Some pictures - dial-up beware - 08/19/07

[Aaron]

Pics of our new horned bull I bought in February. He's lean and been doing his job since mid-June.

Some pics of the cows, a nice steer calf and some heifer calves.

A couple of calves I am looking to keep as bulls. Definitely not the best pics of them. Will give them a couple more months before I make a final decision.

Some of our coming fall 2 year olds. Bred this summer. Will calve at 31 months of age.

 

[r and s peckman]

Good looking bunch of Herfords.

 

[Alan]

Some nice looking Herefords. good looking bull and nice looking steer. It's nice to have nice looking Herefords to look at and compare with my program.

If I can asked, what made you decide to put a horn bull on polled cows. If you don't mind me asking, what are you looking for? I have thought about a horned bull on my cows a few times but haven't pulled the trigger.

Thanks,
Alan

 

[UG]

Really nice looking bunch of Herefords. When I first looked at the bull photos I assumed that they were taken in Texas, so I was really surprised when I see you're from Ontario. Where in Ontario is Strattan located?

Your bred heifers are especially nice. Why do you wait until they are 31 months old to calve them out? I assume that you must be running both Spring and Fall calving herds.

 

[funky 4-Her]

Those are some nice looking herefords

 

[Aaron]

Some nice looking Herefords. good looking bull and nice looking steer. It's nice to have nice looking Herefords to look at and compare with my program.

If I can asked, what made you decide to put a horn bull on polled cows. If you don't mind me asking, what are you looking for? I have thought about a horned bull on my cows a few times but haven't pulled the trigger.

Thanks,
Alan

We are looking for more consistency in our calves with bringing in a Horned Hereford bull. We have neighbors that have been using Horned Herefords for a number of years and the uniformity in their calf crops is indescribable. Even though they use different bloodlines, both farms have similar looking calves and similar growth rates. We have never been able to get either with Polled Hereford bulls on the same farm, let alone different farms.

Also, bloodlines are beginning to become an issue for me. We don't have any Remitall or any of the latest craze bloodlines because we can't risk our future on showboating genetics. When looking for bloodlines, I am focused on bulls from the late 80's and early 90's. I need to know if such a bulls progeny will fit our program because experimenting does not lend itself to security in our operation. We have had very good luck with MSU Optimum Z03, Felton's 517, Louada Voyageur 4W and Kilmorlie Deliverance 80U. Alot of the calves in the photos trace back to JR LB 621 Chivas Y168. We are pleased with his progeny.

Finally, basics like hair, feet and legs and growth are all things we want to keep as they are. Again, Horned Herfs excel in these departments.

 

[Aaron]

Really nice looking bunch of Herefords. When I first looked at the bull photos I assumed that they were taken in Texas, so I was really surprised when I see you're from Ontario. Where in Ontario is Strattan located?

Your bred heifers are especially nice. Why do you wait until they are 31 months old to calve them out? I assume that you must be running both Spring and Fall calving herds.

We are into our 2nd year of drought, so I suppose it is beginning to look a lot like Texas up here.

We are 6 miles straight north of the Ontario-Minnesota border, about halfway between the border towns of Rainy River, ON/Baudette, MN and Fort Frances, ON/International Falls, MN.

Calving heifers out at 2 years of age has never worked for us, with exception to the few cases in which we have fed show animals heavily and gotten them to the 850-900 lb weight by early spring. Most of our yearlings have just turned a year by the time they hit grass in mid-June, weight between 650-800 lbs. Calving at a full 3 years old results in a lot of over fat heifers who didn't need that much time to develop. But calving at 2.5 years of age works perfectly for us. They have a nice fat cover, have developed properly on grass alone and as such, can handle the responsibility of a calf, both delivering it and caring for it. The majority of our cows last to the 10 year mark and beyond, so there is no rush in pushing heifers into production. Some guys say that we are not fully maximizing the production of our heifers by calving at later age, but I counter that we are extending their productive lifespan by giving them adequate time. Our experience has show us time over time, that pushing heifers to calve at 2 results in a heavy cull of young cows a few years down the road.

We are running both spring and fall calving herds and loving it. Been doing it for the last 7 years or so. Splitting our income throughout the year has been one of the best financial decisions we ever made.

 

[C HOLLAND]

We are into our 2nd year of drought, so I suppose it is beginning to look a lot like Texas up here.

We are 6 miles straight north of the Ontario-Minnesota border, about halfway between the border towns of Rainy River, ON/Baudette, MN and Fort Frances, ON/International Falls, MN.

Calving heifers out at 2 years of age has never worked for us, with exception to the few cases in which we have fed show animals heavily and gotten them to the 850-900 lb weight by early spring. Most of our yearlings have just turned a year by the time they hit grass in mid-June, weight between 650-800 lbs. Calving at a full 3 years old results in a lot of over fat heifers who didn't need that much time to develop. But calving at 2.5 years of age works perfectly for us. They have a nice fat cover, have developed properly on grass alone and as such, can handle the responsibility of a calf, both delivering it and caring for it. The majority of our cows last to the 10 year mark and beyond, so there is no rush in pushing heifers into production. Some guys say that we are not fully maximizing the production of our heifers by calving at later age, but I counter that we are extending their productive lifespan by giving them adequate time. Our experience has show us time over time, that pushing heifers to calve at 2 results in a heavy cull of young cows a few years down the road.

We are running both spring and fall calving herds and loving it. Been doing it for the last 7 years or so. Splitting our income throughout the year has been one of the best financial decisions we ever made.

I like your explanation above, and if it works for you then it's the right thing to do. I would guess the weather you have there has a lot to do with letting them grow to 2 1/2 YO before calving. I would think we get our heifers to a better size quicker down south because we have longer grazing periods than you.

 

[UG]

Aaron,

You bring up a good point about having to cull more young cows when you have your heifers calving at 24 months of age.

We have heifers calve for the first time at 2 years of age so I don't know if we'd be further ahead to hold them for an extra 6 months. We had a couple heifers born in the fall of '05 that we are holding back to calve for the first time in the spring of '08 since we are no longer calving any cows in the fall. Though it is way too small of a sample to determine if there is any benefit to holding heifers another 6 months, I'll be curious to see how long these two girls stay in the herd.

It would be interesting to see MARC or a university do a research study on the long term financial results of calving the first time at 24, 30, and 36 months of age. Unfortunately the costs and time commitment to such a program would be huge.

 

[Aaron]

We are into our 2nd year of drought, so I suppose it is beginning to look a lot like Texas up here.

We are 6 miles straight north of the Ontario-Minnesota border, about halfway between the border towns of Rainy River, ON/Baudette, MN and Fort Frances, ON/International Falls, MN.

Calving heifers out at 2 years of age has never worked for us, with exception to the few cases in which we have fed show animals heavily and gotten them to the 850-900 lb weight by early spring. Most of our yearlings have just turned a year by the time they hit grass in mid-June, weight between 650-800 lbs. Calving at a full 3 years old results in a lot of over fat heifers who didn't need that much time to develop. But calving at 2.5 years of age works perfectly for us. They have a nice fat cover, have developed properly on grass alone and as such, can handle the responsibility of a calf, both delivering it and caring for it. The majority of our cows last to the 10 year mark and beyond, so there is no rush in pushing heifers into production. Some guys say that we are not fully maximizing the production of our heifers by calving at later age, but I counter that we are extending their productive lifespan by giving them adequate time. Our experience has show us time over time, that pushing heifers to calve at 2 results in a heavy cull of young cows a few years down the road.

We are running both spring and fall calving herds and loving it. Been doing it for the last 7 years or so. Splitting our income throughout the year has been one of the best financial decisions we ever made.

I like your explanation above, and if it works for you then it's the right thing to do. I would guess the weather you have there has a lot to do with letting them grow to 2 1/2 YO before calving. I would think we get our heifers to a better size quicker down south because we have longer grazing periods than you.

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of producers that do grow animals to breed at 2 years of age, we are just one of the few producers in our area that don't.

For our animals to grow to be ready to breed and calve by the time they are 2, they need too things. 1) Grain & 2)Improved pastures...both of which cost money.

We ask the question, which costs less? Grain or an additional 6 months on pasture or hay to negate any use of grain? We notice both extended productive lifespans and lower costs in the animals we grow out slowly. In the end, it all comes down to what you trying to accomplish...for us, it's to make a profit.

Another example is this. We have not put in grain for about 17-18 years now. Locals just don't understand why we don't. We keep saying economics. The time to turn over, seed and harvest a 30 acre field of oats or barley, as well as the very real costs of fuel, fertilizer, seed, machinery depreciation and labour....for us, again, negates any perceived benefits from having a bin full of grain. Your adding value (high-value feed) to an animal, which, if your not going to feed out to slaughter, will never be fully rewarded for and will only shorten the spance between revenue and expenses.

 

[UG]

Glad to see someone else who doesn't just do something simply because everyone else does it.

I know way too many part-time producers who think they need a full line of hay making equipment to make hay for their small cattle herds. They claim that it costs way more to buy hay rather than making it themselves. I don't think they truly add in all the haymaking costs including lots of expensive equipment, fertilizer, time, seed, etc.