Nesikep
Well-known member
Well, I didn't have enough sun to take pictures of all the animals (we only get an hour right now).. but did get a few.
Here's the bull calf I kept, He's weaned but still knows who momma is (behind him)
And here he is next to my late born heifer.. I figure she's about 350 lbs
The heifer and momma about a month ago (Momma is full sister to the bull calf)
Long yearling steer and his momma (right). I think he's looking pretty good so far
Here's Sabine.. the one with the GIANT udder at calving time.. And a demonstration of why you don't feed cattle with a nice truck!
I think I did pretty good this year, 23 calves due and all stayed healthy and alive.. Good prices were a nice boost that I'm sure few people around here have been complaining about.
My weaning weights were low this year, but a large part of that is because I weaned 2 months earlier than normal because I wanted fall feed for the cows.. Milking they were eating me out of house and home and I'd have had to start feeding far too early. I think I could have gotten a couple bucks more if I weaned the calves and held on to them for 4 weeks on hay.. perhaps I'll do that next year. Next year I'll definitely have to get on with the culling... I've got a full trailer of cows that need to grow wheels... I've procrastinated about it for 2 years, and it's paid off, but now that I'm on a feed crunch their time is up... I have 3 that are prolapse prone.. those are no brainers, and several cows that just never raise an impressive calf... they will go as well. I'll still keep a few that may or may not turn out.. Roma is one.. Her sisters are all great cows, but this year (first calf) she was a sore disappointment... I think part of the reason is she was at the bottom of the pecking order and didn't get enough feed (even calves bossed her around), and to make matters worse, I think they nursed her before calving, and that screwed with her milk... Of the first timers, she's the one that grew the most herself, and has started pushing back, so hopefully next year will be better.. for her sake. I have high hopes for her sister Kama.. She's much more bossy so won't suffer as much of getting pushed around, and she'd been developing nicely.. The other sister (Mother of the yearling steer above) made a very nice looking steer, but lost condition doing it... after weaning she regained it quickly.
If I could take the best traits of the 3 heifers I kept and put them into 1 animal, then I'd have one I'm really happy with... Tifa is the little devil, very pretty and correctly built, but a little smaller.. Springy is by far the biggest, largely due to being a very talented milk thief when young, but not as nicely built.. the 3rd, Bouncy, is OK but aggressive and hatchetassed.. but might have good milk and still turn out OK.
Of the 4 heifers that will have their first calves this spring, I think all will perform pretty well... Kama is nice, medium to large framed with good length and still looks filled out, Sofa is smaller framed but has a huge belly and will probably produce well, Tatla is also smaller and big bellied, the one I don't like as much there is Vatna.. she's SUPER large framed... at 2 years old she's 6" higher at the hip than Sofa and Tatla, and just looks leggy.. Her full sister is smaller framed and produces well.. the jury is out on her!
Of the 3 second calvers, They could all use some more condition.. none of them are putting it on as I'd have hoped, I have to separate them out...
There's 4 3rd calvers, they're all in fair condition and none have any strikes against them... I'd consider a replacement from any of them
for the 4th calvers I have Mega and Heckla.. Mega is bred a few weeks early so I have fresh colostrum for the rest of them if needed, and I think I could convince her to adopt if necessary.. Heckla is also a good cow.. they're the oldest Gelbvieh influenced cows. I think this new Limo bull will work well with all the smaller framed cows.. Hoping for all heifers from them and all steers from the SH influences.. (yeah right)
As for all the older cows.. they just gotta do what they've been doing...
Next year i'm going to split up the herd to better manage the grazing, meaning the little bull will get a couple cows of his own in his own pasture that I don't want the big girls digging potholes in.
And little does this guy know his fate in late spring!
Here's the bull calf I kept, He's weaned but still knows who momma is (behind him)
And here he is next to my late born heifer.. I figure she's about 350 lbs
The heifer and momma about a month ago (Momma is full sister to the bull calf)
Long yearling steer and his momma (right). I think he's looking pretty good so far
Here's Sabine.. the one with the GIANT udder at calving time.. And a demonstration of why you don't feed cattle with a nice truck!
I think I did pretty good this year, 23 calves due and all stayed healthy and alive.. Good prices were a nice boost that I'm sure few people around here have been complaining about.
My weaning weights were low this year, but a large part of that is because I weaned 2 months earlier than normal because I wanted fall feed for the cows.. Milking they were eating me out of house and home and I'd have had to start feeding far too early. I think I could have gotten a couple bucks more if I weaned the calves and held on to them for 4 weeks on hay.. perhaps I'll do that next year. Next year I'll definitely have to get on with the culling... I've got a full trailer of cows that need to grow wheels... I've procrastinated about it for 2 years, and it's paid off, but now that I'm on a feed crunch their time is up... I have 3 that are prolapse prone.. those are no brainers, and several cows that just never raise an impressive calf... they will go as well. I'll still keep a few that may or may not turn out.. Roma is one.. Her sisters are all great cows, but this year (first calf) she was a sore disappointment... I think part of the reason is she was at the bottom of the pecking order and didn't get enough feed (even calves bossed her around), and to make matters worse, I think they nursed her before calving, and that screwed with her milk... Of the first timers, she's the one that grew the most herself, and has started pushing back, so hopefully next year will be better.. for her sake. I have high hopes for her sister Kama.. She's much more bossy so won't suffer as much of getting pushed around, and she'd been developing nicely.. The other sister (Mother of the yearling steer above) made a very nice looking steer, but lost condition doing it... after weaning she regained it quickly.
If I could take the best traits of the 3 heifers I kept and put them into 1 animal, then I'd have one I'm really happy with... Tifa is the little devil, very pretty and correctly built, but a little smaller.. Springy is by far the biggest, largely due to being a very talented milk thief when young, but not as nicely built.. the 3rd, Bouncy, is OK but aggressive and hatchetassed.. but might have good milk and still turn out OK.
Of the 4 heifers that will have their first calves this spring, I think all will perform pretty well... Kama is nice, medium to large framed with good length and still looks filled out, Sofa is smaller framed but has a huge belly and will probably produce well, Tatla is also smaller and big bellied, the one I don't like as much there is Vatna.. she's SUPER large framed... at 2 years old she's 6" higher at the hip than Sofa and Tatla, and just looks leggy.. Her full sister is smaller framed and produces well.. the jury is out on her!
Of the 3 second calvers, They could all use some more condition.. none of them are putting it on as I'd have hoped, I have to separate them out...
There's 4 3rd calvers, they're all in fair condition and none have any strikes against them... I'd consider a replacement from any of them
for the 4th calvers I have Mega and Heckla.. Mega is bred a few weeks early so I have fresh colostrum for the rest of them if needed, and I think I could convince her to adopt if necessary.. Heckla is also a good cow.. they're the oldest Gelbvieh influenced cows. I think this new Limo bull will work well with all the smaller framed cows.. Hoping for all heifers from them and all steers from the SH influences.. (yeah right)
As for all the older cows.. they just gotta do what they've been doing...
Next year i'm going to split up the herd to better manage the grazing, meaning the little bull will get a couple cows of his own in his own pasture that I don't want the big girls digging potholes in.
And little does this guy know his fate in late spring!
