Weaned calves

[Dave]

There is 106 calves that we pulled off the cows Wednesday morning. We sorted off 11 of the smallest weakest calves and left them in the pen where I can feed them. Wednesday morning they got an Ultrabac8, BovaShield Gold, Multimin, Naselgen3, and a pasturella shot. We also poured on pour on wormer when we worked them. These calves got the same vaccination program at branding minus the Multimin. But they all got Multimin as day old calves. In the 4 days (96 hours) since they got here they ate the better part of two 1,200 pound bales of grass hay, 2 thirds of a sack of loose minerals, and the corral which is slightly bigger than an acre had a good stand of grass and weeds now all gone. When we turned them out they all went straight to eating grass and are now laying down chewing their cud. They now get about 75 days of good green grass to gain weight on.

 

[Dave]

The weather has gone from 103 the day we weaned to 59 and pouring down rain now. We are catching the tail end of that tropical storm that caused so much trouble down south. The weather guessers are saying possible 2 inches of rain today. That will make the creeks rise. This rocky country that gets about 10-12 inches a year isn't designed to handle 2 inches in a day. Good thing we vaccinated the snot out of these calves.

 

[MurraysMutts]

That's a huge temp swing @Dave

I bet it sure feels good out there!

 

[Dave]

The rain gauge in the wife's garden was at 3.5 inches. The river came up better than a foot yesterday. I am wondering what it is like this morning. When it stopped raining about 3:00 the calves looked like they really wanted a dry place to lay down.

 

[BritishWhiteGal]

Wow @Dave you are lucky to be getting some rain! Yesterday was 109 and we haven't had rain for weeks...
Our calves really aren't gaining like they should except a few I think it is the heat.

 

[Dave]

Wow @Dave you are lucky to be getting some rain! Yesterday was 109 and we haven't had rain for weeks...
Our calves really aren't gaining like they should except a few I think it is the heat.

Sorry that you haven't been getting any rain. But what amounts to one third of our annual rainfall hitting the ground in about 12 hours in August ain't going to be much of a benefit. With all this steep rocky ground a good percent will have run off. That part that soaked in will have dried up long before any new growth occurs.

 

[Dave]

The weaned calves are doing good. Other than a couple of eyes I haven't had to doctor any of them. We are now at 18 days post weaning so pretty much past the major danger time. I wish they were all like the biggest ones. But for a put together bunch of broken mouth cows of unknown breeding or history their calves are doing pretty good. There are some late born calves (the vet calls the cow 7 months bred and she calves 4 months later). There is one that B says he had more milk for breakfast than that calf has had in its life. So there are 11 late calves or dinks in the corral where I can feed them every day. All the others just have plenty of grass, ditch water, salt, and loose minerals.
Some of the better heifers and some of the dinks. The best steers wouldn't pose for me this morning.