Youngfarmer2019
True BYH Addict
ooohhh cant wait for baby pics! beautiful cows!!
Buttons 2023 Calving Thread
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- #12
ButtonHerder
Loving the herd life
Hopefully soon! Possibly next week!
Baymule
Herd Master
What is a Saler?
Nice cows, I hope they have healthy calves with no problems. I have a soft spot for Herefords. There is even a Hereford hog!
Nice cows, I hope they have healthy calves with no problems. I have a soft spot for Herefords. There is even a Hereford hog!
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- #14
ButtonHerder
Loving the herd life
A breed of cattle:
It is pronounced differently than it’s spelled. I pronounce it Sal-air, but I don’t know if that’s the right way. All of our heifers were bred to a rented Saler this year. He was a really nice bull that was from very good calving ease genetics.
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farmerjan
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Glad to read that the Salers was of calving ease genetics... They can throw large calves. We have used them AI and quit because of the dispositions. But different lines have different dispositions. We pronounce it Sa-leers (like tears) here
One thing that Limousins here were greatly disliked for, the "eat you up" dispositions... but we have used a couple bulls and they have been easy to work with.
Do you have a date in and date out for the bulls? I would say these animals are at least a month out... heifers NORMALLY - not always - will bag up several weeks ahead of calving as the udder milk veins/mammary glands develop so that they will fill with colostrum for the calf. We normally see the cows bag up real close to calving, but heifer udders usually fill out alot sooner.
We bought a Gelbvieh bull to change up our genetics a bit and will only use him on mature good sized cows. They also tend to throw good sized calves and we are trying to increase the size and weaning weights in our calves.
We use an easy calving angus bull on the heifers as I want them to "spit them out and get on with the being a momma"; and want small but lively type of calves. Our current bull we have used for over 10 years, alternating with another easy calving bull we used for 9 years until he injured his stifle this past year....on all our heifers... The calves run in the 55-75 lb range and they get up and go to nursing and the heifers don't have any trouble. We pulled a calf 4 years ago that had one foot back.... and that is it out of our own animals. We do occasionally pull calves from animals we have bought since there is no guarantee what they are bred to.... We also try to calve out our heifers at 27-30 months old... I like them to have a little more maturity and they tend to be more settled and take to motherhood better.... but we have had several "oops" calves... a couple heifers getting bred way too young and then I try to hold them over and not breed them back until they are having their second calf at 3 1/2 or older.... gives them a chance to grow a little after we wean off the "oops" calf....
Because Herefords tend to be more "blocky built" overall, I would just keep a close watch on her... if they get the head and shoulders out you have it made....
Looking forward to watching your thread....
One thing that Limousins here were greatly disliked for, the "eat you up" dispositions... but we have used a couple bulls and they have been easy to work with.
Do you have a date in and date out for the bulls? I would say these animals are at least a month out... heifers NORMALLY - not always - will bag up several weeks ahead of calving as the udder milk veins/mammary glands develop so that they will fill with colostrum for the calf. We normally see the cows bag up real close to calving, but heifer udders usually fill out alot sooner.
We bought a Gelbvieh bull to change up our genetics a bit and will only use him on mature good sized cows. They also tend to throw good sized calves and we are trying to increase the size and weaning weights in our calves.
We use an easy calving angus bull on the heifers as I want them to "spit them out and get on with the being a momma"; and want small but lively type of calves. Our current bull we have used for over 10 years, alternating with another easy calving bull we used for 9 years until he injured his stifle this past year....on all our heifers... The calves run in the 55-75 lb range and they get up and go to nursing and the heifers don't have any trouble. We pulled a calf 4 years ago that had one foot back.... and that is it out of our own animals. We do occasionally pull calves from animals we have bought since there is no guarantee what they are bred to.... We also try to calve out our heifers at 27-30 months old... I like them to have a little more maturity and they tend to be more settled and take to motherhood better.... but we have had several "oops" calves... a couple heifers getting bred way too young and then I try to hold them over and not breed them back until they are having their second calf at 3 1/2 or older.... gives them a chance to grow a little after we wean off the "oops" calf....
Because Herefords tend to be more "blocky built" overall, I would just keep a close watch on her... if they get the head and shoulders out you have it made....
Looking forward to watching your thread....
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- #16
ButtonHerder
Loving the herd life
We have a friend who raises pretty much only Salers and his cows are kinda nuts. The guy we rented this bull from had really quiet cattle though. He took us through the bull pen for us to pick one, and he actually had to go poke a couple to get them up for us.
I believe the heifer bull went out around July 24ish, and I’m really bad at math so idk how accurate my start date is. In our experience with our cows in particular our heifers tend to be early, and often don’t fully bag up until a couple days before they calve. It’s interesting that yours are kind of the opposite!
Yeah, we only use our Gelbvieh on the animals who’ve calved before as he does throw large calves. Last year was the first year we got any calves from him, and we’re pretty impressed!
Yeah, we have a herd of mostly angus and I personally prefer the angus, but I think my dad is liking the Gelbvieh more and more. Probably partly because the angus bull we have currently is very aggressive.
This is pretty true with ours too. Almost never had any trouble with our angus cows and bulls, but when we started buying heifers again we had all kinds of issues.
We usually breed them as yearlings, which I really wish we bred them as two year olds, but it’s not all up to me and it does cost more to keep them open an extra year.
The only ones who are calving as three year olds this year are a few of the “mini cows” we had as a bit of an experiment- a non profitable experiment.
I’m really hoping it all goes smoothly for her.
farmerjan
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Thanks for your reply. Obviously, you have some experience with the cattle... and glad that you have experienced the Salers with an attitude (nuts).... so you know what I was referring to.,
I am calving my heifers between 2 yrs and 2 1/2 yrs; so only "losing 6 months" so to speak.... We also try to only calve heifers in the spring so that they get a chance to have some good grass to grow on as well as make milk and get in condition to breed back. With you being that much farther north, and not knowing where in Canada you are, I do know that you still have a significantly shorter "warm season" than we do.
We have 2 calving seasons here on our place... a spring calving and a fall calving... due to the way we market our feeder calves and such. And that gives us some leeway to keep an animal that does not always breed back... to bump her back to the next "season", so she will only lose 6 months time instead of losing a year.
Now, we don't do that much, they have to produce and such... but 1st calf heifers are given a little leeway if they raise up a really good calf and lose some body condition in the process, so they will often get held back for the next breeding group. Especially if they happen to have a fall born calf.
One problem is we have twice had bulls that passed their BSE and then got a few bred and then started "shooting blanks"... Had a disaster one time... 35 cows out to a pasture; .... when we preg checked... 6 were 6 months and the rest were open.... something happened to the bull obviously... so we put 2 bulls in with 26 and culled a few old ones... and got 20 of the 22 preg in a tight window.... all were 60-75 days when we rechecked...
We couldn't sell the cows just because they were open when it was obviously NOT their fault. Have no idea what happened to the bull... but we shipped him.... He was fat and sassy so not like he had gotten sick....
That incident just enforced our belief in a twice a year calving group...
Our weather also is more geared to allowing for that too... I like to have the fall ones born in Sept/Oct so they have 2 months growth before we get colder weather and the cows are cooling down from the heat and eating good and gaining weight and usually breed back good. The ones that calve in the spring, late Feb-May, go out to summer pastures and the bulls go in the end of May..... unfortunately some places we cannot get the bulls back out easily so they stay all summer... and occasionally we will get a few cows that will be shorter bred... if they normally have done a good job, they can get held back to calve in the next group... like if most are 5-6 months pregnant... and 3 are only 3 months for whatever reason... it happens and if it happens more than twice, they are culled... we have made allowances over the years for a few of our GOOD OLD cows... letting them go 18 months between calves their last few calves... because they have produced for us and done their job for years... we allow a little slack...
Plus, we buy and sell some cattle so wind up with some cows that fall out of our calving window... so we will calve them out whenever, then put them in with the group that they best fit in with....
Sorry the "mini" experiment didn't work... there are some around here that have found a niche for it but it doesn't really grab me.... I like some "odd breeds" but the mini's don't cut it except for the "cute factor"...
All of our bulls are pretty good. The one that we had to ship that got stifled about broke my heart... he was so good dispositioned and settled cows(heifers) like clockwork... the other one we still have is also very good to work around... Yes, you always watch a bull... but we will NOT keep one that is even the slightest bit threatening.... If he wants to paw and snort or even look at me crosseyed... he leaves. We presently have 11 or 12 bulls..... because we rent a couple out and we have 4-8 pastures we run cattle at so need a bull to go with each group of cows. We also rotate the bulls around... mostly using 4-6 a season... with 1 or 2 rented out... so have 2-3 at least on vacation so if we need one to put somewhere, we can.... Then if they have a long vacation... they are the first ones to get used the next breeding group. Try to give each one at least 6 months off every 18 months.... sometimes we will just let them run with the checked preg cows if the pastures are good....
We buy good bulls... not the top of the sale ones... but we do buy purebreds and we do keep any that we really like for as long as they are good. Because we have several places, I can pretty much make sure they are seldom, if ever, used on their daughters. Right now we have 6 angus bulls that have been here for over 5 years... 2 more we bought last year... 2 we just bought at a sale 2 weeks ago... the limousin that we have had for 4 yrs and the Gelbvieh we just got from a friend that was giving up the rented ground and cutting back from 130 to about 40 cows .... he is in his mid 70's and said he just wanted to scale back... so we bought 2 Gelbvieh bulls and sold one to another friend that wanted one... They were both nice.... THICK .... and am looking forward to using him this year.... We know that the old easy calving bull is not going to be around here forever... got him in 2013 or 14 so he is already pushing 12 yrs old but still settles the cows and his calves are little popcorn farts the cows pop out... and 2 others we got as mature bulls at farm liquidations so know they are pushing 8-10 yrs also. Going to sell one that does not do as good a job of getting the cows settled... so it is time for him to go..... but we buried 2 OLD but really good bulls last year so kept that so-so one until we found a replacement and we now have 3 to replace them.
Prices here have been very good and we also are culling cows that just are not cutting the mustard... Sold 2 cows as pairs, that had 2 month calves on them because they constantly were finding places in the fence and out ALL THE TIME.... moved them to another place and they wouldn't stay in there... BYE BYE.... also selling down on older cows that are just mediocre... and anything that has come up open in preg checks has to be SUPER DUPER special to stay with the cull cow prices bringing in the 75-1.00 /lb range...
Guess I rambled enough...
I am calving my heifers between 2 yrs and 2 1/2 yrs; so only "losing 6 months" so to speak.... We also try to only calve heifers in the spring so that they get a chance to have some good grass to grow on as well as make milk and get in condition to breed back. With you being that much farther north, and not knowing where in Canada you are, I do know that you still have a significantly shorter "warm season" than we do.
We have 2 calving seasons here on our place... a spring calving and a fall calving... due to the way we market our feeder calves and such. And that gives us some leeway to keep an animal that does not always breed back... to bump her back to the next "season", so she will only lose 6 months time instead of losing a year.
Now, we don't do that much, they have to produce and such... but 1st calf heifers are given a little leeway if they raise up a really good calf and lose some body condition in the process, so they will often get held back for the next breeding group. Especially if they happen to have a fall born calf.
One problem is we have twice had bulls that passed their BSE and then got a few bred and then started "shooting blanks"... Had a disaster one time... 35 cows out to a pasture; .... when we preg checked... 6 were 6 months and the rest were open.... something happened to the bull obviously... so we put 2 bulls in with 26 and culled a few old ones... and got 20 of the 22 preg in a tight window.... all were 60-75 days when we rechecked...
We couldn't sell the cows just because they were open when it was obviously NOT their fault. Have no idea what happened to the bull... but we shipped him.... He was fat and sassy so not like he had gotten sick....
That incident just enforced our belief in a twice a year calving group...
Our weather also is more geared to allowing for that too... I like to have the fall ones born in Sept/Oct so they have 2 months growth before we get colder weather and the cows are cooling down from the heat and eating good and gaining weight and usually breed back good. The ones that calve in the spring, late Feb-May, go out to summer pastures and the bulls go in the end of May..... unfortunately some places we cannot get the bulls back out easily so they stay all summer... and occasionally we will get a few cows that will be shorter bred... if they normally have done a good job, they can get held back to calve in the next group... like if most are 5-6 months pregnant... and 3 are only 3 months for whatever reason... it happens and if it happens more than twice, they are culled... we have made allowances over the years for a few of our GOOD OLD cows... letting them go 18 months between calves their last few calves... because they have produced for us and done their job for years... we allow a little slack...
Plus, we buy and sell some cattle so wind up with some cows that fall out of our calving window... so we will calve them out whenever, then put them in with the group that they best fit in with....
Sorry the "mini" experiment didn't work... there are some around here that have found a niche for it but it doesn't really grab me.... I like some "odd breeds" but the mini's don't cut it except for the "cute factor"...
All of our bulls are pretty good. The one that we had to ship that got stifled about broke my heart... he was so good dispositioned and settled cows(heifers) like clockwork... the other one we still have is also very good to work around... Yes, you always watch a bull... but we will NOT keep one that is even the slightest bit threatening.... If he wants to paw and snort or even look at me crosseyed... he leaves. We presently have 11 or 12 bulls..... because we rent a couple out and we have 4-8 pastures we run cattle at so need a bull to go with each group of cows. We also rotate the bulls around... mostly using 4-6 a season... with 1 or 2 rented out... so have 2-3 at least on vacation so if we need one to put somewhere, we can.... Then if they have a long vacation... they are the first ones to get used the next breeding group. Try to give each one at least 6 months off every 18 months.... sometimes we will just let them run with the checked preg cows if the pastures are good....
We buy good bulls... not the top of the sale ones... but we do buy purebreds and we do keep any that we really like for as long as they are good. Because we have several places, I can pretty much make sure they are seldom, if ever, used on their daughters. Right now we have 6 angus bulls that have been here for over 5 years... 2 more we bought last year... 2 we just bought at a sale 2 weeks ago... the limousin that we have had for 4 yrs and the Gelbvieh we just got from a friend that was giving up the rented ground and cutting back from 130 to about 40 cows .... he is in his mid 70's and said he just wanted to scale back... so we bought 2 Gelbvieh bulls and sold one to another friend that wanted one... They were both nice.... THICK .... and am looking forward to using him this year.... We know that the old easy calving bull is not going to be around here forever... got him in 2013 or 14 so he is already pushing 12 yrs old but still settles the cows and his calves are little popcorn farts the cows pop out... and 2 others we got as mature bulls at farm liquidations so know they are pushing 8-10 yrs also. Going to sell one that does not do as good a job of getting the cows settled... so it is time for him to go..... but we buried 2 OLD but really good bulls last year so kept that so-so one until we found a replacement and we now have 3 to replace them.
Prices here have been very good and we also are culling cows that just are not cutting the mustard... Sold 2 cows as pairs, that had 2 month calves on them because they constantly were finding places in the fence and out ALL THE TIME.... moved them to another place and they wouldn't stay in there... BYE BYE.... also selling down on older cows that are just mediocre... and anything that has come up open in preg checks has to be SUPER DUPER special to stay with the cull cow prices bringing in the 75-1.00 /lb range...
Guess I rambled enough...
canesisters
Herd Master
I'm so glad you posted this. I had never heard of them & was going to go look them up as soon as I finished this thread.
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- #19
ButtonHerder
Loving the herd life
I’m more northern Alberta, so yeah, way less warm
. It’s been really nice though for the last couple weeks around 6-10 degrees Celsius, so if they started now it would be good weather for it.- Thread starter
- #20
ButtonHerder
Loving the herd life
No calves yet, just some heifers faking me out.
