not sure how you ranchers do it.....

[angus9259]

My cows are right at my place. I'm checking things out multiple times a day as I work out of my home when I'm not traveling for work (which only happens about 1 or 2 nights every other week. Still, things are always going afoul. The last two weeks alone I had a downer cow I had to shoot (now an orphaned calf to deal with), a bull with pigweed poisoning (decided to eat the mowed down pigweed instead of the hay I had out), a cow with toxic mastitis, and pulled a set of dead twins - fortunately momma survived. Now to attempt to graft the orphaned calf onto the dam of the dead twins.....

I end up having to pull at least one calf a year for every 20 born - not due to size but malpresentation, twins, etc.... That said, last year I had a set of pulled twins (one dead, one contracted tendons), one backwards (alive but got naval ill), and one that came a month early but somehow momma didn't know she was in labor even though the bag was hanging out her (the calf was dead inside). If I wasn't home these would be a dead packages.

How do you folks who can't check your cows frequently keep things alive??!?!

I'm at the point of considering getting out. Just can't seem to keep ahead of the death machine.

 

[HDRider]

I'd like to offer words of encouragement, that I could draw on myself. I am about to jump in exactly where you are.

I have all those fears and more.

I guess it just comes down to what makes you happy.

I hope it gets better for you.

 

[Bigfoot]

I'm going to assume, they have a much higher death loss.

 

[Margonme]

I guess so far I have been lucky.

Nevertheless, seems like it is a steady grind to keep it moving in the right direction.

If I could step back 10 years, I might do something different! But here I am, I ain't gonna stop now!

 

[True Grit Farms]

Some years are worse than others, and some are just down right horrible. I feel your pain, this year has been a very trying experience. We had a year like this one years ago and threw the towel in. It's hard to believe how cruel nature can be on man and beast. We lost a calf from a heifer that we were checking on every hour.
The ranchers rule "if you have cows your going to lose some" just take the good with bad and move forward.

 

[Rafter S]

In addition to True Grit's quote about losing some (My father used to brag that he'd never lost an elephant. Of course he never had an elephant.) the best encouragement I can give you is that after years of experience and ruthless culling a lot of the problems you mentioned can be greatly reduced.

 

[Bigfoot]

Everybodies experiences aren't mine. I almost lost all 3 of my kids one time. There still here, and I count myself a blessed man. Anytime I come up on a dead one, it doesn't bother me in the least. I've done had the best run of God's grace, that I could ever hope or ask for. My cattle (although getting numerous) are just something I do for fun. When 550 pound steers were $1200, it was a lot more fun. It's still just for fun. Can't equate to the "important" things.

 

[callmefence]

It's funny how we worry over cattle at home.
But the cattle on away pastures we may only check 1 to 2 weeks. Younger and new cattle definitely get kept at home. Will the old pros get to fend for themselves.
We also considerably understock away pastures. Cattle laying round with full bellies don't get in near as much trouble.

 

[angus9259]

In addition to True Grit's quote about losing some (My father used to brag that he'd never lost an elephant. Of course he never had an elephant.) the best encouragement I can give you is that after years of experience and ruthless culling a lot of the problems you mentioned can be greatly reduced.

I wish this were true but don't see it. Been practicing those things for 20 years myself. Not sure how a 8 year old cow with mastitis, a 4 year old bull getting into the pigweed, a 13 year old cow with her first set of twins, a 6 year old downer cow for what appeared to be milk fever (but who knows why really) can be traced to issues of culling. But, who knows....

So, in all sincerity and without any sarcasm at all, would you suggest culling all the heifers I've kept back out of the cow with mastitis (even though they've been great) and culling all the heifers I've retained out of the 13 year old cow because she had a set of twins? And culling all the heifer calves out of the bull that ate pigweed? I previously asked on a different thread about the genetic pre-disposition of an animal to milk fever and didn't get the sense it was a genetic issue but......

 

[Margonme]

In addition to True Grit's quote about losing some (My father used to brag that he'd never lost an elephant. Of course he never had an elephant.) the best encouragement I can give you is that after years of experience and ruthless culling a lot of the problems you mentioned can be greatly reduced.

I wish this were true but don't see it. Been practicing those things for 20 years myself. Not sure how a 8 year old cow with mastitis, a 4 year old bull getting into the pigweed, a 13 year old cow with her first set of twins, a 6 year old downer cow for what appeared to be milk fever (but who knows why really) can be traced to issues of culling. But, who knows....

So, in all sincerity and without any sarcasm at all, would you suggest culling all the heifers I've kept back out of the cow with mastitis (even though they've been great) and culling all the heifers I've retained out of the 13 year old cow because she had a set of twins? And culling all the heifer calves out of the bull that ate pigweed? I previously asked on a different thread about the genetic pre-disposition of an animal to milk fever and didn't get the sense it was a genetic issue but......

Those are not culling issues.

What about minerals, nutrition, vaccinations?

 

[cowgirl8]

How many do you run?...Have you checked your averages and see if they are good? We run over 250 mother cows now and i spend all my days out checking them. Calving season is the worst. In 3 months i'll log in 5000 miles on my 4wheeler and its not because i have to drive a long way to the herds, most are here around our house. Some years it seems we have one problem after another, same as you...but once you average it out, it doesnt seem so bad. Every problem we have sticks in my head, then another and then another where it seems all we have are problems. But on paper, in the end, is only 5% loss...when i'd swear its like 50/50...lol
We had a easy year this year...Only one paralyzed cow...maybe 3 lost calves...we lost a few other cows, but they were old..But last year we lost more calves and less cows.. and several cases of mastitis, but none this year..Had 4 sets of twins this year, but saved 2 extra that i grafted to the cows who lost calves...No twins last year which was weird...

 

[Supa Dexta]

The larger you get, the more ruthless you can be on culling as well. Have more replacements to choose from.

Get rid of anything that causes the slightest problem.

 

[angus9259]

How many do you run?...Have you checked your averages and see if they are good? We run over 250 mother cows now and i spend all my days out checking them. Calving season is the worst. In 3 months i'll log in 5000 miles on my 4wheeler and its not because i have to drive a long way to the herds, most are here around our house. Some years it seems we have one problem after another, same as you...but once you average it out, it doesnt seem so bad. Every problem we have sticks in my head, then another and then another where it seems all we have are problems. But on paper, in the end, is only 5% loss...when i'd swear its like 50/50...lol
We had a easy year this year...Only one paralyzed cow...maybe 3 lost calves...we lost a few other cows, but they were old..But last year we lost more calves and less cows.. and several cases of mastitis, but none this year..Had 4 sets of twins this year, but saved 2 extra that i grafted to the cows who lost calves...No twins last year which was weird...

I'm probably 5-10% as well. Never calculated.

 

[angus9259]

The larger you get, the more ruthless you can be on culling as well. Have more replacements to choose from.

Get rid of anything that causes the slightest problem.

See my post above on culling and answer how you would cull in those situations and how culling would prevent them.

 

[cowgirl8]

I get a few months break, once we sell the calves till Jan....Thats when i start making notes on cows...i still check cows daily in those few months, but i rarely find problems. I dont do feeding of hay, so if there is something i miss my son or husband alerts me. But once i see cows getting ready to calve, it starts all over again. The last 2 years, due to the black vultures, we calve out heifers right at our back yard. This has saved us many miles and lots of time and has given me peace of mind knowing the chances of finding a calf half eaten stuck int the back end of a heifers is not likely..

If you culled like some of these guys say to, you'd never own a cow for longer than 6 months... :roll:

 

[Rafter S]

In addition to True Grit's quote about losing some (My father used to brag that he'd never lost an elephant. Of course he never had an elephant.) the best encouragement I can give you is that after years of experience and ruthless culling a lot of the problems you mentioned can be greatly reduced.

I wish this were true but don't see it. Been practicing those things for 20 years myself. Not sure how a 8 year old cow with mastitis, a 4 year old bull getting into the pigweed, a 13 year old cow with her first set of twins, a 6 year old downer cow for what appeared to be milk fever (but who knows why really) can be traced to issues of culling. But, who knows....

So, in all sincerity and without any sarcasm at all, would you suggest culling all the heifers I've kept back out of the cow with mastitis (even though they've been great) and culling all the heifers I've retained out of the 13 year old cow because she had a set of twins? And culling all the heifer calves out of the bull that ate pigweed? I previously asked on a different thread about the genetic pre-disposition of an animal to milk fever and didn't get the sense it was a genetic issue but......

I'm sorry. I had gotten the mistaken impression from your first post here that you're new to cattle. I don't know what else to tell you. I keep salt and mineral out all the time. I don't cull for having twins, but I've also never needed to pull one. I currently have about 25 mature cows, and calve out any where from 6 - 10 heifers per year, and I almost never pull a calf. Some of that is bull selection, some if it is heifer selection, and some of it is nutrition. I'm sure there are other factors. Luck is likely one of them. I've never had a beef breed cow with mastitis. That could be because I calve in late fall and early winter, so when the milk comes on in spring the calves are big enough to handle all of it, but even when I calved year-round I didn't have any problems with it, so yes, I probably would cull that cow. I wouldn't say I'd cull all of her heifers, but I would watch them like a hawk and cull at the slightest indication of problems. Good luck.

 

[Supa Dexta]

I didn't say prevent it, I said ship em. The more you ship problem animals, the less chance there is for additional problems down the road. You'll always have the unexpected, but if you're lenient on the other stuff the list will grow exponentially.

Smaller producers are notorious for 2nd, 3rd...8th chances. When the animal is nothing more than a good or bad number, its easier to let them go. So either spend your time babying a few, or spend it running more head.

 

[talltimber]

My cows are right at my place. I'm checking things out multiple times a day as I work out of my home when I'm not traveling for work (which only happens about 1 or 2 nights every other week. Still, things are always going afoul. The last two weeks alone I had a downer cow I had to shoot (now an orphaned calf to deal with), a bull with pigweed poisoning (decided to eat the mowed down pigweed instead of the hay I had out), a cow with toxic mastitis, and pulled a set of dead twins - fortunately momma survived. Now to attempt to graft the orphaned calf onto the dam of the dead twins.....

I end up having to pull at least one calf a year for every 20 born - not due to size but malpresentation, twins, etc.... That said, last year I had a set of pulled twins (one dead, one contracted tendons), one backwards (alive but got naval ill), and one that came a month early but somehow momma didn't know she was in labor even though the bag was hanging out her (the calf was dead inside). If I wasn't home these would be a dead packages.

How do you folks who can't check your cows frequently keep things alive??!?!

I'm at the point of considering getting out. Just can't seem to keep ahead of the death machine.

I'm afraid I'm not the one to ask yet on how to keep from getting tore up about having troubles. A guy just has to do the best he can, for as long as he can.

I think some are not being completely honest about the trouble they have, or they don't have trouble that they KNOW about. They just know that with 45 head, you get 39 calves-or less.

I also think, as unfair as it is, that some people are just luckier than others.

 

[Rafter S]

I didn't say prevent it, I said ship em. The more you ship problem animals, the less chance there is for additional problems down the road. You'll always have the unexpected, but if you're lenient on the other stuff the list will grow exponentially.

Smaller producers are notorious for 2nd, 3rd...8th chances. When the animal is nothing more than a good or bad number, its easier to let them go. So either spend your time babying a few, or spend it running more head.

Exactly. I was at the vet a few months ago when a guy brought in a 3-year old heifer to get palpated. Even if she was finally bred, he had fed her a long time for nothing.

 

[Nesikep]

Our first year with cows we had bought 12 bred heifers.. from them, 1 lost her calf and prolapsed, 1 pushed her calf under a fence and suffocated it, that cow went on to break the leg of another calf, another one had a 120 lb calf and we lost both of them.. That was calving season.. Summer came along and we lost 2 good cows to atypical pneumonia..
We should have had 24 animals and we ended up with 16... Then came a lot of problems with bad hooves, udders, and fertility culling a bunch more over the next years.

This spring (25 years later) I lost my first calf in 110 births because it took FOREVER for the vet to come out and do a cesarian..

Hope things straighten out for you, sounds like it's been pretty rough.. it's not always that bad