Menu
Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
New profile posts
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles and first posts only
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Forums
Cattle Boards
Beginners Board
protein blocks and tubs
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Help Support CattleToday:
Message
<blockquote data-quote="tbase2000" data-source="post: 119573" data-attributes="member: 1003"><p>Newbie here with 40 head of cattle in North Florida. The past year has been an unbelievable challenge working with these cows. First, my partner with the "Big Idea" to have cows is 72 years old and was raised when it was open range country. Guess who's caring the bags of feed? The property we started with is nothing but woods...50 acres. I have been slowly clearing land and planting Bahia. Brutal job by the way...and only about 5 acres done. Apart from his old-school attitude, we are both green and in over our heads really. His attitude is that the longhorns will go off into the woods and eat leaves and wild grass or whatever like they did 60 years ago. My thinking is that the cows use up way to much energy searching out food in the woods; time much better spent on pasture.... Anyway, not enough pasture has been a huge problem for us. I have been supplementing with sweat feed this summer and protein tubs in the winter</p><p>Check out my cows when you get a chance</p><p><a href="http://floridacows.com" target="_blank">http://floridacows.com</a></p><p>My point here is that I too have spent alot of money supplementing my cows to make them look better than the stereotypical lean longhorn. Leasing more land was a huge help this year...but there are still too many cows on that pasture. Putting a roll of hay out a week right now since the grass is so short. Bought more land: now I have cows spred out on 4 different properties which is making managing them a nightmare. The 50 acres has only 7 cows on it now and some calves while I continue to tear up trees and plant grass.</p><p>Relocating cow nightmare:</p><p>I recently moved some cows that were on the over-grazed pasture to two smaller lots accross town to fatten them up(lots of grass there). 5 bull calves to lot 3 to be weaned, and 6 moms and calves to lot 4. One old cow to lot 3 a couple of weeks later. PROBLEMS! The bull calves freaked out and broke out of the pasture. One went running down the road off into the woods while the others into a neighbors pasture luckily. I got my as* kicked after roping the 400lb beast---bouncing off of trees... but I managed to get him back....Super long day that was....and the others I managed to pen-up after lots of running. Here's the problem. I want to take some of my cows who are not looking their best from the over-grazed lot to these new pastures. The two separate properties are 8 acres each. As soon as the cows get there they freak out and go busting through the barbed-wire fence. Tightening the fence doesn't do it...they can and have actually broke the wire. I ran a verticle strand of barb-wire between the posts making the fence a sort-of net now(alot of work!). The neighbors have cows and a huge bull who immediately comes over and claims them as his own. Beaf Master I think..the boys is big! My cows hear their "moo's" answered by the herd next door and only try to break out of their pasture. I'm afraid to take anymore cows to the new lots because of all of the drama the break-outs cause. The grass is thick if they would just chill out long enough to eat it. There's not much worse than an "OH Shi*" feeling of watching your cow run down the road. By the way the old cow I took to pasture 3 was the one who broke through the wire---twice! Granny is a bad animal! </p><p></p><p>What I am thinking: I'm trying to get the cows I want to sell on the new 8 acre lots long enough to fatten them up. I wanted to use these lots to wean the heifers too. I have to get the heifers seperated from their moms so they can calf again....Is the 8 acre lot size just too small because even the large cows like "Granny" freak out like they are in a pen? I know I have to sell some of the herd...but I wanted to put some weight on them first. Bull calves are going straight to the market from here on out....but even their moms go searching and can break out of their pasture at any time if they try.</p><p></p><p>One last quick question: When I take a calf off her mom...how long before I can mix her back in with the herd?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="tbase2000, post: 119573, member: 1003"] Newbie here with 40 head of cattle in North Florida. The past year has been an unbelievable challenge working with these cows. First, my partner with the "Big Idea" to have cows is 72 years old and was raised when it was open range country. Guess who's caring the bags of feed? The property we started with is nothing but woods...50 acres. I have been slowly clearing land and planting Bahia. Brutal job by the way...and only about 5 acres done. Apart from his old-school attitude, we are both green and in over our heads really. His attitude is that the longhorns will go off into the woods and eat leaves and wild grass or whatever like they did 60 years ago. My thinking is that the cows use up way to much energy searching out food in the woods; time much better spent on pasture.... Anyway, not enough pasture has been a huge problem for us. I have been supplementing with sweat feed this summer and protein tubs in the winter Check out my cows when you get a chance [url=http://floridacows.com]http://floridacows.com[/url] My point here is that I too have spent alot of money supplementing my cows to make them look better than the stereotypical lean longhorn. Leasing more land was a huge help this year...but there are still too many cows on that pasture. Putting a roll of hay out a week right now since the grass is so short. Bought more land: now I have cows spred out on 4 different properties which is making managing them a nightmare. The 50 acres has only 7 cows on it now and some calves while I continue to tear up trees and plant grass. Relocating cow nightmare: I recently moved some cows that were on the over-grazed pasture to two smaller lots accross town to fatten them up(lots of grass there). 5 bull calves to lot 3 to be weaned, and 6 moms and calves to lot 4. One old cow to lot 3 a couple of weeks later. PROBLEMS! The bull calves freaked out and broke out of the pasture. One went running down the road off into the woods while the others into a neighbors pasture luckily. I got my as* kicked after roping the 400lb beast---bouncing off of trees... but I managed to get him back....Super long day that was....and the others I managed to pen-up after lots of running. Here's the problem. I want to take some of my cows who are not looking their best from the over-grazed lot to these new pastures. The two separate properties are 8 acres each. As soon as the cows get there they freak out and go busting through the barbed-wire fence. Tightening the fence doesn't do it...they can and have actually broke the wire. I ran a verticle strand of barb-wire between the posts making the fence a sort-of net now(alot of work!). The neighbors have cows and a huge bull who immediately comes over and claims them as his own. Beaf Master I think..the boys is big! My cows hear their "moo's" answered by the herd next door and only try to break out of their pasture. I'm afraid to take anymore cows to the new lots because of all of the drama the break-outs cause. The grass is thick if they would just chill out long enough to eat it. There's not much worse than an "OH Shi*" feeling of watching your cow run down the road. By the way the old cow I took to pasture 3 was the one who broke through the wire---twice! Granny is a bad animal! What I am thinking: I'm trying to get the cows I want to sell on the new 8 acre lots long enough to fatten them up. I wanted to use these lots to wean the heifers too. I have to get the heifers seperated from their moms so they can calf again....Is the 8 acre lot size just too small because even the large cows like "Granny" freak out like they are in a pen? I know I have to sell some of the herd...but I wanted to put some weight on them first. Bull calves are going straight to the market from here on out....but even their moms go searching and can break out of their pasture at any time if they try. One last quick question: When I take a calf off her mom...how long before I can mix her back in with the herd? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Cattle Boards
Beginners Board
protein blocks and tubs
Top