Be interesting to see who fails first ...his wary 200 mile drive (4 hours) every few days-once a week....or his cows getting out. My money is on the cows pushing past the fence. I think the first time he rolls in after 100 miles and sees his cows gone, that are not cattle cube trained...his dreamy endeavor will be over. A heart sinking reality.
Maybe Ol Bob could keep them all eating the same direction and the forage will last twice as long.
I wasn't saying criollo were less likely to have calving trouble, was saying they are cheap enough that if you do lose some to that it's not a major loss financially like good beef heifers or cows. Around here you'll rarely find good cattle that are not checked daily because most are small operations, the ones you'll find that aren't will be criollo, brimmer X or just plain raggedy and usually a little wild. We do have some around like the person in the original post that want to play weekend cowboy and can throw money at their cattle and not worry about profit and only show up every once in a great while to tend them. It's very different in this part of the world than yours, very few big places and rarely anyone keeping cattle more than 20-30 miles from home. Growing up I only knew of one full time cattleman in Eastern Arkansas, he run over 150 pairs which is a big operation in Arkansas. He had pastures spread out over about a 40 mile area or more. Kept quite a few on the St. Francis and Mississippi River Levees which was basically a free lease. He told me he checked all of his cows daily if at all possible.
There is certainly no "urban expansion" here. There was at least 5 times more people here 100 years ago than there is now. We don't worry about a cow or three. I am feeding 60 cows right now. A cow from one of the neighbors shows up in my field it is no big deal. I might end up feeding her all winter. It has happened. If 25 show up because the owner isn't taking care of them, that is a big deal. Do my cows get short changed because of what his cows are eating? Does my hay stack not last because I am feeding his cows? When he points to the hills and says his cows will do great up there. Somebody owns those hills. If one of mine or the neighbors cows crawls through a fence it is no big deal because it happens. Both ways. They will get sorted out eventually. Someone figures they can just turn their cows out there because they have too many for their own ground...... that ain't going to fly. And then there is the whole cows coming in mid winter with no hay. we hate to see cows suffer just like anyone else.I do find this a little ironic. I remember making posts about how we don't tolerate loose cattle from people who don't pay attention to their stuff. I was told... Around here.... Yada Yada Yada.
It's funny how one neighbor can change all that. Guess some parts of the country are just a little behind.
Urban expansion can sure change the rules of the game. Welcome to the Thunderdome.
That's what we all use to say, when we had 2 neighbors. Then it became 4 but only 1 was a problem, some times. Then 4 became 7 because they subdivided. Next thing you know, you only have 1 good neighbor and you are surrounded by 8 or 10 others.
In Arkansas I had a neighbor on the north side that was an old, retired Navy gunners mate. He live up a dirt track in overgrown woods that was an axle breaker and we saw him less than once a year. He came down to meet us and before he left he said, "I've got eighty acres over there... and if you ever need to hide a body feel free." I took that as a pretty good vote of confidence, but also wondered if it was a subtle warning. Either way, he was a great neighbor. Of course I'll never tell anyone how many holes we dug in his woods.
I can change the words…
