No goats at our house, will have to settle for calves.
More new babies
Another new calf.
Those babies are so adorable - makes me want to just hug them! Congrats on your new additions!
I would like to know more about your herd. Looks like you might have a hereford bull? or some hereford in the backround?
Kathy,
The calves are from purebred simmental bulls on various crossbred cows. Some cows have some brahman blood, and some are simmental brangus crosses, as well as hereford angus crosses. I would say the red calf is 3/4 simmental, while the black calf is probably 1/2 sim, 1/4 angus, 1/4 hereford. Some of the cows were raised on the ranch, others purchased at local auctions.
Robert
That's awesome. How large are your simmentals and your simmental-brangus crosses?
I have lots of crosses here. I started my herd with bottle calves.. Then bought some registry eligible herefords. Then lost complete control bought a couple simmental and holstein/ simmental crosses. :) I bought a hereford bull.. I should have such colorful calves this Spring!
Do you own you own bulls or do you AI?
Is there a certain time of year that you choose to calve in Texas or because it's warmer do you calve all year?
Sim x brangus cows are large- 1000 -1200 lb when mature and in good condition.
A good many years ago I started with percentage Sim cows purchased at herd dispersal sales, and got into AI. Came to the realization that registry cattle were not more profitable in my situation, and gave up the AI. We keep purebred Sim bulls purchased from breeders who keep birth weight records to avoid calving problems- seems that bulls which weigh in the 80 pound range at birth do not cause problems in calving mature cows.
We run the bulls with the cows year-round, but the two calving seasons naturally separate into Feb-Mar and Oct-Nov.
We do like to have a small percentage of Brahman blood because they tolerate the heat .
I do not worry about color of cattle because we sell pounds not colors!
Will get pictures of bulls and post them, but not today in this winter storm. Temp now is 26 degrees and light freezing rain.
I put out extra hay yesterday so do not have to feed today. Cattle should be in the trees and below the hills out of the wind this morning. Picture is of young 1/2 Sim with 3/4 sim calf.
When I first started raising cattle I thought that the larger breeds of cattle were a little scarey! I do most , if not all of the livestock work here. But after getting some of the larger cattle I decided it was the temperment , not the size I should worry about. I was almost killed by a suffolk ram, but I can almost pet all of my cattle. One of my larger cows is an 1800 pounder.. Although, I am still very wary with new moms no matter how gentle they are.
What do you mean by "percentage Sim cows " ? Is that the percentage of Simmental they have in their bloodline?
Do you think you could use a larger birthweight bull on larger cows?
It was -1 outside this morning here. I would still rather work in that temperature any day than work in freezing rain.
I have not used AI myself.. But have given it lots of consideration. I have a very small herd and buying a bull to feed all year didn't seem very cost effective.. I also didn't have a set up to do the AI.. I now have bought a used portable squeeze chute that would do the job.
I would love to see pictures of your bulls when the weather is more suitable.
At the time I was going into the simental, the American Simmental Assn would register 1/2, 3/4 blood cows 7/8 blood females and 15/16 blood bulls were called fullblood, and the best were purebred.
You are certainly correct about temperament, and the amount of handling is very important. Most of my cattle are gentle, but a few will get nervous in the pens, especially weanling age calves. My wife and I in the past did all the work, and still do most, but I do hire help for major jobs. I have been fortunate that in a lifetime of working with all classes of livestock i have not had a serious injury. Bruises and scrapes are expected as part of a days work.
After a number of assisted births on large cows I will not have a bull with a large birth weight. Of course, nutrition level for the cow is also important. In the last three months of gestation, cows should not be on high protein rations as this causes the calves to be large, and birth more difficult.
Temperature has fallen into the lower 20's, and more moisture is predicted tonight. We are desperate for rain and snow would be welcome, but ice is terrible!
Robert
I won't keep a wild or dangerous animal.. Just won't do it. That suffolk ram didn't stay around here long.
I am afraid that some of my cows are too fat. Especially the ones that didn't have calves last year because they didn't get bred.
Sorry to be slow in posting pics of Simmental bulls, but today is first day I could use camera after falling on ice on Sunday. Nothing broken, just sore muscles in the shoulder.
The bulls are not in good condition because of the drouth that has hung on here.
Robert
Another Sim Bull
What do you estimate these bulls would weigh? Even if they are in top condition they are beautiful animals. Interestingly , I have two simmental cows that look a lot like each of them.. Well, color wise anyway. I admit to being partial to the one in the second picture. What are their ages? Do you have to dehorn your calves?
Sorry about your shoulder..
Both of these bulls weigh 2000# when in good condition. The spotted bull is 4, the red polled bull is 5. The red bull is double polled, so all his calves are polled. We have not dehorned calves for several years, since we sell as weanlings. Try to select the polled heifers as the keepers, but sometimes keep horned heifers if they are really good looking.
Our working pens are in the process of renovation, and we do not have a chute to handle the calves, so we have not castrated bull calves for three years. The bull calves grow faster, and the buyers have not penalized the prices if they are not too old. Hoping that the industry doesn't change for a while!
Robert
I don't think the bull calves here sell as well. But probable their age does make a difference.
I bought a used squeeze chute this year to work my cattle. It's portable and I bought it from the Vet Clinic here.
I have a couple of half holstein heifers that are horned. I have never had any horned cows before.. I'll see how it works out.
How many cows do you run with your bulls? Do you put both bulls in the same pasture with the cows? I was talking to a cousin today and the guy that sells him his bulls thinks instead of putting all the bulls and all the cows in the pasture at the same time you may want to rotate thebulls in and out.
Also he was saying that you should have your bulls semen checked every year. Even if they stay on your place. I really hadn't thought of doing that.
Currently there are 70 cows with the two bulls, all in one pasture. Since calving is in two groups, two mature bulls is plenty for 70 cows.
Later in the year I may split the herd, to better utilize the pastures. I have never semen tested bulls, except when purchsing new bulls, and have never had problems with calving percentage. One reason they are all together now is for convenience in feeding. I unroll two or three rolls of bermuda hay every two or three days, and there are two large liquid feeders available at all times. Even young calves will lick on the feed as soon as they can reach the wheels.
I should explain our setup-- Three large pastures (440 a, 300 a. and 560 a.) and 100 a of coastal bermuda. Sixty acres of the bermuda is reserved as a hay field, and is grazed only after the hay is cut. The remainder of the bermuda is grazed most of the summer, rotated with the native pastures, depending on the rainfall. In our area, the usual stocking rate is one animal unit (one cow and suckling calf) to 10 acres of pasture. We are understocked now because of drouth.
Our average rainfall is 26 inches, mostly in March through June and in September and October. This last year, we had almost no rain from mid June to now.
This is probably a lot more in detail than you expected, but I will ramble occasionally.
Robert
Ramble on. I like to "talk" about this ... We have had a dought here as well. But in general I think your area is maybe dryer than ours.
I definitely need to plan a more rotational grazing program.. It all comes down to fencing and water supply.. I forget now how accessable water needs to be at all time.. I only have 90 acres of pasture.. I lease out 220 acres of crop land.. If I had fencing around it I could turn my livestock in and save a month or even two maybe of feeding hay.. and eventually would like to take over the complete operation myself when I retire from my payin' job.
We are having a drought here as well.. I got a little excited when just a minute ago I heard a few raindrops on the old air conditioner in the window by the computer here.
Off to check on the cows ..
Water is one of our problems also. There is no underground water in our area, so we depend on dirt tanks (ponds to most of the USA) in most of our pastures. The large pasture has two tanks which seldom go dry, and the small pasture has one large tank that usually does not dry up. The third pasture has a small stream running through it, and it normally has water even in drouth years. This stream often stops flowing, but has deeper areas which remain a water source. There are small "pothole" tanks in the bermuda fields and some small holding pastures which are dry almost any summer when we have not had enough rain.
In the last few years we have replaced almost all of our perimeter fences. Some of these were built more than 50 years ago, and were a mass of repairs. This as you know, is not cheap, but when the neighbor agrees to split the cost, build fence!! Traditionally our fences are 47 inch field mesh with two barbs on top. In the last year we have begun a program of replacing the interior fences that were getting old and in bad repair. The new fences are 9 wire barbwire fences, with welded pipe corners and t-posts as line posts, set 12 feet apart. I do not attempt to build this type fence, but contract with professional fencing crews with power equipment to drive posts and dig holes where necessary.
We are off this morning for weekly grocery and supply run. Our small town has most of what we need, but the 40 mile trip to larger town allows more choices.
edited to remove posting in wrong location
This message was edited Jun 17, 2006 4:07 PM