Cattle & Ranching

[davidg 4038]

Took the rv up the ranch this weekend and I had some small engine help.

Or channeling my best Gary Larsen "And the cows discovered electricity"

[Shoxthemonkey 1982]

On 2/8/2021 at 8:37 AM, davidg said:

Took the rv up the ranch this weekend and I had some small engine help.

Or channeling my best Gary Larsen "And the cows discovered electricity"

Watts this, Bossy?

[Kennythetiger 9413]

-20 last night without wind chill. Heifers should start calving any day now. Watching them like a hawk. 

[williemackgarza 1826]

My buddy east of taylor told me he lost a baby calf last night/early this morning .
Damn

[Kennythetiger 9413]

Several years ago we had a large snowfall/brutal cold hit at our peak calving time. I think I lost around 10 babies. I think at one point we had seven or eight calves in our house at one time. 

[BabaYaga 15302]

21 minutes ago, Kennythetiger said:

Several years ago we had a large snowfall/brutal cold hit at our peak calving time. I think I lost around 10 babies. I think at one point we had seven or eight calves in our house at one time. 

Tell me you took pics!

[crimsonlonghorn 2306]

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. 

[Kennythetiger 9413]

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. 

[Kennythetiger 9413]

On 2/17/2021 at 9:39 AM, BabaYaga said:

Tell me you took pics!

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!  

[BabaYaga 15302]

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.

[Armybrat 40858]

My nephew has about 100 goats on his 80 acres near Ingram. They all crawled underneath his three utility trailers for shelter. He only lost one that was the first one in under the horse trailer. It was under the north corner and froze to death.

[Errestaurants 2570]

Had a calf born Monday night. Lol had to happen that way. While I’ve been holed up in town neighbor been helping us a lot with the cows. Heading out there tomorrow. Praying my well is ok and no pipes busted in the barndo.

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4976]

All your pipes are busted and most of your cattle are barren, otherwise they would have all given birth this week. 

[Llano Estacado 1257]

Folks made it through in the Brazos River Valley with no loss of life. 2 more mamas left to domino.

May go down as one of my all time favorite pics taken on the place.

[Errestaurants 2570]

No pipes busted. Thankfully the well is working cause my MUD water is out. Calf didn't make it. Early calf from a brangus bull that jumped his pen 

[Herbie Hancock 7369]

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.

[Brothahorn 10087]

Any ideas on what the hell this is? Besides a symbiote.

Maybe she was giving birth and it got hung up? Definitely not after birth.

[Amos Moses 795]

Looks like a prolapse of some sort. Get her in the pen for treatment if you can.

[Brothahorn 10087]

Looks like a prolapse of some sort. Get her in the pen for treatment if you can.

Thanks. Got her penned. Cousin is coming by after church. Hate to lose her, she's one our most dependable, and easy going.

[Kennythetiger 9413]

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. 

[fattyflattie 4638]

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. 

[kegman 187]

Our ranch made the paper.  We recently had a heifer give birth to triplets, and all three survived.  Our family has been ranching a long time, and this is the first time for us.  

 Ranching couple describe 'miracle' birth of triplet Angus calves (brownwoodtx.com)

Edited May 3, 2021 by kegman

[Amos Moses 795]

Triples? I’ve never heard of such a thing, much less seen it. Pretty cool.

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4976]

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.

[Herbie Hancock 7369]

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

[DalTxHornFan 3109]

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.

[kegman 187]

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.

[BabaYaga 15302]

Last weekend pics.  That time of year again and the place actually looks nice.  Cousins all came out and I got to ride again and help out (polite way of saying stayed out of the way mostly).  Love this time of the year.

[Herbie Hancock 7369]

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.

[kegman 187]

We called this one “Nice”

[CHIEF 5094]

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

[BabaYaga 15302]

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

[Herbie Hancock 7369]

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

[kegman 187]

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.  

[Herbie Hancock 7369]

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.

[ROFL BOX 6649]

When "rotating" your cattle.  Make sure you are clear with your request

 

"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

[deadshank 24653]

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.  

[Herbie Hancock 7369]

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

[Herbie Hancock 7369]

Well, this is a shitty bump. $860/ton for 25-5-10 fertilizer. Rezilon up to $390/bottle from $320. Roundup $99/2.5 gal if you can find it. Hay gonna be expensive this year boys.

[Amos Moses 795]

That’s not going to be good for business.

[Lat22 4015]

Obligatory "That's not going to good for anybody."

[Amos Moses 795]

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.

[Herbie Hancock 7369]

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.

[Amos Moses 795]

It's getting close to moving beyond being a break even operation for us.  As I tell my old man, the cattle business these days is turning into an expensive hobby for family ranchers.

[Kennythetiger 9413]

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. 

[Kennythetiger 9413]

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. 

[UT_OB1 2224]

There’s 170 acres with a good stretch of it on a river. Owner wants 2.4 mil. So how many cows do I need to net ~14k a month to pay the mortgage?

[Kennythetiger 9413]

All of them. 

[Amos Moses 795]

Lol. More than you can handle, probably.

We sold all our cows at the end of last year. Mixed emotions but the drought this year and crazy fertilizer prices took a heavy toll. Maybe we’ll get back in if stuff ever calms down or it rains again.

[Herbie Hancock 7369]

You wouldn't have enough land if it was 1,170 acres.