Strojan Herefords

[50/50Farms]

I take the Conway Twitty approach to working cattle. “You want a man with a slow hand.“ I don’t use horses or dogs and try to avoid hot shots. If I need to doctor something I find a rope around the horns superior to around the neck or even nose tongs.

Shoot, a horse beats an ATV in terms of not freaking them out. Agree about the horn roping.

 

[50/50Farms]

But let me ask and add, and maybe this is just a me thing, but with horned cows I won't even get within that "extra radius" without a standoff of some sort. Are your girls docile enough that you don't even worry about them reaching around for a fly?

 

[StrojanHerefords]

I often preg test by myself in an alley with just a shovel handle and a rope tied to the side exit gate.

 

[50/50Farms]

Well, an alley is different. I meant I suppose mostly working in smaller sorting pens or handling under range doctoring. At any rate, what I really respect about you is that you keep horned herefords as best you can. Your stock looks great, you haven't jacked them up so much, and you are dedicated to your craft. I would like to ask, what is the stocking rate there?

Edit: I think the problems with herefords began with the polled crusade.

 

[Allenw]

I am not exactly sure what exactly you are curious about.
I find that working cattle with shaped horns are easiest to handle. The biggest advantage is that in a head gate, a polled animal will from time to time be able to back out, where horns prevent that.
I do have a challenge differentiating what I am doing with my old school Hereford genetics from the modern Horned Polled Herefords.

Tell us more about your old school Hertford genetics.

 

[Big Creek]

Welcome

 

[StrojanHerefords]

I am just trying to raise cattle that work in my conditions rather raising purebred stock to sell. We don't have any irrigated pasture so the cows have to make due with dry grass from May until hopefully November. We start calving in mid to late September when things are still dry and the cows breed up with the flush of new grass in the fall. I put a large emphasis on fertility. I grow my heifers to 50% of their mature weight with the idea that half of them will get bred to calve at two. I also don't believe in churning genetics, if a cow is bred and not falling apart she will stay in the herd. I don't believe that EPDs have been a step forward for the breed, I prefer to source genetics from good people.
Although I have some female lines that have been in the family since the early 1950's, most of my breeding comes from Canada as they did not get as swept up with Line One breeding. I have used genetics over the years from Ochs Brothers, Lilybrook Herefords, Ace Diemert, Tim Bernt, Fenton Herefords, Haven Herefords in England, Peter Ulrich, and Brent Fischer in New Zealand. I am really excited to get some Pute Nascar calves on the ground this fall.
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[CowboyRam]

It looks like you cut the end of the horns off the bulls, is that right?

Dad was just telling me this morning that when he was working for Warren Livestock our of Cheyenne that they would put weights on the end of the horns to curve them down, and then they would have change them every so often. He said if you got to much weight it would square out the horns. He talked like it was a bit of a pain in the butt.

 

[50/50Farms]

It looks like you cut the end of the horns off the bulls, is that right?

Dad was just telling me this morning that when he was working for Warren Livestock our of Cheyenne that they would put weights on the end of the horns to curve them down, and then they would have change them every so often. He said if you got to much weight it would square out the horns. He talked like it was a bit of a pain in the butt.

There are still people that curve horns using weights.

 

[StrojanHerefords]

I slope the horns with a reciprocating saw. My method is to restrain the animal with a rope around the base of the horns and secure the head against the head gate. Then I mark the bottom of the horn at the tip of the ear and the top of the horn an inch inside the top of the ear. Cutting the horns that way encourages the horns to grow downward. I like using an old heavy duty soldering iron to control the bleeding, I find indiscriminate cauterization of the outside part of the horn can cause the horns to grow crooked.

 

[Brute 23]

Welcome. Good looking animals. I like those bulls. They look like the kind if bulls that work here too, not the northern Herefords.

You are right... slow and consistent. The best way to handle cattle is the way you and them are comfortable with. The only thing worse than horses and dogs when it's not necessary is the "cowboy" in the saddle.