New handling facilities and bull

[AngusLimoX]

Yes he did fill out he was huge in the rear we never had any calveing trouble but he was starting to throw bigger calves.

His genetics changed?

ALX

 

[rattler]

Peacemaker, don't let these guys get you down. They are just jealous they don't have a black bull. :lol:

Here is what I assumed. #1 You are just starting out. #2 You wanted to get a black bull on your black cows as soon as possible. #3 You didn't want to give your left nutt for a bull. #4 You want to learn.

So with all that said, he will most likely put calves on the ground while you learn and know what to look for in your next bull.

Great post flaboy well said.Now we live and LEARN.

rattler

 

[J&T Farm]

When he was 2 his calves weighed about 80#. The next year a few of the calves were weighing more like 90-95#. It was just enough to make us question him. And its nice to have some background on a bull other than just someone saying this is his mother. :lol:

And it could have been just from some of the cows
but those were bigger calves than we wanted and we sure didn't want him breding our heifers. So we went and bought a reg. Black angus, that had a lower birth weight. His calves stayed around 80#. But to get us started that bull did ok,we still have some cows out of him. They made good mommas.

 

[Crowderfarms]

Thanks Keren For helping with the pic's

I'm not 100% sure on the age. I was told a little under 2 years so thats all I had to go on. I really needed to get one in with the cows and didnt want to borrow one. I looked at a bigger three year old but he seemed to be aggrssive and stand offish.
This one will walk up and let you scratch his head.
I hope he works out but if not I'll use him this year and see how things go. I've had good luck getting the cow's to fill out hopefully he will do the same.

From reading these post's I've learned it's better to have to much pen than not enough.This one is 38'x60'
I wanted the pen to be solid and last. It's just 2"x6" pt and the post were sold as 5-6" but most are alot bigger. All is cemented in and I'm now in the market for the squeeze chute and head gate. I'm leaning towards the Priefert ( I think cause the blue matches my new holland) Looks like a good quality chute.
With the auger the post never went in exactly were I wanted so if you do 6' sections like I did instead of ordering 12' boards get the 14's it will save you alot of @$#%&
I think the post's were $8.25 each and the boards $7.00
Still not happy with my gates ( I think I should have used somthing a little heavier)

You may want to add a few more boards to the bottom run. Looks like a Cow might be able to get it's head under and jack the boards up.Are you going to build a lane to drive your Cattle into the pens? Just be proud you did not go out and buy a bunch of "Tail Pipe" Portable corral panels. ;-)

 

[Bama]

I agree with crowder, one can get its head through and rip those boards off. if you dont want to put in another board you can cover the bottom with plywood. This will also keep them from getting a leg through and breaking its leg. I can't tell by the pic's but I'm a little concerned about the height, 6 foot is bare min IMO.

 

[Keren]

You should see the chicken tractor I just built....
Maybe Keren will put it on here for me.

Found this . . .

N this . . .

Chicken tractor? (where's the scratchin my head smiley?)

 

[peacemaker]

Thanks again Keren

I think they call it a chicken tractor...
Anyway I saw it in that Joe salatin guy's book but his was so low you would have to crawl into it so I looked at his and just made it taller. It's light and pulls easy with the 4 wheeler. No bottom in it the hens just eat off the pasture. I'm hopin to keep about a dozen hens in it.

Theres nothin chicken about my blue tractor.... :lol:

 

[Brute 23]

Nice set up. I would enjoy working with that scenery every day.

IF at this point in time... you are happy with that bull... to achieve you goal... for your operation,,, then $%&@ what other people think. Good Luck. ;-)

The person with the GOLD makes the decisions.

 

[novatech]

I'm with crowder on your pens. More boards on bottom. Need one inbetween lower two rails. Some to high, calves may get out.
Enough said on bull.

 

[CowpokeJ]

I'd leave the boards alone and try it, you can always come back and add more. The main gate looks like it may need to be raised. You can make your gate solid with fabric or plywood. I don't understand why you have such a good tractor and you don't have the same tastes in bulls?

 

[WORANCH]

That bull looks like a cow. No length, no depth, no butt (funnel butt) and no nuts. Typical Black Angus bull. Should have been steered in my opinion. Not trying to be mean or anything but that bull aint worth the time or trouble. No matter how much you feed that bull he wont ever be good and should have been steered at birth. Ryan was right the cows are thicker than the bull and that is ashamed. You know the bull is 50% of your herd. If you buy a crap bull such as this the calves will be crap and wont sale good. I dont care how good the cows are if the bull is crap the calves will still be crap. To be honest if I was to come to a persons house to buy cows and they had a bull like this if I saw this bull before I got out of the car I would immediately turn around and leave. Seems like the only good black angus bulls now a days are the 100,000 dollar bulls and even some of those look pee poor. Best black angus bulls I have seen on this board were posted by jscunn and I dont think they were 100,000 dollar bulls. This proves they are out there you just gotta look to find em and know what you are looking for.

How do you know it's an angus bull ?

Might be a saler.

 

[cfpinz]

I'm not touching the bull, you've already gotten some good advice. Will agree the lot has the boards spaced too far apart. Five boards would be better but six would be great. And as far as Joel Salatin goes, take everything he says with a grain of salt. I had the unfortunate opportunity of meeting him.

cfpinz

 

[flaboy?]

I can't really see your squeeze lane but I put a 2 foot wide, 3/4 inch pressure treated plywood along the bottom 8 feet of the lane leading into the squeeze chute. I always had problems with the cows/bulls/calves getting really crowded in that area and try to get out. They stick their legs through the bottom two boards and then I have to try to get them out before they break a leg. Since installing this plywood things have gone much smoother.

 

[Crowderfarms]

Another thing you need are some HD 2" diameter Bull gates.Looks like the ones you have there would fold up like a parachute if a Cow hit them.

 

[Sir Loin]

After reading all those negative comments about that bull, I'm just going to say this.
That bull is not as bad as you all make him out to be.
NO! He is not a show bull but he will make a good commercial bull to produce calves and that is what it's all about.
IMO he needs another year, or so, to fill out.
I've seen a heck of a lot worse sold as reg. in most breeds.

How anyone can look at an animal, let alone just a picture, and tell what the animal will look like when it is fully grown, without seeing the mom and pop, knowing is groceries and previous work load, is beyond my comprehension.

Peacemaker,
From what I can see you selected a bull that fits your cows and a bull that will put good calves on the ground to sell but I wouldn't keep his calves in an attempt to improve your heard. He also would make a good first time heifer bull.
Give him another year and post another pic of him.
SL

 

[ga. prime]

Lotsa Tennessee people on this thread. Any of you ever run into the TenneseeCattlemanFromOuterSpace?

 

[Crowderfarms]

Lotsa Tennessee people on this thread. Any of you ever run into the TenneseeCattlemanFromOuterSpace?

As a 'mater of fact I did. It was last night down in the holler. We had a Coon treed and the dogs headed back to the truck like they'd seen a haint. There he stood, outside his spaceship.I peeked in the porthole and he had Flaboy and MikeC shackled on a gurney doing some type of experiment on them with this intergalactical colored gal.

 

[ga. prime]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[peacemaker]

Thanks everyone for the continued post's

Crowder, the gates are crap... they are those $48.00 specials from the coop. I'm going to use them in other areas of the farm and get heavier ones for the pen. I just got in a hurry and wanted to get it done. two of us put what you see up in two day's. We would have had it done sooner but the dern auger bent twice and I had to weld it up a little. Probably my own fault cause the tractor is a 75 horse and the auger is rated for a 35-40 horse.I learned quick to keep it at an idle. We still want to add a raised boardwalk area on the inside along the alley. and FLA BOY I like the idea about the plywood, Thanks... I'm sure I'll find other little things I need to change once I start using it. I'm betting the first time I swing the gate closed on them it will get interesting...
Sir loin, thanks for the kind words... I know he's far from perfect but he's all I got right now and I just hope he can get me some calves on the ground. I missed last year trying to find a good bull. Those cows should all have a calf but I didnt have a bull. The only reason The little red heifer is there is cause it's mama got in with my nieghbors bull for a while. Those cows were born around april 2005 so I wasted a year.... didnt want that to happen again. He might not be pretty but he's better than nothing... I'll post a few pictures every few months to show how he's comming along.(lets all say a prayer for him) :lol:

 

[Crowderfarms]

Thanks everyone for the continued post's

Crowder, the gates are crap... they are those $48.00 specials from the coop. I'm going to use them in other areas of the farm and get heavier ones for the pen.

There you go! For some reason I get the hint you're going all out and doing the best you can.Takes time and money to get to perfection, or close to it anyway...My personal opinion of Plywood is it belongs on a side of a House, or the roof of one.Add you some more boards and you should be OK.

Keep us informed of your new projects and endeavors. ;-)