One and done

[Dave]

The cowboys gathered a bunch more today. In the mess they found 7 more of my one and done cows. How many calves they caught I don't know as of right now. The calves are all getting shots and weaned along with the calves of B's they caught. These 7 get a trip to town on Thursday. They are looking pretty good so I will have them preged and mouthed. Some of them might come home to go through the process again. But I know that red witch will go some where else. I am not fast enough to deal with her again. I don't know if I was ever that fast.

 

[Mrcopier]

We call them high headed here in Texas. Crazies

 

[Dave]

We call them high headed here in Texas. Crazies

The red cow is the only one who is waspy in this group. The blacks are fine. Easy to handle. We call them one and done because they are generally older cows who are bought cheap. They have a calf, raise it, and take a one way trip to the plant. Some times I get younger cows bought cheap enough to fit into the program. We will look at the teeth on the black cows. If they still have teeth and are bred they might get to stay for another round. The cows and their calves are matched with numbers. So that is another thing I will look at to decide if a cow gets to stay for another year.

 

[Dave]

These cows are in pretty good shape for having raised a calf while crawling around in this country all summer. A lot of this is several miles between water holes.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

It's amazing what some of them can do.

 

[Dave]

It's amazing what some of them can do.

I was on that ridge on the right side of the picture during deer season. It is a lot steeper than it looks in the picture. The bottom end of that canyon drops off into rock cliffs. I saw some cows scattered down the bottom. I don't know if they were mine or B's but that doesn't matter. They have to come up out of there to get to water which is about 3/4 of a mile behind me from where I took this picture.

 

[jltrent]

At the cattle sale barn some animals get worn down and are real calm circling the ring. Bring them home and after they rest up you say dang what did I buy. I bought some cows a couple years ago and a couple that were calm in the ring like to have killed me recatching to get rid of.

 

[Dave]

I knew this red cow had potential to be waspy. I know where she came from. Look at a map of Oregon. The area south of Burns in southeast Oregon. Huge area with no roads. The county is bigger than the 7 smallest states with a population of 7,000. My guess is that any people this cow had seen were horseback. Most cattle coming from there have more flight than fight but there are always exceptions. My closest neighbor college rodeo with a couple sons from the ranch this cow came from. He said those two boys were pretty wild west.

 

[RDFF]

@Dave , I'm always amazed at how good the critters look on that kind of "pasture" when I'm out west. This is what I've got mine on... taken 10-21-25.

 

[RDFF]

I learned well this year that you can't really get here, without the daily moves. If you're even moving them once a week... I end up with too much of the ground all being at the same stage, and not enough rest period between grazings. The other thing I've learned is that leaving alot behind them is like THE BEST thing you could ever do to have plenty of grass in front of 'em!

Try this video: Rock Dell Forage Farms "Leaving grass behind"

I know it's hard to convince yourself to "leave this much feed behind 'em"... but if you ARE able to get it right like this, you won't be short of grass going forward! I've been rotationally grazing now for 8 years on most of my farm (which WAS an all cash grain farm prior to 2018), and I'm still "learnin myself how to leave more behind, because it pays"! It's just HARD to do it.

 

[anewcomer]

RDFF, you are so right about daily moves, IF you are in country that is capable of and can respond to it. We are both in that kind of country. Dave is not in that country. The PRINCIPALS of grass management, rest/recovery time are the same EVERYWHERE. The timing and implementation of those PRINCIPLES may vary greatly.

 

[RDFF]

RDFF, you are so right about daily moves, IF you are in country that is capable of and can respond to it. We are both in that kind of country. Dave is not in that country. The PRINCIPALS of grass management, rest/recovery time are the same EVERYWHERE. The timing and implementation of those PRINCIPLES may vary greatly.

Yup, I get it... CONTEXT is important... I can't imagine how Dave would do daily moves in that country. And it's beautiful country out there... The virtual fence systems are about the only way that one could do it practically in that country. However, I will disagree with you that THAT country wouldn't respond to "daily moves"... I believe that it would, but without the virtual collars, I don't know how you would ever be able to accomplish it. And of course, HOW an area will respond will vary... water is absolutely important to stimulation and support of a response... and in that arid of an area, the response is going to be muted by water availability. But it WILL respond, regardless, I'm 100% confident. And you WILL, over time, be able to see it, visibly. The rest periods between grazes will have to be longer, no question.

Putting down additional residue through "bale grazing" or "bale unrolling" or "pasture feeding using a bale processor", ..."OR"..., however one might accomplish it, will also bring benefits. (Again, how would you ever be able to do this in THAT kind of country???) But you have to have water to feed the plants AND the biology of the soil. Biology needs water just like we do, and just like cattle do. So the response in arid environments will always be muted compared to more humid or wetter environments.