Cattle & Ranching

[crash_davis 23094]

can't believe i found this thread.  funny tho that it's in the "Hobbies" board.  you have to be a sick glutton for punishment who likes to throw money away to consider taking up cattle and ranching as a hobbie. 

much respect to you guys.  it's hard work with no guarantee of financial reward.

[BabaYaga 15286]

13 hours ago, Errestaurants said:

had a Brangus bull calf that was a little fucker. I swear he was Fred Astaire on cattle guards. he would only eat inside the hay rings and half the time get stuck. cut him and ended up taking him to the processor.

Yep.  You have to cut the trouble makers quick before they start influencing the others.  

When we were running black Angus, pops was in Austin and I was up here in DFW.  We had family in the area, but to not be "there" (near Coleman/Ballinger area) full time with a herd is asking for trouble.  So our first calf crop, we ran a smaller longhorn bull.  Thin body.  Much easier to birth those skinny calves.  Once past the first round, our Angus bull was also on the smaller side.  Took a slight hit on size, but the aggregate net with not losing calves/cows stuck in the birthing canal or other complications proved to be a positive. 

Bull had this little bitch bellow.  Sounded like a female Axis deer that went butch.  The "mew" was a deeper "maaaaaw".  Neighbor bulls would bellow and ours would answer with his weak like maaaaaw.  Cattle are a PITA, but there are moments of pure levity.  We'd just laugh and laugh.  

Remember one season we had a ton of rain and our sorghum fields were pushing 6ft tall.  Turned them loose in there.  It was a Field of Dreams moment.  They just disappeared.  Few weeks later.  Big, fat, waddling cows and the fields were stripped (50+ acres, maybe 30 cows).  

Edited January 11, 2019 by BabaYaga

[Shoxthemonkey 1976]

So, I've been watching my neighbor cut big ruts into his pasture while feeding cows this winter and I got to wondering. Does anybody make a drone big enough to lift a big round bale? I did a google search and fell down a rathole. I found some guys in Australia that have a stock farm, a golf course, a distillery and a hankering for large drones. They haven't lifted a big bale but they can lift small square bales. Yeah it looks like it was straw but you have to start somewhere. I thought y'all might get  a kick out of his "heeland coos".

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/a-drone-revolution-may-have-just-begun-on-a-farm-in-the-middle-of-tasmania-2016-8

 

 

 

[Errestaurants 2570]

Would need a damn helicopter to deliver round bales especially bales that are baled tight.

[BabaYaga 15286]

They are north of a thousand pounds each.  The dry ones.  Good luck with that vs. paying a couple of guys to deliver via their flatbed.  

 

[BabaYaga 15286]

1 hour ago, Shoxthemonkey said:

So, I've been watching my neighbor cut big ruts into his pasture while feeding cows this winter and I got to wondering. Does anybody make a drone big enough to lift a big round bale? I did a google search and fell down a rathole. I found some guys in Australia that have a stock farm, a golf course, a distillery and a hankering for large drones. They haven't lifted a big bale but they can lift small square bales. Yeah it looks like it was straw but you have to start somewhere. I thought y'all might get  a kick out of his "heeland coos".

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/a-drone-revolution-may-have-just-begun-on-a-farm-in-the-middle-of-tasmania-2016-8

 

 

 

Tell you what.  Where drones are amazing are at locating animals.  Ranchers and hunters (think managed ranches).  We had this one cow that was a great mom, but wild.  Her calves were wild.  They were ALWAYS the last ones to round up, often off by themselves in the most obscure locations - taking valuable hours of horseback time to locate and herd back.  That is on a smaller places (<700 acres).  Surveying deer, lost livestock, pigs.  Drones are becoming invaluable for these things.  

[davidg 4035]

6 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

Tell you what.  Where drones are amazing are at locating animals.  Ranchers and hunters (think managed ranches).  We had this one cow that was a great mom, but wild.  Her calves were wild.  They were ALWAYS the last ones to round up, often off by themselves in the most obscure locations - taking valuable hours of horseback time to locate and herd back.  That is on a smaller places (<700 acres).  Surveying deer, lost livestock, pigs.  Drones are becoming invaluable for these things.  

Aint nobody got time for that.  Off to the sale barn she'd go around our place. Furk a wild cow.

[BabaYaga 15286]

1 minute ago, davidg said:

Aint nobody got time for that.  Off to the sale barn she'd go around our place. Furk a wild cow.

HAHA, exactly where she wound up at. Post 2-3 calves first.  She had her window....

[Errestaurants 2570]

Any of yall have calves hitting the ground?

[BabaYaga 15286]

3 minutes ago, Errestaurants said:

Any of yall have calves hitting the ground?

My cousin (in law) that leases our place has quite a few of his Mexican 'Corriente' cows that have dropped calves.  Was out there 2 weeks ago and saw a few tiny, new faces.  

[Shoxthemonkey 1976]

1 hour ago, Errestaurants said:

Would need a damn helicopter to deliver round bales especially bales that are baled tight.

Yeah, they can get heavy. CSB, back in the 70's and 80's, one of our neighbors ran the test lab for Hesston Corp and then Hay & Forage after Hesston sold out to Fiat Allis. We got to use their experimental haying equipment on our fields to find flaws and  such. We put up some of the earliest big round bales anywhere. Tore up a lot of shit too.

[Errestaurants 2570]

Added a Hereford bull last year to put on some Red Angus. Love me some red baldies. Had the first calf hit the ground Sunday. 

[Errestaurants 2570]

My little/big cowgirl. Hope to pass the ranch on to her one day

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[davidg 4035]

4 hours ago, Errestaurants said:

Any of yall have calves hitting the ground?

Ours start dropping about the 2nd week of Jan and it seems like we always have 2 or 3 on the coldest day of the year. 

[Errestaurants 2570]

8 minutes ago, davidg said:

Ours start dropping about the 2nd week of Jan and it seems like we always have 2 or 3 on the coldest day of the year. 

Lol. Of course it works out that way. Couple years back might of been tad bit longer but we had several heifers calve out on one of those shitty north texas ice days. Decided to push back calving a month or so but we still get a couple early calves on the ground.

[Llano Estacado 1257]

Any of yall have calves hitting the ground?

My folk’s longhorns started dropping calves last week.

[Errestaurants 2570]

2 minutes ago, Llano Estacado said:

 

My folk’s longhorns started dropping calves last week.




 

 

That one just looks like its going to be a problem child. Needs to go strait to the sale barn. Lol

[Jkwellborn 6686]

There’s a couple of pastures I pass regular that have a few calves hitting the ground.

[Errestaurants 2570]

7 hours ago, thestud said:

Traded our black angus bull for a registered Brahma. His first calf dropped last week and it is beautiful. Solid black with those big goofy Brahma ears. Always been a beefmaster and black angus man but I may turn out to like these after all.

What kinda cows did you put that Brahma on? Angus? 

[crimsonlonghorn 2306]

16 hours ago, Errestaurants said:

Any of yall have calves hitting the ground?

My tenant had several born in January. Corrientes. Cute even if their moms aren't very pretty. 

These pics are from last week. I am always amazed by how quickly they go from not being able to stand up to running in circles around the pasture. 

 

[Errestaurants 2570]

57 minutes ago, thestud said:

 

 

Yes I have 17 black angus heifers and 6 Hereford heifers.

 

 

Those f1 crosses make some nice momma cows. 

[Jkwellborn 6686]

That’s a really aggy post.

[Errestaurants 2570]

12 minutes ago, Jkwellborn said:

That’s a really aggy post.

Lol

[Errestaurants 2570]

15 minutes ago, thestud said:

 

Those are the workings of my father in law, I’m not much on them other than they look pretty. I’ve always been and always will be a black angus fan. My goal for 2020 is to convince my grandma to lend me one of her beefmaster bulls for 6-8 months.

 

Black hide and tiger stripes/bradford are always going to sell good especially the females. Use a Charolais as a terminal. 

[baboso 6054]

18 hours ago, Errestaurants said:

That one just looks like its going to be a problem child. Needs to go strait to the sale barn. Lol

Very racist.

[fattyflattie 4639]

On 2/26/2019 at 2:17 PM, davidg said:

Aint nobody got time for that.  Off to the sale barn she'd go around our place. Furk a wild cow.

There’s always one with their head up high.

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4974]

Twin in the background for this first time momma:

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4974]

Yeah, my grandfather used to have a cow that would throw twins every time, but only take one. This is actually his herd, but designed to be as low maintenance as possible for him since he is 92. You just can't take a good cattleman away from his cattle and expect him to do well. I help when I can, as I'm the only grandkid who lives near by and also the only one who got the farm gene, but I have a family of my own and all that. We might end up with some veal. And if I can find a tanner some proper calf leather like they had back in the 19th century for making reproduction leather goods. The calf leather you can get nowadays just isn't the same because of modern breeding and stuff like that.

[Errestaurants 2570]

Problem with twins you typically get a free martin

[woohorn 1131]

 

 

 

 

Very smart to coyote-proof like that.

 

[hullabelew 3723]

On 2/26/2019 at 3:17 PM, davidg said:

Aint nobody got time for that.  Off to the sale barn she'd go around our place. Furk a wild cow.

My dad always says, "Life is too short to have wild cows or horses that kick".   

[Llano Estacado 1257]

It's faster horses, younger women,
older whiskey, and more money

[hullabelew 3723]

On 3/2/2019 at 9:38 PM, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Yeah, my grandfather used to have a cow that would throw twins every time, but only take one. This is actually his herd, but designed to be as low maintenance as possible for him since he is 92. You just can't take a good cattleman away from his cattle and expect him to do well. I help when I can, as I'm the only grandkid who lives near by and also the only one who got the farm gene, but I have a family of my own and all that. We might end up with some veal. And if I can find a tanner some proper calf leather like they had back in the 19th century for making reproduction leather goods. The calf leather you can get nowadays just isn't the same because of modern breeding and stuff like that.

My dad, approaching 80, sold off his brood mares, yearling colts and stud, and all of his pasture land about 2 years ago.  Then last year, he called me and said, "I'm back in the equine business".  I said, "Ah shit, what have you done".   He bought 2 donkeys to keep his bars, round pens and stalls eaten down and to also help protect the barbado sheep that he keeps out there.  

He still has a little over acres of farm land on the Red River in Wilbarger Co that is leased out.  Doing well with that if we can keep the BLM and those Okies from stealing the land.  

[hullabelew 3723]

On 2/27/2019 at 9:22 AM, crimsonlonghorn said:

My tenant had several born in January. Corrientes. Cute even if their moms aren't very pretty. 

These pics are from last week. I am always amazed by how quickly they go from not being able to stand up to running in circles around the pasture. 

 

 

 

What do they do with Corrientes?   Sell them for roping/rodeo stock?  

Edited March 4, 2019 by hullabelew

[Llano Estacado 1257]

Only guys I know running them are (ex)ropers. Can’t quit drinking beer, and monkeying around with cattle, pens, and trailers on the weekend. “Move 10 over to Joe’s. He’s got 4 steer that are played out he’s putting on Bill’s little pasture. We’ll have to move some mama pairs onto that creek pasture.”

Friend of a friend in Limestone Cnty continued to lease and sell to rodeo buddies long after he quit. He part timed and did some smaller circuits, never won anything substantial that I’m aware, but did win some. I know he carried the corrientes under his Rodeo LLC. I can’t say for sure, but imagine those damn money losing corrientes made the financials work out jusssst right regardless of the purses he won in any given year.

[crimsonlonghorn 2306]

44 minutes ago, Llano Estacado said:

Only guys I know running them are (ex)ropers. Can’t quit drinking beer, and monkeying around with cattle, pens, and trailers on the weekend. “Move 10 over to Joe’s. He’s got 4 steer that are played out he’s putting on Bill’s little pasture. We’ll have to move some mama pairs onto that creek pasture.”

Friend of a friend in Limestone Cnty continued to lease and sell to rodeo buddies long after he quit. He part timed and did some smaller circuits, never won anything substantial that I’m aware, but did win some. I know he carried the corrientes under his Rodeo LLC. I can’t say for sure, but imagine those damn money losing corrientes made the financials work out jusssst right regardless of the purses he won in any given year.
 

It's like you know my tenant personally...

[BabaYaga 15286]

3 hours ago, hullabelew said:

What do they do with Corrientes?   Sell them for roping/rodeo stock?  

Yep.  Least that's what my cousin is running them for ('sport cattle').  They are also cheap and hardy.  If you can't afford beef cattle, these can be substituted in for much less.  They need less food and less water as well and supposedly have fewer birthing issues compared to fatter, larger beef cattle. 

[Errestaurants 2570]

Florida Cracker, Pineywoods, Longhorn and Corriente can survive on dirt and water. Maybe throw out a bag of cube once a year. All come from the Spanish Criollo breeds.

[BabaYaga 15286]

Quote

Maybe throw out a bag of cube once a year.

What's the point when those fookers hop the fence and raid your protein feeder.  Damn them.  Damn them all.  Scraggy 'meth-horns'.  End of the stupid lease can't get here fast enough....

And if they are encroaching on a lazy afternoon of fishing.  I have 'heard', assuming an onion sack of old golf balls is available and your dads old irons are handy, they make excellent moving targets from the top of the stock tank damn.

[Errestaurants 2570]

any of you noticing these Black Vultures seem to be getting worse and even more aggressive each year?  

[BabaYaga 15286]

14 hours ago, Errestaurants said:

any of you noticing these Black Vultures seem to be getting worse and even more aggressive each year?  

Toward calves?  Not really.  But that's a very limited exposure window.  I do see a crap ton of this on the all the cell phone towers out west....makes my 22-250 trigger finger itchy....and I'm waiting for a Mike Rowe 'Dirty Jobs' episode on cleaning vulture crap off these towers.  

 

Edited March 5, 2019 by BabaYaga

[davidg 4035]

16 hours ago, Errestaurants said:

any of you noticing these Black Vultures seem to be getting worse and even more aggressive each year?  

Our family place in on the lake SW of you.  We have a 12 acre lake that abuts the big lake.  In the late90s/early 2000s we were thick with  double crested cormarants (we had one of the permits to allow shooting of them starting in 2004) but they are not as thick now as before.  Black and Turkey vultures on the other hand have exploded in population around our place.   When the drought in 2012 caused so many big trees to die, it seems like the buzzards just moved on in as they had great roosting spots in the dead trees and lots of food from around the lake.  The pic Baba posted above makes me ragey, I wish there was a depredation permit on these bastages.

[Errestaurants 2570]

43 minutes ago, davidg said:

Our family place in on the lake SW of you.  We have a 12 acre lake that abuts the big lake.  In the late90s/early 2000s we were thick with  double crested cormarants (we had one of the permits to allow shooting of them starting in 2004) but they are not as thick now as before.  Black and Turkey vultures on the other hand have exploded in population around our place.   When the drought in 2012 caused so many big trees to die, it seems like the buzzards just moved on in as they had great roosting spots in the dead trees and lots of food from around the lake.  The pic Baba posted above makes me ragey, I wish there was a depredation permit on these bastages.

Where you at on Cedar Creek?

[Errestaurants 2570]

Lost a calf yesterday. Born with umbilical cord around the neck

[davidg 4035]

3 hours ago, Errestaurants said:

Where you at on Cedar Creek?

Think SW of Trinidad, not Kemp.  

[Errestaurants 2570]

20 minutes ago, davidg said:

Think SW of Trinidad, not Kemp.  

Im in Trinidad and Kemp. 

[Errestaurants 2570]

2 hours ago, davidg said:

Think SW of Trinidad, not Kemp.  

Run cows off 1667 across from the old power plant lake there in the bottoms. You by Kerens. Richland Chambers area? Good hunting down that way 

[Errestaurants 2570]

Just got back from New Orleans and lost a bull calf. Buzzards all over it. Eyes pecked out.

[Mother mopar 3318]

Damn, hate to hear that. Predator?

[Errestaurants 2570]

Man, not sure. It was about 5 days old and healthy when we left on Saturday. Good momma cow. 2nd calf we've lost this year. Not real happy right now but thats the way it goes. Those black buzzards are bad news.