Howdy Folks,
Just got our internet connection back a week ago, after a month of technical difficulties. I found your thread about cow size to be good reading. I just wanted to make a comment that some of you already made, and I agree with 100% - cow size is only relative to your resource base. It is not a measure of efficiency. The cow's production - aka. "calf" - while she breeds back year after year, is the indicator of efficiency. Your resource base AND feeding regime will dictate cow size.
We have not fed grain for almost 8 years now. We calve in end of May/beginning of June, wean in winter when it happens to be convenient, feeding only hay and straw, with the added supplementation of a mineral/vitamin blend. We are seeing our resource base - NOT our feeding regime - dictate our cow size. The ones that consistently breed back without giving us grief, are 1200lbs or less. Not to say that some of these don't lose a calf, come in open, or just plain make themselves known as trouble, but the trend has been going smaller, deeper-bodied, and easier-fleshing.
Right now we're calving the cows on real open ground. River hills, canyons, lots of bush, lots of water, and minimal grass. We're very dry. I haven't had any wrecks, although we have lost a couple, and that's what we expect. We know there's no perfect cow, and those who lose their calf will be sold this fall, or whenever we feel like it. If they're young enough, they'll go into our grass-finished beef program.
This system of letting the cows be cows is the quickest way I know to advance genetic progress. It's the fastest because they're doing it themselves, with Mother Nature holding the reins. And by genetic progress, I mean developing a line of registered and crossed Galloway cows that bring in a live calf every year to a ripe old age, without any assistance from us, save for opening the gate into the next paddock.
We simply want to have purebred seedstock that work for us, so we can sell them with confidence knowing that they'll do the same for our customers. If people take them home and baby them, chase them around to witness every calf born, tag it, band it, brand it, and all that jazz the second it's born, that's their choice. Me, I'll just ride pastures with my 3 kids, write down calves as we see them, round them all up before breeding and do the tagging stuff all in one shot of stress, in one day. Oh, except for Rkaiser's, which we'll get birthweights on if we can catch them.LOL
Just got our internet connection back a week ago, after a month of technical difficulties. I found your thread about cow size to be good reading. I just wanted to make a comment that some of you already made, and I agree with 100% - cow size is only relative to your resource base. It is not a measure of efficiency. The cow's production - aka. "calf" - while she breeds back year after year, is the indicator of efficiency. Your resource base AND feeding regime will dictate cow size.
We have not fed grain for almost 8 years now. We calve in end of May/beginning of June, wean in winter when it happens to be convenient, feeding only hay and straw, with the added supplementation of a mineral/vitamin blend. We are seeing our resource base - NOT our feeding regime - dictate our cow size. The ones that consistently breed back without giving us grief, are 1200lbs or less. Not to say that some of these don't lose a calf, come in open, or just plain make themselves known as trouble, but the trend has been going smaller, deeper-bodied, and easier-fleshing.
Right now we're calving the cows on real open ground. River hills, canyons, lots of bush, lots of water, and minimal grass. We're very dry. I haven't had any wrecks, although we have lost a couple, and that's what we expect. We know there's no perfect cow, and those who lose their calf will be sold this fall, or whenever we feel like it. If they're young enough, they'll go into our grass-finished beef program.
This system of letting the cows be cows is the quickest way I know to advance genetic progress. It's the fastest because they're doing it themselves, with Mother Nature holding the reins. And by genetic progress, I mean developing a line of registered and crossed Galloway cows that bring in a live calf every year to a ripe old age, without any assistance from us, save for opening the gate into the next paddock.
We simply want to have purebred seedstock that work for us, so we can sell them with confidence knowing that they'll do the same for our customers. If people take them home and baby them, chase them around to witness every calf born, tag it, band it, brand it, and all that jazz the second it's born, that's their choice. Me, I'll just ride pastures with my 3 kids, write down calves as we see them, round them all up before breeding and do the tagging stuff all in one shot of stress, in one day. Oh, except for Rkaiser's, which we'll get birthweights on if we can catch them.LOL
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