Next time

hillsdown · Jan 3, 2012

The next time I think about doing something stupid, will you all please talk me down from whatever realm of disillusionment I am in.

Last year after a calving season that almost made me throw in the towel after having one train wreck after the other. I pushed calving to start in Feb instead of Jan. The better choice would have been to move ahead not back as if I would have moved it up 2 weeks 2/3rds of the herd would have calved by now. In no snow, unseasonable high temps above zero and still grazing the hayfield. :bang:

I just can't seem to win ! :cry2:

Anonymous · Jan 3, 2012

If you moved em up youd have had a hard winter starting in august.
Just roll with it

regolith · Jan 3, 2012

In no snow, unseasonable high temps above zero and still grazing the hayfield.

I just can't seem to win !

There is your key piece of information. You can't predict for an anomaly.
In my situation it's easy to move a calving date later, moving it earlier will end in a more spread out calving/higher open rate. That's one reason I'm always reluctant to move the start date later for a late area... sooner or later I might want an earlier start date and either take the hit with open cows or do it in stages, a week at a time.
The farmer who reneged on his contract with me last May wanted me to have my whole herd shifted back a month earlier for his farm... that would have been a trainwreck one way and probably two ways, happens I *did* have experience farming in his part of the country and knew he was asking for an inappropriately early date. (Second way would have been when moving on to the next farm at the end of contract, almost anywhere in the country I shifted to the cows would have been calving too far ahead of grass growth to be able to feed them).

bigbull338 · Jan 5, 2012

HD we all have trainwrecks calving cows no matter what season we choose to calve in.we just do the best we can at setting the best calving time for us.

Beefy · Jan 5, 2012

i am in towel throwing mode now.

rockridgecattle · Jan 10, 2012

HD, think if it this way. If we knew what was coming and planned for it, and everything went right as rain, life would be down right boring. I mean, calving in -30, cattle waterers that quit on Christmas day and Sunday to boot so missing service, freak snow storms which take two days to dig out....think of all the fun we'd be missing out on if we planned it all perfectly