Mixing New Cows

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We just purchased 10 cows in a herd dispersal sale. I will be picking them up next week. Three have calves at their side and the other seven are heavy bred. When I get them to our place, I plan on putting them in in our holding pen of 2 acres. We will let them stay there for a couple of days (is this long enough) and feed them some hay and cubes to get them used to us. When it gets to be time to put them out with our other 12 cows, many of which are heavy bred, should I just let it happen with the ususal confrontational pushing and shoving that always takes place until the "pecking order gets established". I'm concerned about possible injury to the ones that are heavy bred. We all know that it gets PRETTY ROUGH with the introduction of new cows to a herd. I've done one or two replacement heifers at a time before but not 10 and certainly not heavy bred. Should this be a concern or not? PLEASE let me know what Ya'll think.
THANKS

 

[D.R. Cattle]

I've never had any problems with that. Thye'll poke around a little and pecking will establish quickly.

 

[jfont]

I've had heavy bred cows, that have been together a couple of years, get into some pretty good shoving matches at the hay ring. Never had problems. Ten shoving matches, I don't know? I'd turn loose three or four at a time.

 

[Craig-TX]

It's always interesting to watch the behavior when you turn them out. There are bound to be some fights, which is what makes it interesting. Sometimes the new bunch will more or less run by themselves for a while, especially the bred ones. I wouldn't worry about it. If a cow feels like she's getting too much of a whipping she'll throw in the towel.

Craig-TX

 

[eric]

When I bought my cows, I purchased 3 mamas, a yrling and 2 calves. The man delivering them couldnt get them all in his trailer in one trip, so he brought 1 pr, the heifer and one open cow. The big cow was queen of the heard, always pushing the mama and the heifer away from the cubes and the hay ring.Well. the next week when he brought the other pair over, the mama was much bigger and stronger and right away went to pushing the cow who had been there for a week. They must have pushed for 30-45 mininutes straight, and on and off for the next 3-4 hrs. The new mama was definately getting the upper hand, and we could just see the other cows standing around just enjoying the heck out of seeing her pushing the old queen around. The calves are 3 mos old now, and they are starting to push each other some now too!

 

[Jake]

They should be fine. A heavy bred cow is usually a pretty good fighter because of that extra weight she can push around. They usually know when they need to stop so you don't have to worry to much.

 

[dun]

And now for something completly different!
Will the two areas be next each other, i.e. the existing pasture and the one you plan on putting the new cows in?
I would keep therm seperate until most of the calving is done. My concern would be for the little calves. When cows are moved and dropped into new environments it's not unuaul to accelerate their calving.

dun

 

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The 2 acre pen that we will put them in for a couple of days is located on the 65 acres where our cows are kept. We are planning on immediately moving all cows to our adjoining 63 acres for a couple of months to let the 65 acres have a break from grazing. We just acquired this 63 acres and it hasn't had any grazing for 3 years. Our cows haven't even been on it yet.

I hope I explained the scenario well enough. We will be able to keep close tabs on all of the animals.

Any other thoughts are greatly appreciated.

 

[txag]

The 2 acre pen that we will put them in for a couple of days is located on the 65 acres where our cows are kept. We are planning on immediately moving all cows to our adjoining 63 acres for a couple of months to let the 65 acres have a break from grazing. We just acquired this 63 acres and it hasn't had any grazing for 3 years. Our cows haven't even been on it yet.

I hope I explained the scenario well enough. We will be able to keep close tabs on all of the animals.

Any other thoughts are greatly appreciated.

i would think they'd be ok. like everyone else said the cows will usually know when they've had enough & shouldn't push & shove too much. it will probably be a good idea to turn the new cows & the old cows into the new 63 acres at the same time......they'll be busy exploring & that will cut down some on the fighting.

 

[Beefy]

I would turn them all out at the same time if they are used to being together. they will probably stick together as a mini herd. of course some pushing, chasing, etc is to be expected at some point.
last year i separated some heifers from the main herd long enough to breed and have their first calves and then reintroduced them to the main herd and that herd of 25 sticks together like glue. they go off and graze together away from the main herd and come back to eat hay and bed down.
if the new cows and other cows share a fenceline that might cut down on a little confrontation if the cows have a chance to sniff each other out first. I agree with a previous poster about turning them all into the new place at the same time b/c they will be having too much fun thinking they got out to worry with new cows that much.