some easy keeping Herefords

[Chris H]

Despite being in a drought, the 1 inch of rain a month kept some grass growing, and the sudex kept growing. The mature cows with calves look pretty good right now. The two's are getting a little feed with their hay now. Here's a 5 year old cow, what do you think of her & her calf?
in the field

closer(first mud in months!, we finally had 2 inches of rain this weekend)

rear view

with her calf

calf

a March heifer, maternal sister to cow, future show heifer? Oh, the topline of the cow is visible behind this heifer.

 

[Chris H]

Over one hundred views and no comments, good, bad, or ugly? No comments on thickness, or lack of it?

Really, this group have just had hay in addition to any pasture they could find. The green in the first picture is crabgrass with the green in the background the ragweed that went to seed in a new planting.

 

[OK Jeanne]

Those are the best looking herefords I've seen in awhile!
Congrats!!

 

[KNERSIE]

the cow and both calves look good. Nice muscling on the show prospect heifer, if I had to fault her it looks like her neck/shoulder attachment could be stronger.

Generally their eyes could be better, the cow's muscling could go down lower to the hocks, but good easy keeping cattle with very good width over the hips.

I would pay close attention to the eyeset of the future bulls you use, at least for my conditions.

 

[MikeC]

Over one hundred views and no comments, good, bad, or ugly? No comments on thickness, or lack of it?

Be glad there are no comments. Many on here are just out to find the lacking qualities of cattle pictures. ;-)

Especially if they aren't butterball fat.....................

Your's must have passed the picture test! :lol:

 

[HerefordSire]

Sorry about that Chris as I should have replied immediately. I like all of your cattle you have shown and I am very impressed with your seedstock selection and visual appearance. I have been deferring other comments until later. Of all the people on the boards posting about Polled Herefords, I think you are one of the most talented, if not the most talented, breeder according to my biased taste.

 

[shutskytj]

Chris nice quality animals you have, what is the sire of the 2 calves

 

[BRG]

Good looking Herfs. I love a good Hereford!

 

[Chris H]

Thanks,
The cow is:
................... ANHINGA VIC 69R 579 (P22959766)
...............JMS VICTOR 579 238 (P23598729)
...................JMS VICTORIA R64 904 (P23359241)
...Sire: AA TSF 238 VICTOR 9103 (P42018751)
...................REMITALL KEYNOTE 20X (P23631818)
...............TSF MS KEYNOTE 729 (P24025002)
...................BTF MS FORAGE 109W 9001 (P23389308)
Animal: HSC VICTORIA 2204 (P42309815)
...................RHF VICTOR 266 964 (P21997571)
...............RMP SIR 964 614 (P23948021)
...................RMP MISS 15G 505 815 (P23288056)
...Dam : HB VICTORIA 0912 (P42077173)
...................HB HORIZON 4110 (19461947)
...............HB ATHENA 8433 (41048345)
...................HB CHARMER 9034 (19075975)

Her calf is sired by DJB 8E RAMPAGE 18R ET (42687367) We are real pleased with the consistancy of his calves so far.

The older calf, maternal sister to the cow, is sired by DJB LLL 8E BENCHMARK 26P (P42470056).

So, the sires of both the calves are sons of 8E. We own Rampage, just purchased semen on Benchmark.
I've got to get this years calf crop recorded, so you won't find the calves in the Hereford records yet.

Knersie, you are correct about the eyeset. These aren't as bad as some we have, but aren't as good as some we have either. We have a Kootenay x 19D bull who has almost perfect eyeset, but lacks pigment.

HerefordSire, I have to proudly point out the younger calf has nice little horns sprouting! Our 8E son is horned but his flush brother was polled. We tend to prefer horned breeding.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

I like cattle out on pasture making a living, seems like these old girls get plenty of handouts from 'Ol Chris.

Lemme axe you, Chris, do your cattle work for you or do you wok for your cattle? I think the pictures tell the story on that!

Welfare cows!

you like cattle out on pasture making a living. you did read the part about drought didnt you? or did you just feel the need to rattle your gourd

 

[Chris H]

I like cattle out on pasture making a living, seems like these old girls get plenty of handouts from 'Ol Chris.

Lemme axe you, Chris, do your cattle work for you or do you wok for your cattle? I think the pictures tell the story on that!

Welfare cows!

Welfare cows? We are in a D3 drought this summer. We are 12 inches short on rain. Our first cutting hay made 60% of normal. There has been no regrowth. Our sudex planted June 1 lay in the dry ground until the first week of July when we had 1 inch of rain. The next rain was close to 1 inch the first week of August. This year we've also set a record for heat in August in this area.
Of course these cows are getting 'handouts'! But as I said before the only 'handouts' these girls have gotten is hay; sudex, fescue, switchgrass. That was to supplement what little grass was available to graze.
Now, if we didn't give them 'welfare', we would have had to sell cows like this. Does that seem very smart to you? We've culled the bottom, at .90/lb on the rail. You want to see cows like this go for .90/lb on the rail? How much would you have to pay to replace a cow like this when we start getting rain again? And honestly, droughts more than a season long are extremely rare in our area.
Btw, these cows will shortly be supplemented, or given 'handouts' of gluten, distillers grain, or corn. Why? Not because they're 'welfare cows', it's because we can winter them on purchased corn stalks & grain by-products cheaper than we can on our own hay. You may call that 'welfare' but we call it 'making a decision based on lowest cost'.

 

[KNERSIE]

I like cattle out on pasture making a living, seems like these old girls get plenty of handouts from 'Ol Chris.

Lemme axe you, Chris, do your cattle work for you or do you wok for your cattle? I think the pictures tell the story on that!

Welfare cows!

Welfare cows? We are in a D3 drought this summer. We are 12 inches short on rain. Our first cutting hay made 60% of normal. There has been no regrowth. Our sudex planted June 1 lay in the dry ground until the first week of July when we had 1 inch of rain. The next rain was close to 1 inch the first week of August. This year we've also set a record for heat in August in this area.
Of course these cows are getting 'handouts'! But as I said before the only 'handouts' these girls have gotten is hay; sudex, fescue, switchgrass. That was to supplement what little grass was available to graze.
Now, if we didn't give them 'welfare', we would have had to sell cows like this. Does that seem very smart to you? We've culled the bottom, at .90/lb on the rail. You want to see cows like this go for .90/lb on the rail? How much would you have to pay to replace a cow like this when we start getting rain again? And honestly, droughts more than a season long are extremely rare in our area.
Btw, these cows will shortly be supplemented, or given 'handouts' of gluten, distillers grain, or corn. Why? Not because they're 'welfare cows', it's because we can winter them on purchased corn stalks & grain by-products cheaper than we can on our own hay. You may call that 'welfare' but we call it 'making a decision based on lowest cost'.

all is fair in drought and war!

I have stated many times that I am in principle against feeding grain or grain byproducts, but in a drought when there is no grazing at all, no hay, straw is almost impossible to obtain, I'd rather feed grain screenings than lose years of breeding. Even if that means someone on the internet calls them welfare cattle.

 

[Chris H]

Listen, whistle-britches, I see plenty of grass in those pastures. You wanna see tough pastures come out to western north Texas and southwestern Oklahoma.

If you heard rattling, it must have been the two bb's in your head clattering together. Try not to turn your head so fast next time.

Later, Coolbreeze!

What you see is crabgrass in a 3/4 acre lot where the cow is standing. In the field behind her is the common ragweed which overtook a new seeding of grass from last fall. Cows won't eat ragweed seeds and it would have been stupid to graze it since we last grazed it in June. If we start getting rain now that grass will jump up and be some grazing this fall. Or at least it will survive until next year if the drought continues this year. If we tried to graze it, we'd kill it. Not too smart to do that.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

what's funny is your comments might pack a little more punch- IF- you knew a dam thing about cattle

 

[Brandonm2]

Listen, whistle-britches, I see plenty of grass in those pastures. You wanna see tough pastures come out to western north Texas and southwestern Oklahoma.

If you heard rattling, it must have been the two bb's in your head clattering together. Try not to turn your head so fast next time.

Later, Coolbreeze!

North Texas????

According to USDA it is just a little abnormally dry there

http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html
Try some of these D4 conditions: then criticize folks for feeding hay to protect their remaining grass.

 

[Chris H]

Listen, whistle-britches, I see plenty of grass in those pastures. You wanna see tough pastures come out to western north Texas and southwestern Oklahoma.

If you heard rattling, it must have been the two bb's in your head clattering together. Try not to turn your head so fast next time.

Later, Coolbreeze!

North Texas????

According to USDA it is just a little abnormally dry there

http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html
Try some of these D4 conditions: then criticize folks for feeding hay to protect their remaining grass.

That's correct. We're in D3 in southern Ohio. Because we practice MIG our fields look to be in really good condition compared to others who just stock their pastures and let them graze. But compared to last year, it's sad. Our pond is down 3 foot due to pumping water for the cows(another welfare handout, I guess), the spring we dug out and put in a dam for a new pond has dried up, and stockpiled fescue which should be at least 18 inches high is 4-6 inches. But, it looks green to the pickup seat rancher, :roll:

 

[Beef11]

what's funny is your comments might pack a little more punch- IF- you knew a dam thing about cattle

Exactly!

 

[Chris H]

Chris, Chris, Chris your the one titling your post "easy keeping", who the heck knows if they are easy keeping based on supplemental feeding? If that concept escapes you or the 'bama bad butt of the internet then I'm so sorry.

Besides, your the one that kept begging for opinions and I gave you one.

Can you raise fat cows & calves on just hay & minerals? Matter of fact, do you raise any cows at all?

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Chris, Chris, Chris your the one titling your post "easy keeping", who the heck knows if they are easy keeping based on supplemental feeding? If that concept escapes you or the 'bama bad butt of the internet then I'm so sorry.

Besides, your the one that kept begging for opinions and I gave you one.

Can you raise fat cows & calves on just hay & minerals? Matter of fact,

• do you raise any cows at all

?

NOW that's the million dollar question . one im sure we all know the answer.by the way nt im not the bad butt of the internet im just here to five. after that you can pick on anyone that buys into your[ im from texas so i got to know cattle comments]

 

[Chris H]

>>just hay & minerals?<<

Sorry, I'm just a Texas Dumb A but our mineral feeders in Texas and Oklahoma look different than ya'lls. Funny thing is our FEED troughs look just like ya'lls "mineral" troughs!!!!!!!

LOL

Do you read even worse than you write? Maybe you are ASSuming things based on the picture and not what I wrote?

Let me repeat: The cows & calves pictured in this post have not received any grain or grain by-products this year. They have had hay due to the drought.
As a matter-of-fact, we do use feed troughs as salt/mineral feeders. I only put out enough to last 3-7 days. Since we practice MIG the cows are moved frequently and I like a 'mineral feeder' which is easily moved. I also like to keep the salt/mineral fresh, and putting out a few days supply at a time ensures it is fresh.
This group of cows was separated from the herd that went back to the field. Two pairs have calves I want to break for show, those are the calves I pictured. Two cows are fall calvers and I wanted them separated. Two cows just calved in the last two weeks, those pairs will remain with the two to freshen. Two pairs are marked to cull.
We did start to supplement this group with grain, at .90/lb on the rail the cull cows will add profit from the grain. The fall calvers don't need it at this time but will in another month when milking demands coincide with colder temps and breeding demands on the cow. And the future show heifers will need grain to be competitive and be easily weaned at 7 months.
Need any more information before you spout off nonsense?