Show me your herd!

[TCRanch]

I'm jealous. I know what you are referring to when you say cubes, but they are non existent out here. Definitely a way to get them friendly. Only thing I can offer is a good scratch.

The whole "make them tame by giving them snacks" love fest started with day old bread, donuts, bagels, Twinkies and whatever else from the Hostess Outlet. When Hostess went bankrupt, my girls had serious carb withdrawal and we had to resort to regular old cubes (20% range nuggets), baby carrots, whatever stale bread we wouldn't eat, etc. Oh, and I do keep a rubber brush in my Polaris for those good scratches when I'm not up to digging out the dirt from under my nails.

Seriously, they love Twinkies!

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Wellll - my problem with feeding Twinkies is I don't care how stale they are - "I" would be eating the majority of them!!!

 

[chaded]

After I got my heifers I got them hooked on cupcakes and vanilla wafers. I stopped because it was getting a little ridiculous with them trying to shake my wife and I down every time we went into the pasture. #204 still calmly comes up to me though and sees if I might happen to have something even though I stopped that months ago.

 

[GoWyo]

Wellll - my problem with feeding Twinkies is I don't care how stale they are - "I" would be eating the majority of them!!!

No such thing as a stale Twinkie. They taste the same whether a month old or 10 years old.

 

[Travlr]

No such thing as a stale Twinkie. They taste the same whether a month old or 10 years old.

When Hostess went bankrupt several years ago I went out and bought several packages of Twinkies. We ate all but one, and we froze that one and it's still in the freezer. I've tasted the Twinkies produced by the new owners of the brand... and they ain't Twinkies.

 

[diana55]

Our heifer bull for this spring (fall for most of you). 19 month old ET son of Musgrave Exclusive out of one of our best old donors. She is now 18 years old and still batting on. Photo of dam,Hollywood Diana Z32 at 16 years age and rear view and profile of heifer bull, Smooth Talker.

 

[diana55]

Profile of heifer bull, Smooth Talker.

 

[diana55]

Kept this lad to cover cows. 24 months old, 1,000 kg, frame score 7, scrotal 45 cm, great semen and morphology results and very docile. Son of Vermillion Dateline 7078 out of a great young cow we bred, by S Titlest.

 

[wbvs58]

Our heifer bull for this spring (fall for most of you). 19 month old ET son of Musgrave Exclusive out of one of our best old donors. She is now 18 years old and still batting on. Photo of dam,Hollywood Diana Z32 at 16 years age and rear view and profile of heifer bull, Smooth Talker.

She looks great. Won't be long before we are up to the Z's again.

Ken

 

[diana55]

She looks great. Won't be long before we are up to the Z's again.

Ken

She gets to live out her days here.A lovely old girl who breeds much better than herself. Seems to throw to whatever sire she is joined too.
Male and female progeny equally good.

 

[sms3has9]

Bought this bottle heifer in February of 2019 and AI'd her to the red angus 84s.

She gave me a beautiful little heifer April 22, 2021. I was able to hand milk her without any issues.
Then my neighbor who has brangus let me have a little heifer born a couple days later to a young oops heifer that somehow got bred way to early but calved just fine. He didn't want her raising a calf at yearling age.

Amazingly she took her too. Solved me having to keep milking and didn't have to hunt one down.

I think she did an amazing job at raising them. Only problem is I missed being able to breed her back because of personal issues. This year I had a wreck and a surgery unrelated to it so hubby said no to getting them bred this year for spring calves. Soooo now I worry they will have issues once I can attempt to get them bred. They heifers will be 2 in the spring and momma cow will be 4.

Momma Belle maintained well with 12%supplemental feed, poor grass, and hay nursing 2. I only have about 4 acres with trees all around in south Mississippi. So no hard winters.
Any suggestions on her next AI to breed to? Same question for first time Holstein x red angus heifer and brangus heifer?
Any bulls will be steered and either freezer camp or sale (barn or private). Heifers I'd like to consider to retain. We may have 8 acres of lush field available in the next 2 years that used to run 8-10 on with rotation and some supplemental hay in the 3-4 months of winter.

 

[Travlr]

Any suggestions on her next AI to breed to? Same question for first time Holstein x red angus heifer and brangus heifer?
Any bulls will be steered and either freezer camp or sale (barn or private). Heifers I'd like to consider to retain.

I'd breed Momma to a fleshy black limousine to get some meat on the calf. The younger set to something that will calve easy since it's their first. Maybe brangus?

 

[sms3has9]

I'd breed Momma to a fleshy black limousine to get some meat on the calf. The younger set to something that will calve easy since it's their first. Maybe brangus?

I appreciate your input! I don't have the fences for a bull and AI gives me the opportunity to pick and choose that gives me options. So I welcome the feedback.

 

[Warren Allison]

I appreciate your input! I don't have the fences for a bull and AI gives me the opportunity to pick and choose that gives me options. So I welcome the feedback.

I would AI all 3 to Brangus

 

[sms3has9]

I would AI all 3 to Brangus

Thank you for the suggestion!

 

[sms3has9]

Neighbor called me Thursday afternoon and said he's got a heifer calf that momma isn't taking the best care of and asked if I wanted her. I have to double check with him, but I think he ran a little black angus earlier this year and momma is a bwf type-straight beef. Said he wasn't going to keep the momma because he needs them to have better maternal and she wasn't taking the best care. So calf is about a week old, and had light scouring. Shot of LA200, oral Imodium, and she drank a bottle Friday morning. I adjusted my dairy cows feed for production starting Thursday night and she's already started picking up production. Calf has eaten off her since Friday night and is happily following her everywhere. So proud of my dairy girl!! She only had one calf in April 2021 and took this one with little to no issues. AND started picking up her production off minimum adjustments to feed. Calf had a full belly this evening and I decided to see what was left in the udder. About 2.5 quarts. Looks like I'll be milking at least once a day until the calf can take it all.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Just for future info, LA200 is not a very good antibiotic for anything other than pinkeye or footrot.
Pretty amazing she is still in milk production if she hasn't calved for 18 months.

 

[sms3has9]

Just for future info, LA200 is not a very good antibiotic for anything other than pinkeye or foxtrot.
Pretty amazing she is still in milk production if she hasn't calved for 18 months.

I admittedly didn't pull the heifers like I should have. They were about 9-10 months old due to a fencing problem. I got that fixed and had been milking some most evenings trying to keep her from getting mastitis and was going to try for another bottle calf because she was still producing. I thought she'd dried up completely when I had my wreck in March and surgery in April and couldn't do it and she didn't like hubby milking. I checked her in May and she was still giving about a quart to 1.5 quarts and that was on grass and a scoop of 12% feed to help with condition. I literally just stopped trying to get anything about 5 days ago when she dropped to about half a quart. I started adding half a scoop of 18% dairy ration Thursday night and moved to twice a day feeding with a half a flake of alfalfa along with her regular hay. I am slowly going to increase her dairy ration as the calf gets a little older and can take it. Had I fed her dairy ration before when she had her calf I honestly believe she could have handled 4 calves. Her udder doesn't seem big but was giving me 2 gallons each on twice a day milking with her week old red calf on full time until I got the black one.

 

[MurraysMutts]

I admittedly didn't pull the heifers like I should have. They were about 9-10 months old due to a fencing problem. I got that fixed and had been milking some most evenings trying to keep her from getting mastitis and was going to try for another bottle calf because she was still producing. I thought she'd dried up completely when I had my wreck in March and surgery in April and couldn't do it and she didn't like hubby milking. I checked her in May and she was still giving about a quart to 1.5 quarts and that was on grass and a scoop of 12% feed to help with condition. I literally just stopped trying to get anything about 5 days ago when she dropped to about half a quart. I started adding half a scoop of 18% dairy ration Thursday night and moved to twice a day feeding with a half a flake of alfalfa along with her regular hay. I am slowly going to increase her dairy ration as the calf gets a little older and can take it. Had I fed her dairy ration before when she had her calf I honestly believe she could have handled 4 calves. Her udder doesn't seem big but was giving me 2 gallons each on twice a day milking with her week old red calf on full time until I got the black one.

I'd bred em all to the same bull u used on her to begin with.

Nice looking animals.

Especially like mama!

 

[sms3has9]

I'd bred em all to the same bull u used on her to begin with.

Nice looking animals.

Especially like mama!

I happened to get lucky and get one shot with a straw from him for $35.00 from a friend. Unfortunately he is deceased and his straws, if you can find him, are super expensive!

Btw, I love your adventurous posts!!

Here's a pic with the brangus heifer I got from the neighbor last year next to the new one. Found out baby's daddy was full brangus and momma was 1/2 bwf and brangus.

She's already nibbling hay and has stuck her nose in the water trough.