coach gun in the scabbard, and took off to see what it was. Called Scotty who was feeding the dogs, and told him what happened....to come on down. I got to the gate and saw where the chain had been cut next to the lock, and some beer cans thrown down by the gate. I went inside the gate, got the key from where we hide it, and locked the gate back with me inside. I could see the tracks of a 4 wheeler or side by side or golf-cart, headed down toward the area where he had picked his cotton. Scotty pulled up and soon as he did, we heard them coming back. They had one of those 4 wd electric golf carts, and there were three of them....18, 20 and 22 years old...and all drunk as Cooter Brown.
I rode around and got behind them, and they had all 3 got off the cart and went to the gate to ask Scott if he could open it for them. I took the keys out of it, and the rifle, and about that time the deputy got there. 2 minutes later the game warden got there. They cuffed the boys and started questioning them, and I got back on my horse and started back-tracking the cart to see if I could find a blood trail where they had shot the deer. What I found was one of our cows, shot almost dead-center between her eyes. She was gonna calve this week, too, probably. I went back told the game warden and deputy where she was.
Deputy had them charged with criminal trespass, criminal damage to property of others, animal cruelty, the 22 year old for buying alcohol for minor, and the 2 young uns for under-age drinking. Game warden charged them with spot-lighting and possessing firearms while drinking. One of the boy's daddy came up, and was asking Scotty what he would take to drop the charges!! Scotty told him that about $3k ought to cover the cow and the gate chain, He went to his truck and got the money and paid him. Deputy said: "That's all well and good if the landowner doesn't want to press trespassing and destruction of property charges, but I am not dropping the drinking alcohol and animal cruelty charges!". Game Warden impounded the golf cart and of course, the gun. Dumb kids told the LE they THOUGHT they were shooting at a deer!
Made us sick, as this calf was alive and probably suffocated in the womb after the cow was shot, But, Scott got enough money to buy 8-10 more to replace them.
Other than that it was good weekend. Dogs did good, hunting horses did good, plenty of birds. and plenty of rabbits. Cows were no problem to round up and drive back to the Kudzu pasture.