Mineral: I'm Obviously Doing It Wrong

[Mark Reynolds]

I understand the confusion. I am a ranch hand. Each year, stay on the job. I get to select my choice calf from the current crop of calves. I select heifers. I now have two heifers. My first heifer just had her first calf, a bull. My three head of cattle run with the roughly 300 pair of cows and calves and 25 bulls I tend to for my job.

That helps. You are hired for a particular set of skills. One of those that you have is the identification of a problem within the herd. (You have been hired for your skill). But, you don't possess the skill to identify the cause of the problem. You do have an idea on how to do that, but that takes action on the part of the owner in terms of allocating resources (money for testing) to determine the cause. And then of course there is allocation of resources (more money) to eliminate/treat the cause of the problem. Let the person/entity know that you have played your part in maintaining the ranch and in order for the ranch to continue to operate at optimum potential there are additional steps that you can't do that they need to allocate resources for. I do realize there is a lot of tact and finesse to accomplish this and its not easy, and may be impossible.

 

[Spot & Bubby]

Do the cows get vaccinated anytime before bull turn out? Multi-min90 is great stuff. My cows have access to mineral all year but still get a booster when they go through the chute just in case there are any who aren't keeping up on their mineral intake.
It's great stuff for new calves who seem a little sluggish too.

We just worked 3/4 of our calves last two days. Turns out cows won't be going through the chute until we palpate. Bulls are going out Monday.