infertile heifers (added pic of our bottle baby)

[dragonmorgan]

Thats true, and Ive thrown up the idea of starting from scratch but my father-in-law still has the most say-so and although he is letting us take the reins (so to speak) he still refuses to let us get rid of them all. He is having a hard time understanding the concept of a cattle farm that makes money since hes never seen this one be that successful. We know it can be done tho and are determined to make it happen. Along the way tho we have to jump through a few hoops to keep his family happy about it all.

 

[Cricket]

I know you aren't supposed to if you have a 'real' farm, but maybe he's just attached to them! What if you let him pick a few that are 'his' and that you promise not to touch? Hopefully he will pick the really old ones and they'll be gone on their own within a few years. And get a calf whose breeding you like and put him in charge of it.

 

[dragonmorgan]

Thats kind of our plan. We are gonna pick about 4-6 cows for ourselves that we like and let him keep about 10 of his favorites so that he will be able to handle them. Luckily we are in aggrement for the most part that the herd needs thinning and about which ones need to go. We are lucky that most of the old cows he likes are still good mothers and dont really give us any calving problems. Not to mention they dont try to escape because they are used to the crappy fence and they are good at showin the new calves what to do. Its only been in the past month or so that my father in law has come to realize that things arent workin the way they are and hes pretty open to DHs ideas to make things better. (Not to mention DH is the only one that can do anything with them). my father-in-law has a disease where his body is attacking his muscles so theres not alot he can really do. Riding the lawn mower around the field with the kids is what he really likes to do so I think he will be much happier when the herd is smaller. I was really suprised by him a last summer when he sold our old brahma cow. She was everyones favorite and was as old as (if not older) than DH but calving was becoming too hard on her and we were havin to spend too much time tryin to keep her lookin healthy. I think we all shed a tear when she unloaded at the sale yard lol.

And because Im so proud of our little bottle baby. Here she is. The kids named her Chocolate. Heres a pic of my youngest daughter feeding her and you can kind of see the condition of the catch pen we have right now. You can even see some of the wire tyin the fencing to the post lol. Shes been moved to our house now tho so she has her own little pen and the dogs love her (especially to eat her poop )

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[WildRoseBeef]

Cute calf! I think that sounds like a good plan, that means you get to sell at least half of the herd and keep back the better ones.

Good, keep us posted on your progress with everything.

 

[redtailgal]

I agree with Wildrose. That is a cute calf.
But that child is adorable!

 

[dragonmorgan]

Thanks yall. Shes def a rotten mess but she loves helpin out with the cows. My oldest daughter isnt guite as interested in it all but she helps some.

 

[jhm47]

If you still plan to keep some of the "old" cattle, be sure to AI any new additions to the herd. Trich is passed from animal to animal through natural breeding, and an infected bull will quickly infect any new heifers/cows that you add. From your picture, I can see that you probably are in one of the southern states, and Trich is quite common in many of them.

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

Super cute little farm girl and nice looking little calf.

 

[dragonmorgan]

thanks yall. Yes we are in south Alabama. We plan on havin all the cows checked over by a vet to help us determine which are worth keeping and which def need to go so Im assuming she will check for any STDs. We will also make sure to get any new bulls tested too. Will that help keep them from getting it? Weve been talking bout doing AI on a few of the really good cows. Since we sell most of our calves we will probably AI any cows where we know we want to keep their calves for our own herd. Im hopin at least one of our heifers that isnt calving only has a cyst because she is a big monster cow and we would love to add some more like her. She is on the "for sure" list of ones we would AI.

I also did some asking today and found out that Chocolate isnt from our herd like I had orginally thought. Shes from a friend of ours herd. Her mother had a prolapsed uterus and died from it. Sad but Im glad that shes from a different bloodline. That means shes a herford cross since thats what our friends cows are. woot

 

[WildRoseBeef]

For trich, as far as I'm aware culling is the only way to get rid of it. And of course test any new bulls that you want to buy or come onto your property. If a bull tests positive, forget about buying him. Virgin bulls are the best to buy since they won't have the disease to pass on to your cows like mature experienced bulls will. Even introducing open cows to your herd, particularly during breed season, can open the chance of getting trich in your herd.

As for the big monster cows, you might want to consider something here. Larger cows mean more feed and more pasture to have on hand to feed them. For instance, a 1800 lb cow will require 20 more pounds of feed to give her than what a 1000 lb cow will need. No idea how much pasture you have or how much you are willing to spend on feed, but if you are looking to save on feed and grow good animals, you need to look at a smaller cow AND cows with better feed efficiency. I wrote a thread about how cow size and feed efficiency aren't always correlated, which can be seen here: http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=14875