Convey of prime Alberta beef headed your way Burnt

[rumrocks]

My Dad told me the death rate on calves shipped to Ontario by train in the 50's and 60's was very high. Fresh weaned calves sitting in rail cars on sidings, it would have been brutal.
That was before feedlots in the west and dependable long haul diesel trucks pulling cattle liners.

We've come a long way in the cattle industry, who would want to feed 600 cows with small square bales, it would take most of the day with 2 guys. If you had a hired man, you would make sure you locked him up at night.
Small square bales drove a lot of farm kids into other careers.
For you guys in high rain areas round bales were a Godsend, a lot less spoilage.

Enough rambling on . . . . . Even Led Zeppilin knew when to quit.

[shtferbrains]

I remeber the little pens beside the tracks but hereabouts I think they only loaded singles or small groups that went in to the Burns plant in Prince Albert. Burns processed beef and pigs in the one plant. Freind of mine worked there while in college in early 70's.
Led Zep was popular about then.
They often only had one animal to go and had to deliver that car in the city to the plant.
Nowdays they don't want to pull less than 50 cars.
Different times for sure.

[burnt]

I can remember when I was likely still in my teens that carloads of calves came down from the West and were unloaded in the pens beside the rail lines in small towns.

The ride was just really tough on them is what I remember, Dad never having bought any for ourselves. No vaccines, no rest stop? - they may have been en-route for at least 3 days before they landed in a pen with feed, water and straw.

Could that be possible? Seems brutal today.

With the speed that they travel today, there is debate about whether the mandatory rest stop at Thunder Bay is actually beneficial for calves coming from the eastern side of the western provinces. Adds one more handling and stressor.

[Happytrails]

I just saw this thread. It looks like you’ve got a good program going woodland. I see you just weaned. Are your calves vaccinated ahead of weaning? Fall calving?

[Blaithin]

Did yours get posted to Twitter Woodland?

I seen him post a load of Char steers but they were a couple days past when I thought yours would have arrived.

[woodland]

I just saw this thread. It looks like you’ve got a good program going woodland. I see you just weaned. Are your calves vaccinated ahead of weaning? Fall calving?

I’ll start with that I love our cows .......... most of the time. 😉

Most calves are born in May. We vaccinate the calves in September when the bulls get pulled. When the grass runs out in November we start on the corn grazing. We started off with giving them 3-5 days worth at a time and now give them fields of 90-120 acres at a crack to save time. I don’t think our waste is much different unless it snows a lot.

We grass the yearlings over summer and sell them around beginning of January usually. After that we then setup portable corrals in the field to leave the cows and haul the calves to a yard for 10 days after weaning. They then run with the bred heifers to have less bunches to feed.

The corn is almost done so they will bale graze till calving. Only used 8 bales of straw so far and that was for the sick pen at home and they’re way dirtier than everyone else.

Always looking for ways to save time, money, and headaches here. The corn allows me to feed everyone in a couple hours or less depending if they need supplementing with grain or not. Actually looking forward to calving the most cows ever here in a few months. We nearly doubled the cow herd lately and didn’t change the labour situation much. I’m proud of our little cows and how they adapt to whatever we throw at them.

Always like hearing and seeing how others do things. Try to do at least one thing different every year to shake things up and break the routine. 🍀



Our little rockstars😉

[woodland]

Did yours get posted to Twitter Woodland?

I seen him post a load of Char steers but they were a couple days past when I thought yours would have arrived.

I followed him for a bit but never saw them either. No Chars here .............. only black with a few red angus to spice it up for us. I guess the critters got to see more of the country than I have in five years. And last year most of the barley went to Chiliwack. Kinda strange when you think that’s almost coast to coast.................. Doing our best to keep the trucks busy😉

[Happytrails]

I’ll start with that I love our cows .......... most of the time. 😉

Most calves are born in May. We vaccinate the calves in September when the bulls get pulled. When the grass runs out in November we start on the corn grazing. We started off with giving them 3-5 days worth at a time and now give them fields of 90-120 acres at a crack to save time. I don’t think our waste is much different unless it snows a lot.

We grass the yearlings over summer and sell them around beginning of January usually. After that we then setup portable corrals in the field to leave the cows and haul the calves to a yard for 10 days after weaning. They then run with the bred heifers to have less bunches to feed.

The corn is almost done so they will bale graze till calving. Only used 8 bales of straw so far and that was for the sick pen at home and they’re way dirtier than everyone else.

Always looking for ways to save time, money, and headaches here. The corn allows me to feed everyone in a couple hours or less depending if they need supplementing with grain or not. Actually looking forward to calving the most cows ever here in a few months. We nearly doubled the cow herd lately and didn’t change the labour situation much. I’m proud of our little cows and how they adapt to whatever we throw at them.

Always like hearing and seeing how others do things. Try to do at least one thing different every year to shake things up and break the routine. 🍀



Our little rockstars😉

I like your program. We’re not that different. Calve late April and May. Sell the yearlings in September. Steers usually about 950 lbs. Wean in November. In this open country ranging out in winter can be dangerous. The reason I asked about vaccinations is because we are real strict about vaccinating at branding and weaning. Modified live, clostridial, and, somnugen. With that program we seldom treat a calf with antibiotics. What I like about the grass yearlings is we put an extra 400 lbs on our calves and just have to do it cheaper than the feedlots which isn’t hard.

[woodland]

I like your program. We’re not that different. Calve late April and May. Sell the yearlings in September. Steers usually about 950 lbs. Wean in November. In this open country ranging out in winter can be dangerous. The reason I asked about vaccinations is because we are real strict about vaccinating at branding and weaning. Modified live, clostridial, and, somnugen. With that program we seldom treat a calf with antibiotics. What I like about the grass yearlings is we put an extra 400 lbs on our calves and just have to do it cheaper than the feedlots which isn’t hard.

The cows surprised me yesterday in a good way. It was -36 with a good breeze and they didn’t even bother to come see me shred some hay and straw bales for them. They’re getting some rolled oats daily and they all come for that. Otherwise it’s just corn stalks with a few leaves but no cobs left and they’re still happy.

I agree about vaccinating rather than treating. Lost two calves while corn grazing before weaning to pneumonia since when we move to a new field it’s a week before you can find critters in it. Treated a couple others and talked to a couple vets and they said that was still a fantastic average. I thought it was borderline to a mess though.

Our math says we can do our current yearling grassing or calve 50% more cows to pencil out the same. I’m pretty sure I’d have a mutiny of family if we did that anyway.

I love what I do.................. I just wish the feed truck would build air pressure but it’s -44 windchill now. Fun times🍀

[shtferbrains]

This covid vaccine thing has me thinking about all the cattle vax we did over a lot of years.
If you read close the Phizer vax says 95% chance it will stop getting seriously ill from covid.
Reminds me of pneumonia vax in calves. Still had some that looked scary with green snot hanging out thier nose but just watch they didn't get too droopy and usually passed in a few days. But without a doubt they still had pneumonia.Death loss low to zero as long as you didn't have untreated calves from someone elses herd like community pasture.
Scour vax the same some years.Scary when you see those wet behinds but mostly just passed through as long as the weather didn't go against you.
Vaccine most always kept you out of a real shit storm.
BUT that was at largest % of animals vaccinated, not 50 or 60%. But maybe also much much higher percent infectid at times.
When I quit buying cattle in life got a lot easier!
But if you relate that to covid how are the government and all the Nancy's going to take all those positive tests and the walking infectious. What changes from what we have today?
What's your expectations and experience with vaccine?
Like to hear Mallee's experiences.

[shtferbrains]

I'll say I also liked to get as much as possible out of the cows by grassing the yearlings and breeding most of the heifers.
If your going to have a bunch of good cows and good bulls like you picture you might as well take advantage of those genetics. Best part of having cattle is when your peers want your heifers and will pay top dollar for them.
In the cattle buisness like life your reputation is what you make it.
But you get what you deserve not always what you want.

[Blaithin]

This covid vaccine thing has me thinking about all the cattle vax we did over a lot of years.
If you read close the Phizer vax says 95% chance it will stop getting seriously ill from covid.
Reminds me of pneumonia vax in calves. Still had some that looked scary with green snot hanging out thier nose but just watch they didn't get too droopy and usually passed in a few days. But without a doubt they still had pneumonia.Death loss low to zero as long as you didn't have untreated calves from someone elses herd like community pasture.
Scour vax the same some years.Scary when you see those wet behinds but mostly just passed through as long as the weather didn't go against you.
Vaccine most always kept you out of a real shit storm.
BUT that was at largest % of animals vaccinated, not 50 or 60%. But maybe also much much higher percent infectid at times.
When I quit buying cattle in life got a lot easier!
But if you relate that to covid how are the government and all the Nancy's going to take all those positive tests and the walking infectious. What changes from what we have today?
What's your expectations and experience with vaccine?
Like to hear Mallee's experiences.

Scours and pneumonia vaccines only cover certain strains, they aren’t vaccinations against every type.

They will list the efficacy against the strains they’re for, so say 95% effective against Histophiluls but that doesn’t mean it’s even a little bit effective against mycoplasma. You wouldn’t be able to say you seen the 5% not covered by the vaccine unless you cultured the type and confirmed that what the calf has was the same kind you vaccinated for.

Also coming into play here is vaccine handling. I know of people that had big wrecks with IBR because the vaccine was not stored and handled correctly.

Pfizer and Zoetis and all the companies are never going to say something works 100%, because nothing does. Efficacy is subject to a lot factors.