Great White Cowboy

[gcreekrch]

Son pushes them up the alley... 4-5 at a time, will fit single file.... I head catch, get vaccine in needles, write them down, give the shot to the preg ones... son comes up and puts in tags if needed, and will go sort off the opens if needed... It would go MUCH faster if we could get one more person to push them into alley to chute, so son could stay up front... Oh well... we get them done and that is what it is all about.
How many do you do in the 2 days? 1000?

Don't own that many but with the neighbor cows on Friday afternoon it will be near that in two days.

 

[farmerjan]

Hope your weather is not that cold biting wind... Cool enough to be comfortable... We will be in the 60's so will be a good day here... this barn/working chute area is always "colder", and the wind comes down through there... so being 60's will be good.

 

[wbvs58]

We've got 38 cows and calves to work next week, calves get, dare I say it their rfid tag and a Dectomax inj (the only worming they will ever get here) and 7in1 vacn. Cows get Ephemeral fever vaccine and annual 7in1.
We won't be out to break any speed records, it will probably take us all morning. Our aim is to just survive. I will be dosing up myself on a few meds just to help get through it.

Ken

 

[gcreekrch]

Weaned and delivered calves today. Didn't get a lot of pictures.

 

[gcreekrch]

All 5 loads weighed 9 to 25 lbs heavy from projected. We'll take the extra money.

 

[gcreekrch]

Good crew, we pregged 503 cows today in 5.5 hours. Wasn't time for pictures after we got started. Finish ours and do the neighbour's bunch tomorrow.

 

[Silver]

It's good to get that work behind you. Helps you sleep better too!

 

[farmerjan]

How was the percentage of Preg? So far this year we are doing alot better than last.... 2 open cows... but one was a problem breeder once before ... has a nice big calf... and will go next trip to town. The other one, son decided to give a little break... she will go with the group that are going to get a bull in 2-3 weeks.... she has been a real good cow and out of a family of cows that he liked... And they could be short bred since that bull was never taken out...she will go in with the "fall calving group".... lose 5-6 months... but if she comes up open again, she is out of here... don't give many a second chance anymore....

2 open heifers... one is out of the group of cows we bought (6 c/cf pairs) and have 2 cows left... have not done much of anything... poor breed back, small calves, poor condition... so that heifer is not getting another chance. The other heifer is one of 3 we had bought...5-600 lbs I think... as "opens"....red angus at a normal stockyard sale... (black cattle predominately) .... 1 died, pneumonia?.... 1 calved with a dead calf so figured she would just dry up and get bred with the other heifers... BUT, another cow's calf has been sucking her some... and the third one. The one that was letting the other calf suck is open... and the 3rd is preg... BUT both are going to get sold... neither will get with the program of coming in when I call... for grain....very standoffish.... when they do come in the pen, will run right back out if they think I am going to shut the gate... TIRED of it....have no affection or attachment to either one.

All of the heifers out of "our cows" are bred... all in the 3-4 month range.... bull was very thorough....15 out of the 17 total heifers... and there were 5 cows with calves there and all are bred... PLUS, I do not check my longhorn cow that was there also... but I am pretty sure she is bred; So 20 out of 22 confirmed... the 2 open cows were at another place .....

Hope you had a good percentage preg for next spring.

 

[gcreekrch]

7% open, about average for us since predators have been an issue. Another 75% bred in first 40 days, those are mostly who will stay, lates and some others along with all of our bred heifers going to a bred sale in 4 weeks. Will feed the open cows to February.

 

[gcreekrch]

7% open, about average for us since predators have been an issue. Another 75% bred in first 40 days, those are mostly who will stay, lates and some others along with all of our bred heifers going to a bred sale in 4 weeks. Will feed the open cows to February.

Change that to 6%. Had very few empties in the bunch today.

 

[farmerjan]

Fantastic percentage..... do you sell all your bred heifers normally?
What is the reason for holding open cows to Feb? Is that a better time for selling cull cows up there?

 

[gcreekrch]

Fantastic percentage..... do you sell all your bred heifers normally?
What is the reason for holding open cows to Feb? Is that a better time for selling cull cows up there?

We've never sold a bred heifer. Ever. And this bunch is the best we've ever produced. We are hearing the bred heifer coops are valuing heifers at $5000. Just as well take advantage. We are going to feed about 25 young cows to add weight and dollars and for tax purposes.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

GREAT bunch of calves. Do you generally, wean and ship right away? Is there a big price gouge if they are trailer weaned vs preconditioned like we have down here. I checked the signs in the sale ring pictures, but no weights were listed. From all the pics you have posted, I know you have good weights.

 

[gcreekrch]

GREAT bunch of calves. Do you generally, wean and ship right away? Is there a big price gouge if they are trailer weaned vs preconditioned like we have down here. I checked the signs in the sale ring pictures, but no weights were listed. From all the pics you have posted, I know you have good weights.

We sell our calves most years on a forward contract. We only delivered to yards to sort and weigh. They do a wonderful job for us.
We have kept all our calves over the winter twice and all the heifers a few other times. We kept the peewees and 100 replacements this year.

 

[gcreekrch]

Final preg test tally with numbers I actually used a calculator to produce. Open, 6.4%, late, 9.1%. 84.5% to calve within a 40 day window.