Great to get your update. You may find that 2 calving windows is not the end of the world. My son and I run 125 +/- cows. and calve a fall group and a spring group. We have let a good cow slide from one group to another on occasion... not going to break the bank if she gets off schedule for some reason. They can't get off schedule and slide a second time though... Sometimes it is a heifer that has milked good, raised a real real nice calf and just doesn't get bred back because she has lost condition... sometimes it is the weather and pasture conditions.. The drought has made this a challenge this past year.
We also buy some calves, usually bulls calves sold in singles or small groups that are a little cheaper, bring home and work them and then put together a group of similar size. We used to wean on the trailer and sell.... now we wean and get them conditioned, grouped and they will bring a little more at the sales. Sometimes sell direct to buyers.....
You are right, with the price of cattle right now, it is not the time to be replacing good cows that calve regularly, but just aren't in that "calving window"... if they calve every 11-13 months year in and year out, they are good cows... often you can get them to back up a month or so if they are in good shape and we have taken 3 years or so to get a good cow to go from calving in July back to calving in May or April..... or held over a July cow to go with the fall calving group so her calf is bigger this time when it gets sold because it is older, but then she will be calving right in with the group next time. That is where putting the bulls in for a specific amount of time and then pulling them out is important...
We have a vaccination protocol that we mostly follow... and all bought cattle get wormed when they come on the farm. We also mostly always worm calves after they are weaned... but we do not regularly worm the cows. If they are "hard keepers" or seem to have reoccurring problems, worms or something, they get shipped. There are several cows in our herd that have some dairy influence, I am a "dairy cow person" and they have more trouble maintaining their condition on just pasture....especially if it is dry.... but if they are in good shape when calving and for the first 90 days, they usually breed back, then lose condition... and then regain it after weaning their calves. You learn what works.
We like to calve heifers only in the spring since they are going through 3 parts... calving, and raising a new calf, which means milking good, trying to continue to grow their own body, and then getting bred back. Spring grasses work much better for that. I like calving a fall group, cows not heifers, get them on the ground by Dec, before we get any really crummy weather... the cows are on pasture cleanups, getting fed hay and are good enough condition from being on good grass while dry in the late fall, to be able to make enough milk on decent hay. These calves can be marketed in the spring as lighter weight feeders if the markets are real high... or carried on pasture with the dams until July/Aug when they are weaned off and the cows go on and get their break until calving.... calving on decent grass and not too hot weather... we have preg checked and then turned cows back out with their calves until the calves are 6 wts at weaning and are eating good and do not drop weight when we wean them. We also feed a little grain out at pasture.... enough to get the cows comeing in regularly when we call, and the calves learn that it is a good thing... they go right to the bunk in a couple days to be fed once weaned... Usually we bring a group back to the main farm, keep them in the lot that has the barn access with the bunk feeder... and the calves follow the cows right in the barn, learn the bunk is "oh wow, this is good to eat" and when we take the cows back out in a week to go dry at pasture, the calves never miss a beat.
One thing we do is to leave a couple cows in with the weaned calves for an extra week... say any that are open or shorter bred... they will come right in when called, the calves will follow because the presence of a "surrogate mom" is calming, and then they do not seem to miss their own mom much at all... The opens get shipped and the shorter breds get moved to the other calving group or get sold...
We run mostly angus, but have several herefords, a fair number of bwf, and several smokies and some reds in the mix. Plus my half a dozen with some dairy in them also...Bred black we get mostly black calves... had a bull that was not homo for black and got several reds on some red cows this year... but there is one sale that they will sell decent at; if they grade, then it won't matter the color there... and there are more "small backyard type" farmers that go there and raise a couple beef for eating and will pay decent for "off colored" calves if they are decent calves, and many cannot afford to buy the blacks, so look for off colored calves anyway... so we don't hurt as bad as at some of the other sale barns.
Sounds like you are doing good with the improvements you have been working towards. Yes, sell the bulls if you are not 100% happy with the results and buy a good replacement or 2. With "cull bulls" bringing in the $1.00 lb and more, you can sell the 2 and invest in one real good one or maybe
@kenny thomas might know of someone wanting to change out bulls and can find you a good one that is a little older when they go and invest in a "new bull" for their herd. We have done that several times in the past. Plus, if you get one that is real good, don't think you have to trade him off in 3 years... We have kept bulls for 8-10 years as long as they continue to get the cows settled... we have several places we rent, so have to have more bulls than some people do... but if he puts good consistent calves on the ground, he stays...
Just sold an easy calving bull we bought back in 2013, that we used on heifers...he got stifled; and we still have one that is easy calving that we bought in 2012... we would use them one year on one group and the next year the other one so they were not breeding their daughters... and then they would often get put out to pasture with the cows as a late cleanup and to just stay out and active and not sitting in a bull lot getting lazy. We had a bull one time that was checked fine... when we got his group in from pasture we had 6 cows that were 6 months bred, and the rest were open... something happened to him... so now we try to move bulls around after 90 days,,,, or just throw one more in after 90 days as a hedge against losing all that time...
So that is another reason why we are a little more lenient with "calving windows" because we can make it work in different ways.
There is no right or wrong way... it is what is right or wrong for you and what you feel you need to accomplish.