I think I'm ready

[melking]

I get my first four heifers tomorrow. I hope I am ready. I have gone around the properety and fixed the fences, I have built a pen and put the hay feeder with hay in the center of it. I have sloped the sides of the pond to allow access to water. I have strung the electric fence around the wifes flowers and grass lawn. Feed is on site. Wish me luck, I am a nervous wreck....

 

[Kingfisher]

I get my first four heifers tomorrow. I hope I am ready. I have gone around the properety and fixed the fences, I have built a pen and put the hay feeder with hay in the center of it. I have sloped the sides of the pond to allow access to water. I have strung the electric fence around the wifes flowers and grass lawn. Feed is on site. Wish me luck, I am a nervous wreck....

What about salt and mineral tubs ? What kind of heifers are you getting? Thanks in advance. Why are you nervous??

 

[SRBeef]

Good luck - it will work out fine.

One suggestion on the pond - I would fence it so they have access to just one portion just enough to drink, not to get in it.

It is really educational to see a cow or calf standing in pond or puddle water drinking and depositing manure or urine in the same pond or puddle out the other end. A lot of disease spread this way.

Here is a link to a publication which suggests ways to water from a pond:

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/paddock.html and specifically a photo here:

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/paddock.html#water

Best of luck, Jim

 

[MO_cows]

You think you are nervous now, just wait until you calve out those heifers. :lol:

Seriously, congratulations and good luck with your venture. You took the time and tried to learn something before you got started, which puts you ahead of a lot of newbies.

 

[melking]

Thanks everybody. Yes, I built a salt and mineral box with roof. I don't even want to think about the calves yet. Shudder!

 

[melking]

Here are a couple of the girls.

 

[1982vett]

Looks like you have a pen built to hold giraffes.... :lol: I do see a potential problem if they could possibly get their heads hung between the wide spacing on the boards? Maybe they are spaced far enough apart not to be a problem. However in a working area it would be better if they never could get their head thru it to begin with.

 

[melking]

Looks like you have a pen built to hold giraffes.... :lol: I do see a potential problem if they could possibly get their heads hung between the wide spacing on the boards? Maybe they are spaced far enough apart not to be a problem. However in a working area it would be better if they never could get their head thru it to begin with.

Thanks for the help 1982. Pen is in an area where there is no electricity so I built it just as the boards came. it is not going to be my working pen, it was just to hold the cows for the first 2 days. We are going to start making it real this weekend.

 

[agmantoo]

Just a suggestion. When you build the working pen put the boards on the side of the post the cattle are on. In so doing the cattle have to break the boards rather than push the fasteners out of the post. Let the fasteners just hold the boards in the location you want the boards.

 

[melking]

Thanks agmantoo. I did notice that they had just about pushed 2 of the boards off. Good suggestion. I could write a book about all of the stuff I don't know about this...That is as soon as you guys tell me the stuff I don't know. LOL

 

[alftn]

Hind site is 20/20 , or so it goes....

do not sweat the small stuff.....They are cows they will be OK....

I let mine use the ponds, the 2 ac. ponds stay fairly clean but the water hole next to my water tank gets nasty in summer, but the cows still drink from it..
I also have 25 0r so ac. of woods, the cows love it, it is cooler than the open fields by alot....

 

[msscamp]

I get my first four heifers tomorrow. I hope I am ready. I have gone around the properety and fixed the fences, I have built a pen and put the hay feeder with hay in the center of it. I have sloped the sides of the pond to allow access to water. I have strung the electric fence around the wifes flowers and grass lawn. Feed is on site. Wish me luck, I am a nervous wreck....

And so your education begins... :lol: You're never ready to raise an animal you have no experience with, but you will have a lot of fun, tear out a lot of hair, cuss them a lot, kick yourself a lot, and curse yourself for being all kinds of an idiot on more than one occasion. I've had goats for 3 years now, and I still all of the above on a pretty regular basis. Through it all, you will have the best time of your life and learn soooooo much - both good, and bad. Good luck, and I wish you the very best!

PS No point in being a nervous wreck - all it does is get in the way of dealing with a true problem. ;-)

 

[melking]

I must say, seeing them this weekend and having them walk up to me was pretty cool. I especially liked the part where they went right through my electric fence and ate my wifes flowers. It was priceless.

 

[SRBeef]

I must say, seeing them this weekend and having them walk up to me was pretty cool. I especially liked the part where they went right through my electric fence and ate my wifes flowers. It was priceless.

Not good to have them ignoring electric fences. Either they were never trained to it or it wasn't working/hot enough. Life is a lot easier if they respect electric fences. Even my 2100 lb bull comes up and sniffs a wire to see if it's hot before he gets too close. And once they go through they learn they CAN go through which makes the learning job tougher. I suggest you look at why they just went through an electric fence and fix the cause. jmho.

Jim

(In my opinion you need at least 6,000 volts (6 kv) and 3 joules stored to keep cattle in. 8 kV min and 6 joules is better. maybe purchase a fence meter to see what you have.)

 

[melking]

Thanks SR. I am trying to determine what the problem is. I have 8,000 and the green light is on but they still came through. I don't know if one of them pushed and the rest followed because I wasn't there. I will spend more time on it this weekend. Thanks for the help.

 

[vclavin]

I must say, seeing them this weekend and having them walk up to me was pretty cool. I especially liked the part where they went right through my electric fence and ate my wifes flowers. It was priceless.

We used to own a really small herefor cow that stood a few feet from the electric fence. Of course now, you have to picture the other 12 cows we had at that time, standing behind her. At the right moment, this little hereford knew when the pulsing charge was in the off mode and would charge the fence. Fence down and all , now happy cows, were on the other and greener side of the hot wire. We never were able to get her to stop the nonsense, could have bought a continious charger but opted to sell the cow instead.

You are gonna Love the girls, I may also give you a hint. If they think it is your idea to do something they will be stubborn, if you "let" them think it is their idea - VOILA! Mine can be moved easily with square bales of yummy hay or a bucket with some feed.

Have fun.
Valerie

 

[melking]

Thanks Valerie,
I think you might be right. The one my wife named spunky is certainly living up to her name. Fearless and seems pretty smart.

 

[TheBullLady]

I'm guessing they went through it before they realized it was there! Once the are more "used" to the place, they'll see it first. It happens... don't sweat it! Except that you might have to replant your wife's flowers.. yuck.

 

[IluvABbeef]

Looks like you have a pen built to hold giraffes.... :lol: I do see a potential problem if they could possibly get their heads hung between the wide spacing on the boards? Maybe they are spaced far enough apart not to be a problem. However in a working area it would be better if they never could get their head thru it to begin with.

Thanks for the help 1982. Pen is in an area where there is no electricity so I built it just as the boards came. it is not going to be my working pen, it was just to hold the cows for the first 2 days. We are going to start making it real this weekend.

It's a good thing it won't be your main working pen, because I can see another potential problem lurking, and not from the space between the boards. Notice that wide space from the ground to the first bottom board in front of that one heifer? If you're holding an animal that is a little bit antsy and will try anything to get out, they will most likely find that space down there and literally crawl through, breaking the bottom board in the process (if they're that big). We've had that happen before, trust me. So I'm not saying that you should fix that now, but if you are thinking of using this pen for something like I mentioned in the future, I hope you see that and do fix it when/if you can.

Good luck on those heifers!

 

[melking]

Thanks Karin, I do see what you mean by the bottom board. I also found out what I think was wrong with the electric fence. It was wiored up temporarily and I didn't use a big emough wire for the distance to the transformer, hence not enough juice. Still learning.