Miss My Ranching

[I luv herfrds]

Miss so much on the home place.
Butcher came and got our steer on Friday. I stopped by and found out he was 1014# on the rail.
Missed rounding up the pairs out of the pasture yesterday; along with a neighbor trying to burn his up again.
We are preg testing today though so I get to help with that. Might be able to help hubby cut the sale calves off tomorrow.

oh well. Going to teach daughter how to give shots today. Time she learned how to do it.

 

[HDRider]

What has happened? Did you move off?

 

[greybeard]

??????

 

[Alan]

Sorry, I'm lost too, but I'm still trying to figure out who the preacher is here.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Sorry guys!
Working full time in town has me off the place more then I want to be.

Got the testing done and both hubby, the vet and myself were scratching our heads afterwards. Out of 10 first year heifers 2 were open and one the vet said was not breedable.
Then six 3 years olds were also open! The weird part is all the older cows were bred.
we were discussing if it was the mineral program or if it was something else. Normally during the breeding season I will go out and bunch the herd all together to make sure the bulls are doing their jobs.

 

[redcowsrule33]

Are the 3 year olds related? In the last 2 years of drought I had the same problem, turned out they were almost all from the same sire and under poorer than normal conditions they all flunked out. I look at it as genetic selection pressure that helped the herd in the long run.

 

[SPH]

Sorry guys!
Working full time in town has me off the place more then I want to be.

Got the testing done and both hubby, the vet and myself were scratching our heads afterwards. Out of 10 first year heifers 2 were open and one the vet said was not breedable.
Then six 3 years olds were also open! The weird part is all the older cows were bred.
we were discussing if it was the mineral program or if it was something else. Normally during the breeding season I will go out and bunch the herd all together to make sure the bulls are doing their jobs.

Sorry to hear! I don't live on our farm, parents do and do most of the work but I get my kick in enough to keep me happy. Was home Saturday and we gave 2nd round of shots to the calves, did some misc. farm upkeep, and tied up our 2 sale animals for the first time which went surprisingly well for a yearling bull and bred heifer that hardly gave me a fight for the first time on a halter! We preg check and cut feeder calves next Saturday so fingers crossed. We've seen 3 of our 25 in heat since the bulls have been pulled and 1 was our last calver who was a candidate to go to the salebarn anyways so hopefully no other surprises besides those 3. The first calf heifers look a little thin because of the drought this summer but think we saw most of them in heat with the bulls or AI serviced so maybe I'm worried about nothing there. Took some pictures this weekend too so might post a few later this week once I get a chance to download and crop them off the camera.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Sorry correction. Out of 10 three year old's 8 were open! They were all late calvers this year. Mid May to late May. Sorry I was pretty tired last night and trying to do up a shipping list.
I ended up doing the shots.
2 first years were open and hit the road. Hubby and I debated quite awhile and decided to give these girls another chance.

redcow they are out of the same sire, but the half sisters from the same sire the year before did great and the except for the 2 this year those half sisters are doing good.

 

[Oldtimer]

Are the 3 year olds related? In the last 2 years of drought I had the same problem, turned out they were almost all from the same sire and under poorer than normal conditions they all flunked out. I look at it as genetic selection pressure that helped the herd in the long run.

Yep with that many open 3 year olds I would say genetic selection too-- and them putting too much into their calves which is keeping them from getting rebred... That is the age period when they show if they are going to be cowmakers or not- and the time to weed out the inefficient....
The same reason several years ago I went to more moderate cattle genetics - in all traits but especially with more moderate milk EPD's...Some of these newer "bigger, better, faster" higher production genetics are expected to milk like a milk cow-- but do so on prairie conditions which they can't do...
If you keep these-- I sure wouldn't keep any replacements out of them- as I'm afraid you would be magnifying the problem...

 

[I luv herfrds]

Thanks OT!

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I'm still trying to figure out who the preacher is here.

Alan, I don't know who it is, but I have some pretty good idea of who it isn't :lol2: