When Cows are too good at their job....

[shtferbrains]

Do they keep the green slime off in the summer?

[Blaithin]

Do they keep the green slime off in the summer?

Yes, they seem to keep a handle on it. On really warm days algae can still make an appearance. I may add a couple more fish this summer. 3 just might not have been able to eat that much algae!

They’re also very good at eating any mosquitoe larva that ends up in the water.

If you don’t want to deal with fish though, barley straw is supposed to help prevent algae.

[Blaithin]

One of the sets of calves from this year. These guys are 6 months old and easily over, 500 lbs. The photo is making me think they're over 600 so I'll have to do an eyeball to scale on something when I'm back over there! Baker (the cow) is working to pay off her feed bill for the winter.



The only issue I tend to run into with multiples is less than great breed back. Everyone is getting a blood draw preg check when they get back home, before weaning. Anyone open that can is going to get another calf to raise. For that matter a couple may get another calf anyway. A larger portion of their winter feed than normal is probably going to be grain so I won't want them to be dry too long.

Years like this make it even nicer to have two calves come in off one cow. If Baker weans off 1200+ lbs of calf she will more than pay for even expensive feed. She's going to help support the feed of the heifers who only have singles on them this year.

[Blaithin]

#5 would make a nice replacement............. only if she wasn’t so “horny” 😉

Quite a nice bunch for sharing their mommas.

Woodland I hope you peak in to read this.

I sold 1, 2, 4, & 5 to the same guy that buys calves from me every year. He picked them up in June so they’d have been 15 months at that point in time.

He’s now saying #5 is a bull.

Now obviously we didn’t band it, since we thought it was a heifer 😂

I can’t find any photos to confirm she’s really a dangly he. I can’t think I’d miss danglers for 15 months, even if there was confusion at birth. Since you said you think she’d make a nice replacement I figured I’d pick on you for obviously misjudging it as a heifer as well! Haha

Here’s the photo again.


I’m highly skeptical. The photos of the bull he’s sending aren’t clearly the same animal.

[woodland]

Woodland I hope you peak in to read this.

I sold 1, 2, 4, & 5 to the same guy that buys calves from me every year. He picked them up in June so they’d have been 15 months at that point in time.

He’s now saying #5 is a bull.

Now obviously we didn’t band it, since we thought it was a heifer 😂

I can’t find any photos to confirm she’s really a dangly he. I can’t think I’d miss danglers for 15 months, even if there was confusion at birth. Since you said you think she’d make a nice replacement I figured I’d pick on you for obviously misjudging it as a heifer as well! Haha

Here’s the photo again.


I’m highly skeptical. The photos of the bull he’s sending aren’t clearly the same animal.

A flip of the tail would tell for sure😉
I’ve been wrong on this count twice before. My cousin who used to be a vet was preg testing heifers for us stuck his arm in a critter and promptly looked up and asked us who the wise azz was. We never noticed there was a steer in the bunch but he did.

A different time we had a vet out ultrasounding and there was a steer in the bunch but we left him in as a test. He got called open but never got noticed otherwise. 😉

We tag heifers in the left ear and steers in the right to make sorting easier now. Shouldn’t the buyer have noticed earlier and be happy to have a male instead of a female? Last I checked the male accessory package adds at least a crisp brown hundy bill to the value………….

I told our cattle broker last year that our heifers now identify as steers since they’re tired of being discriminated against………….. He laughed and the inequality still continues 😎

Good luck with your “warranty claim”🍀

[Blaithin]

He doesn’t seem mad about it. But I did mention he should get the heifers aborted and the balls taken care of or they're going to be having a calving season next spring. (He said he was jumping everyone all summer but has been quiet for a couple months 😂)

These are the photos he’s sent me. I really can’t say I’m convinced that’s the same animal but he says he has none there that aren’t mine. I don’t tag and in no other pictures does it look like he’s dehorned or tagged anybody else so I don’t know how my horned, tagless heifer has turned into a tagged, polled, bull, who suspiciously looks like he has a rib brand in a photo. Plus that calf sure gained a lot in 4 months! What growth.





If he were to start putting up a stink I’d just go down and physically look at it and see instead of rely on photos. I was more curious because I felt bad that we missed a nut banding or something. Now it seems such a stretch I’m not feeling so guilty haha

[shtferbrains]

Might be a neighbor's bull.

[Blaithin]

Might be a neighbor's bull.

Could be. He says there’s only been the 8 animals he bought from me though so timing would have to be for the heifer to run away and the bull to show up. Which probably isn’t that impossible 😂

Guess if a neighbour shows up sometime soon looking for a bull with a mystery horny heifer… lol You’d think someone would miss a bull before 3.5 months passed.

[woodland]

Funny…….. your picture has a white mark on the top of the head but his is solid red……………

I think he’s confuzzled or musical yearlings played a switcharoo……….

[Blaithin]

Drew blood for preg checks on Tuesday. Got results back Wednesday. Nothing surprising although wish we’d been wrong about Gwen 😂 She was getting some action on the weekend so I’ll test her again in the next run.

[GDR]

I didnt realize anybody preg checks with blood tests. How pricey is that? Will the vets sell you the tubes or do they have to draw it? Must be easier than getting them to pee on a stick!

Always seems to be the favorite ones that end up open. The wild crazy cows never seem to earn their trip to town.

[Blaithin]

I didnt realize anybody preg checks with blood tests. How pricey is that? Will the vets sell you the tubes or do they have to draw it? Must be easier than getting them to pee on a stick!

Always seems to be the favorite ones that end up open. The wild crazy cows never seem to earn their trip to town.

$4.50 a sample plus shipping. This round was $28 and $18 for express. Think the vet charges $20 a head plus mileage so it works out for me. Even she didn’t fault it 😂

They sell me the tubes and needles, or sometimes just give them to me if I don’t need much and the right person is working. I draw the blood myself. Not the quickest but it works. Have never asked the lab but lots of times they’ll send out the supplies as well.