Jump to content

Cattle & Ranching


Errestaurants

Recommended Posts

I know I don't know anything about cows, but I was surprised by how easily my tenant's took the cold this week. My chickens too, for that matter. Went to check on all the animals yesterday morning and they were all acting normally. I guess single digits isn't cold enough to bother them like I thought it would be. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My cows are northern cows, but cold weather is much easier on them than hot weather. Dust pneumonia is a mothertrucker up here, especially on the calves. 
Cattle really appreciate straw to lay on in extreme cold, but usually all they need to really stay warm is food- that’s how they regulate their internal temperature. However, like in humans, cold weather really sucks the moisture out of them, and a thirsty cow won’t eat, so water is very important. 

  • Hook 'Em 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Kennythetiger said:

Nope. Usually I am really good about that, as my nieces love getting those kinds of pictures, but it was so chaotic that the camera didn’t cross my mind!  

My family growing up were quarter horse people.  Have pics of my cousins in sleeping bags and heat lamps with newborn colts.  Or farther bag, my dad as a youngster with newborn sheep in his hands taking them in to bottle feed them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Of course I chose the windiest day we’ve had in two fucking weeks to start spraying. Going to give this Rezilon a go. Almost 60 acres is an expensive experiment at $345/quart/8 acres. This is supposed to be the cats ass so if it works half as well as it’s supposed to it should be well worth it.

  • Hook 'Em 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
7 hours ago, Kennythetiger said:

Looks like you caught it at a good time. We’ve had the uterus drag on the ground before. Most likely the vet will wash it off, push it back in, stitch her up and shoot her full of LA 300. Pretty important to remove the stitches on down the road though. 

That’s what I was thinking. Not nearly as bad as I’ve seen before. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Yeah we had a crazy bitch that dropped twins 3 years in a row. Only took to one of them. Third time I said fuck this noise I’m tired of bottle feeding and colostrum ain’t cheap. Had two other heifers have twins since then and both mommas took to both babies. Damnedest thing

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, Herbie Hancock said:

Yeah we had a crazy bitch that dropped twins 3 years in a row. Only took to one of them. Third time I said fuck this noise I’m tired of bottle feeding and colostrum ain’t cheap. Had two other heifers have twins since then and both mommas took to both babies. Damnedest thing

Hence, the popularity of veal.

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Did she keep all three of them? My grandfather used to have a cow that would drop twins every time, but she would only keep one. It seems like he always had a calf he was bottle raising growing up.

All three are going strong.  The heifer was huge so we moved her to the twenty acres next to the house to watch over her.  Once they were born we kept them in the pens and have been giving the mom extra cake.  We did try to lighten the load a bit with bottles but only one, the bull calf, would take a bottle.  Mom is still nursing all three.9B82ED59-C86B-46AD-889E-739CD6C2220F.thumb.jpeg.cb58159bd6cc3fe46c424f5990e3d2d6.jpeg

  • Hook 'Em 7
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Grass is knee high and was going to cut Thursday and bale Saturday. That didn’t happen and of course it started raining yesterday and is at least 40% chances the rest of the week. This would have been earliest I made first cut in almost five years.

The Rezilon I put out back in March seems to have worked very well. Second application will go on 3-4 weeks after this cutting but so far field is looking pretty damn clean.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/3/2021 at 4:45 PM, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Did she keep all three of them? My grandfather used to have a cow that would drop twins every time, but she would only keep one. It seems like he always had a calf he was bottle raising growing up.

My Dad would keep a cow that dropped twins in the working pens. He would run her through the chute each day and rub kerosene on her nose so she couldn't tell the calves apart. She would eventually give up trying to decide which calf was the one that she had decided to keep and accept them both. Out of our 350 head, we usually had one or two cows with twins At feeding time, we would feed them separate from the other cows to make sure they got enough to supplement raising two calves.

CHIEF

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, CHIEF said:

He would run her through the chute each day and rub kerosene on her nose so she couldn't tell the calves apart. She would eventually give up trying to decide which calf was the one that she had decided to keep and accept them both

Sounds like a Michael Martin Murphy song - brilliant!

That's cowboy logic, every cowboy's got it
He's got a simple solution to just about anything

If it's a job, do it, put your back in to it
'Cause a little bit of dirt's gonna wash off in the rain
If it's a horse, ride it, if it hurts, hide it
Dust yourself off and get back on again

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Grass is knee high and was going to cut Thursday and bale Saturday. That didn’t happen and of course it started raining yesterday and is at least 40% chances the rest of the week. This would have been earliest I made first cut in almost five years.

The Rezilon I put out back in March seems to have worked very well. Second application will go on 3-4 weeks after this cutting but so far field is looking pretty damn clean.

You’ll never hear me say I wish it would stop raining, but at this rate it’s gonna take two weeks to dry out before I can even get to the back to cut. On the upside, I should have no problem getting at least 5 bales an acre
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I refuse to wish it would stop raining as well, but I am not quite as excited about it.  We just had another big rain hit.  Makes me glad that were able to get 16 new calves worked on Saturday when the weather was nice.  Still had about 5 or 6 more that didn't come up, but at least it will be a little easier next time.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Goddamn can’t win for losing. My sweet 31 acre horse hay patch that gets extra attention to detail made almost 5 bales an acre today. As I’m moving them I noticed some dead spots. Fuckin army worms. Looks like I’ll be up spraying until fuckin midnight. Oh an the closest feed store that has Lamba-Cy in stock is 45 minutes away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When "rotating" your cattle.  Make sure you are clear with your request
tractor_cow_rotator.jpg
 
"Hey, CLEM! I gots an idea... make one smaller & put a sheep on there... spin it 180⁰, ass end away from the tractor & we can make some loot over @ a&m."

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/13/2021 at 4:41 PM, Herbie Hancock said:

Goddamn can’t win for losing. My sweet 31 acre horse hay patch that gets extra attention to detail made almost 5 bales an acre today. As I’m moving them I noticed some dead spots. Fuckin army worms. Looks like I’ll be up spraying until fuckin midnight. Oh an the closest feed store that has Lamba-Cy in stock is 45 minutes away.

My business partner has a place outside of Stephenville and they’ve got army worms.  He’s up there this weekend spraying and praying.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My business partner has a place outside of Stephenville and they’ve got army worms.  He’s up there this weekend spraying and praying.  

They’re bad. I’ve never seen army worms like this. Usually they’ll eat the blades of grass off the stalk and be done. And if you cut your hay at just the right time they’ll move on and no big deal. But these bastards are eating the blades off then coming back and eating the damn stalk. And then staying around until it comes back and they’ll eat the regrowth. Evil bastards
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

Considering fertilizer prices were already sky high before this Russian nonsense blew up, I really hate to see where they go once sanctions start to kick in. Russia is one of the most prolific producer of the components of agricultural fertilizer… ammonium nitrate and potash in particular. Hay crops are one thing - it’s going to affect the larger food supply in a bad way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don’t forget rising diesel costs. If you aren’t baling your own you’re probably going to pay $30/roll if you aren’t already. Wouldn’t be surprised to see it hit $35 either. And the usual 2 bales an acre minimum jump to 3. Fucking 5 years ago it was $19/bale and no minimum. Fuck this shit is aggravating.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Amos Moses said:

Considering fertilizer prices were already sky high before this Russian nonsense blew up, I really hate to see where they go once sanctions start to kick in. Russia is one of the most prolific producer of the components of agricultural fertilizer… ammonium nitrate and potash in particular. Hay crops are one thing - it’s going to affect the larger food supply in a bad way.

This will be interesting. I just read an article (pre-Russia stuff) that talked about waiting to buy fertilizer- made me feel good because I haven’t fertilized anything yet- need to put nitrogen down on about 180 acres. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Herbie Hancock said:

Don’t forget rising diesel costs. If you aren’t baling your own you’re probably going to pay $30/roll if you aren’t already. Wouldn’t be surprised to see it hit $35 either. And the usual 2 bales an acre minimum jump to 3. Fucking 5 years ago it was $19/bale and no minimum. Fuck this shit is aggravating.

This is interesting too- I custom hire all of my farming. I am north of you, and pay about $12/bale. That’s what we normal folks call a “roll”. However the other hay work seems to follow it, and I pay $12/acre for swathing and $12/acre for raking. We raise sorghum, and almost always rake. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...