Some pictures from the last week

[creekdrive]

Haven't posted in a while but thought I'd stop in and say a quick hello and share a few pictures.
Winter has been pretty good for us so far. Swath grazing was good but should've lasted a couple weeks longer than it did. Cold temperatures (-20C to -30C) for most of January made them burn through it a lot quicker than if the temps had been more like a normal year. Started feeding them hay/greenfeed a week ago.

It was a rather dreary day when I took these pictures. Finally this past weekend the sun has come back and we are actually getting some nice weather instead of cold and foggy.

a coming 3 year old that I think is gonna make a dandy cow. She raised a nice bull calf on her first try. Excited to see what she does this year.

probably my favorite bull in the bull pen this year. 77lb BW, 747lb adj. WW and I think has the looks to go with the good numbers.

same black bull on the right hand side. Red bull is one we plan to keep and use ourselves.

Had a couple of surprises on New Years Day! Had bulls break into the corral with our replacement heifers last year...thought we had given lute to the ones they bred, but apparently we either picked wrong or they were busier than we thought. OOPS. Noticed when we were walking the cows home on the 28th of Dec. that the brockle faced heifer looked like she was gonna calve early (not supposed to start until the last week of March). Once we got them home took a good look at the rest of the heifers and pulled a couple of them into the corral New Years Eve. Next morning they both calved one right after the other. Lucky we brought them home when we did!

Well I better get off the computer and get outside - Too nice outside to waste the whole day in the house!

**Edited because I duplicated one of the pictures

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Nice photos as always. And some nice thick cattle! Thanks for posting.

 

[Bigfoot]

nice pics. cows look like your taking care of things.

 

[Ky hills]

Good looking cattle :tiphat: , the white stuff on the ground is pretty as long as it isn't here. :lol:

 

[uplandnut]

Always love the pictures you post from up north. Nice looking cattle as usual.

 

[gizmom]

They sure look good really like 5D. It also looks cold! We are expecting to hit the 70's tomorrow I can't imagine the kind of cold ya'll deal with.

Gizmom

 

[talltimber]

Always love the pictures you post from up north. Nice looking cattle as usual.

X2

 

[Nesikep]

Nice pictures.. and good thing you got the heifers that were bred early sorted out!

I've found that sometimes when a first timer raises a really good first calf she kinda outdoes herself and the second isn't all that great, but then will make great calves from then on.
My cows have been welfare bums for 6 weeks already

 

[frieghttrain]

Great pictures! Those cows look like they're holding condition well.

 

[ez14.]

your cattle are looking great! what kind of hay do you feed, do you get it tested, do the cows get anything besides hay? what about the calves?

 

[Backbone Ranch]

Love the pictures! I really like the two yearling bulls and your cows look great.

 

[Margonme]

Excellent livestock. You must be very proud. I would be.

 

[creekdrive]

Thanks all for the comments. I definitely am proud of most of them. The cows have came through the winter really well for how cold it has been. They are still in pretty good shape but the last cold spell made some of the old girls look a little bonier than I like. At Christmas time they all looked like they could've gone on a diet...

your cattle are looking great! what kind of hay do you feed, do you get it tested, do the cows get anything besides hay? what about the calves?

I'll try to answer without getting too long winded ;-)
The yearling bulls get grass hay & greenfeed free choice, and are fed a pellet. Try to stay at about 2% of their body weight in pellets. Seems to keep them growing at a good rate without pushing them too hard or getting them over fat. The replacement heifers were getting fed the same up until a week ago when we switched them to oats instead of the pellets.

Since just after we weaned the calves, which was roughly the 10th of November, the cows have been on swath grazing. First they were in two different groups, about 50-60 acres and roughly 135 head on each piece. One piece was mostly Millet and a few swaths of oats that we didn't combine. The other piece was barley swath grazing. They stayed there until the 28th of December when we walked both of the groups home where they have been on 70 acres of millet swath grazing. The last couple weeks of swath grazing we supplemented with grain every 2-3 days. Now that they have cleaned up all the swaths and we are feeding they have been getting 8 bales/day rolled out. Right now they usually get mostly barley & oats greenfeed bales and a few mixed alfalfa/grass hay. We try to save most of the alfalfa till closer to calving. They also get grain. I don't know the exact amount, probably close to 50 bushels. We use grain because it cuts back on the amount of bales we have to feed by a lot and it's cheaper for us than buying in more hay. We always talk about getting feed tests done but so far have never got around to it...I know we should just to see.

This was just a few days into the millet swath grazing. You can see they have most of the swaths ruffled

There's pretty much nothing left out there now - you can still see where the swaths were, but they are licked pretty well clean. The odd spot there is a bit left where it froze down, but they will pick at that through the rest of the winter/spring.

spread out eating grain

a good example of just how fat some of the cows were. haha

They sure look good really like 5D. It also looks cold! We are expecting to hit the 70's tomorrow I can't imagine the kind of cold ya'll deal with.

Gizmom

Thanks Giz! I like the 5D bull quite a bit too. Have had a couple guys here looking for bulls already, and he's one that they both picked out right away. Had to tell them they'll have to wait and come back and buy one of his sons in a couple years He's a bit of a different pedigree for us, so will be interesting to see how he works out. I don't even mind the cold most winters, but this winter has been too cold even for me and hardly any sunshine which just makes it that much more depressing.

 

[Supa Dexta]

I think most of Alberta had warmer than normal temps for Jan - with a lot of it not far off zero. -20,-30? Early in the month, but not throughout.

 

[creekdrive]

I think most of Alberta had warmer than normal temps for Jan - with a lot of it not far off zero. -20,-30? Early in the month, but not throughout.

Your comment made me go back and think...I really wasn't trying to exaggerate. That's not usually who I am, but reading back my post it kind of sounds like that's what I was doing! I can't seem to find wind chill data history for the month of January for the closest weather station to me. I did find the first 11 days of January were -20 or lower not including the windchill. Then technically only 2 more days that were -20. The rest of the days were close to average. So I guess that really is only half the month. oops. . If I could find windchill data maybe it wouldn't have been such a stretch to say most of the month. We did have two really nice breaks where it was around 0 for a couple days.

Overall it has felt like a cold, dreary month. We've had lots of fog this winter. The old timers are saying March will have a lot of snow/moisture. This morning when I got up the news was saying -19C with a windchill of -26C... Supposed to be around those marks for the next week or so if the weather guys are right.

To everyone - I apologize for exaggerating the cold...it really was not my intent but I'll be sure to double check my facts better before posting again.

 

[ez14.]

Thanks all for the comments. I definitely am proud of most of them. The cows have came through the winter really well for how cold it has been. They are still in pretty good shape but the last cold spell made some of the old girls look a little bonier than I like. At Christmas time they all looked like they could've gone on a diet...

your cattle are looking great! what kind of hay do you feed, do you get it tested, do the cows get anything besides hay? what about the calves?

I'll try to answer without getting too long winded ;-)
The yearling bulls get grass hay & greenfeed free choice, and are fed a pellet. Try to stay at about 2% of their body weight in pellets. Seems to keep them growing at a good rate without pushing them too hard or getting them over fat. The replacement heifers were getting fed the same up until a week ago when we switched them to oats instead of the pellets.

Since just after we weaned the calves, which was roughly the 10th of November, the cows have been on swath grazing. First they were in two different groups, about 50-60 acres and roughly 135 head on each piece. One piece was mostly Millet and a few swaths of oats that we didn't combine. The other piece was barley swath grazing. They stayed there until the 28th of December when we walked both of the groups home where they have been on 70 acres of millet swath grazing. The last couple weeks of swath grazing we supplemented with grain every 2-3 days. Now that they have cleaned up all the swaths and we are feeding they have been getting 8 bales/day rolled out. Right now they usually get mostly barley & oats greenfeed bales and a few mixed alfalfa/grass hay. We try to save most of the alfalfa till closer to calving. They also get grain. I don't know the exact amount, probably close to 50 bushels. We use grain because it cuts back on the amount of bales we have to feed by a lot and it's cheaper for us than buying in more hay. We always talk about getting feed tests done but so far have never got around to it...I know we should just to see.

This was just a few days into the millet swath grazing. You can see they have most of the swaths ruffled

There's pretty much nothing left out there now - you can still see where the swaths were, but they are licked pretty well clean. The odd spot there is a bit left where it froze down, but they will pick at that through the rest of the winter/spring.

spread out eating grain

a good example of just how fat some of the cows were. haha

They sure look good really like 5D. It also looks cold! We are expecting to hit the 70's tomorrow I can't imagine the kind of cold ya'll deal with.

Gizmom

Thanks Giz! I like the 5D bull quite a bit too. Have had a couple guys here looking for bulls already, and he's one that they both picked out right away. Had to tell them they'll have to wait and come back and buy one of his sons in a couple years He's a bit of a different pedigree for us, so will be interesting to see how he works out. I don't even mind the cold most winters, but this winter has been too cold even for me and hardly any sunshine which just makes it that much more depressing.

thanks for taking the time to answer my questions!

 

[Supa Dexta]

No worries.. Its just I was in AB in January, so I knew it wasnt that cold. ha