I got questions

[partimer]

Does anyone else leave their bull with the cows year round or is it just me? I'm a little new to this but I'm learning. Trying to figure all this stuff out. I wish I just had a yearly calendar that said what to do when. Also, when should I sell my calves?

 

[ga. prime]

I leave the bull in year round. Sell the calves when they're 6-8 months old, weaning time. That's how I do it, but I'm a small timer. Works for me. Bunch a big timers on here'll tell you different.

 

[Caustic Burno]

You are going to here all kinds of right and wrong and there isn't right or wrong. It is what fits your management the best. Some run them year around some for a spring season and some for a fall season.

 

[partimer]

I appreciate the replys. I'm also a small timer. How often do I worm and vaccinate? And what exactly do I use for vaccinations. I have wormed some with the pour on wormer.

 

[ga. prime]

Pour on wormer is good. Once or twice a year. Check with your local vet or local cattlemen on vaccines.
Sounds like you just need to make the aquaintence of some local cattlemen and get advisement from them. They'll be glad to help.

 

[grubbie]

It also might help if you post your location on your profile so it shows up under your name when you post. Might be some folks near you on the board who can give you a little more specific advice for your area.

 

[c farmer]

I have calves year around mainly because I have no place to keep my bull seperate from the cows. Use a pour-on wormer twice a year and I do not vacc my feeders because I dont keep them and would not get my money back when I sell them. I do vacc the feeders that I keep for replacements.

 

[TheBullLady]

I also run my bull year 'round. Pull the calves I"m going to take to the auction at approx. 500 lbs. But I will suggest that I'm not proud of all the breeding he was doing 9 months ago! This has been the crappiest winter here I can remember.

 

[backhoeboogie]

My bull runs with the cows year round. If he didn't, the cows would be bred by neighbor's bulls I don't want them bred to. One of the neighbor's bulls bred some heifers before they were old enough. So now the heifers are hauled away to a pasture at the house and then brought back to the main pastures.

My cows are worked twice a year. Vaccinations are administered on two to three week intervals for the young uns at each working. Records are kept such the correct calves get vaccinated at the next working. It can get tough keeping track if you have two to three week olds in the spring that you do not vaccinate.

Everything gets wormed twice a year. They are also fly sprayed as needed later on. Flies are terrible here. There are fairly large groups of cattle all around me. It would probably help the fly situation if we all wormed at the same time. The cows are rotated to different pastures and that helps. They get fly tags. They get mineral with Rabon. There are bullets and rubs in three pastures. This hard winter we had should help with the fly situation.

 

[1982vett]

I also run my bull year 'round. Pull the calves I"m going to take to the auction at approx. 500 lbs. But I will suggest that I'm not proud of all the breeding he was doing 9 months ago! This has been the crappiest winter here I can remember.

I can remember a crappier one.......was only 365 days ago. This is beginning to wear as thin as last years drought.

Run bulls with cows year round, worm spring and fall, vibro-lepto 5 once a year, wean calves on wheels at 5-7 months 375-550 lbs. (depends on market, grass, and cashflow). My keepers get wormed and vaccinated for bangs, blackleg 8-way, virashield 6 and vibro-lepto 5 at weaning (7-8 months) with boosters a month later.

 

[msscamp]

Does anyone else leave their bull with the cows year round or is it just me? I'm a little new to this but I'm learning. Trying to figure all this stuff out. I wish I just had a yearly calendar that said what to do when. Also, when should I sell my calves?

No, we never left the bull in year round. The biggest disadvantages to doing that is 1) the calf crop is all over the place, and that tends to get you docked at the salebarns in my area, 2) to do so means you're dealing with year round calving and that doesn't work very well unless you are dealing with a handful of cattle, and 3) calving in July means that the heat and the flies tend to interfere with the calf nursing like he should, and also encourages the spread of disease. As far as selling your calves, call every local salebarn and talk to them. They can tell you when what kind of calves bring the best price, and you can plan your calving season from there.

 

[alftn]

If you are a small cow farmer , why own a bull? I mean you can rent or lease a bull to suit your needs 90 days to a year if you want..I think that is the best way for the little guys, less than 20 cows..Rent or lease on a bul cost me 250 to 300 $ and I usually keep him as long as I want.. Last year the bull stayed in with cows for 120 days and 80% of my calves were born in a 4 week period...Here in the mid south I like my calves to be Nov./Dec. or mar/april , pulling your bull out of the cows , you control the calving dates better....

 

[rockridgecattle]

Does anyone else leave their bull with the cows year round or is it just me? I'm a little new to this but I'm learning. Trying to figure all this stuff out. I wish I just had a yearly calendar that said what to do when. Also, when should I sell my calves?

No, we never left the bull in year round. The biggest disadvantages to doing that is 1) the calf crop is all over the place, and that tends to get you docked at the salebarns in my area, 2) to do so means you're dealing with year round calving and that doesn't work very well unless you are dealing with a handful of cattle, and 3) calving in July means that the heat and the flies tend to interfere with the calf nursing like he should, and also encourages the spread of disease. As far as selling your calves, call every local salebarn and talk to them. They can tell you when what kind of calves bring the best price, and you can plan your calving season from there.

agree with this post. We pull our bulls after a certain time. We like uniform calves, and like that the calving is our main focus and then over and done with.

 

[rockridgecattle]

If you are a small cow farmer , why own a bull? I mean you can rent or lease a bull to suit your needs 90 days to a year if you want..I think that is the best way for the little guys, less than 20 cows..Rent or lease on a bul cost me 250 to 300 $ and I usually keep him as long as I want.. Last year the bull stayed in with cows for 120 days and 80% of my calves were born in a 4 week period...Here in the mid south I like my calves to be Nov./Dec. or mar/april , pulling your bull out of the cows , you control the calving dates better....

More and more bull breeders are opting not to rent or lease their bulls. Reasons vary from cattlemen running them to hard and the bulls coming back in poor shape causing the bull breeder to add inputs to get the bull back in shape, to the risk of diseases between herds.

 

[backhoeboogie]

agree with this post. We pull our bulls after a certain time. We like uniform calves, and like that the calving is our main focus and then over and done with.

So what do you do about neighbor's bulls? I've got angus bulls to the west. Beefmaster to the south. Herf to the east. There is also one that has crossed the brazos from the north that I am not sure what he is. All have bred my cattle at one point or another. The north bull will cross their fence, go south down the road, and cirle through 3 pastures, jump a cattle guard, and then jump a 54 inch gate to get in to my pastures. The only way he can get around the hot wires is to jump the gate. He has bred heifers of mine that were too young.

I can only figure you folks have no other ranches around you. I have had bulls from two miles up river come onto the flood plain.

 

[HOSS]

I put the bull in around the end of May or the 1st of June. I leave him in until a couple of weeks before calving starts. I pull him out and put him on a 10 acre pasture with a steer for company. Most of my cows are bred in the first month of the bull being put in. As calving season starts the 1 or 2 cows that bred back late are culled when they have their calves weaned. By this time they are bred back again but out of sequence with the rest so they are sold as bred cows bringing a little higher $ at the sale.

I worm with pour on wormer twice per year. They get vaccinated once per year. I work them off and on through-out the year to do minor things like ear tag replacement, fly control, check injuries etc. I found it's easier to get them all up and run them through the chute than it is to select out the ones that need attention. This keeps them trained for the regular sessions when I work them all. I am going to be AI'ing all of my cows this year as practice. I don't expect a high success rate so I'll still keep the bull for clean-up.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Backhoe - my neighbor would get back a STEER! :shock: After that happening to a few neighbors, the word would get around and maybe they would put up better fencing. I know, I know, the LAW! well, it's a good thought. Although, we had a neighbor in Kansas who's bull visited our ladies. We called him & told him to come get him, but the next time he would be a steer. He must have fixed fences, because we never had him back.
Here, we have much better fences than in Kansas. It's pretty hard for anything to get in --- or out!

We calve both spring & fall - 60-day seasons. I have a hard enough time keeping up on health programs with two distinct groups, I know I couldn't handle year-around calving!

 

[backhoeboogie]

Backhoe - my neighbor would get back a STEER! :shock:

Another neighbor shot that bull. He also fessed up about it so I didn't get blamed. The owner's cows were confiscated at another place he has about 6 miles up the road.

But, my question is the same. I've got cows dropping calves at 10 1/2 month intervals. These cows are obviously cycling. If your bull is not with them, how do you keep them from getting bred?

 

[Caustic Burno]

I had a bull I had to haul to the salebarn as there wasn't a fence in the country could hold him when he wanted to visit the ladies or fight. I had a seven strand fence with four hot wires hotter than the hinges on the gates to he!! he would just wade off into it bellering the whole time until he got through.



Corrected for spelling as Carly the two year old terror is helping Paw Paw.

 

[backhoeboogie]

If he was brangus CB, I wouldn't have minded so long as he left my young heifers alone.