Verifying age

[cowman]

Not quite sure how this thing works with age verification? I think you can enter the date of birth on the web when you put in the RFID tag? I'm pretty much okay with that other than cows I might have bought over the last several years...but then I guess the powers that be are mainly concerned about young stuff?
Found one of my grandfathers old calving records...actually a little notebook where he recorded all sorts of stuff...from 1927! Pretty interesting, as they calved anywhere from May to September! I guess they didn't worry too much about a tight calving season back then! I also note he sold a bull at Lacombe for $650...I wonder how much that would be in todays dollars?

[farmers_son]

Darned if there is not a website that calculates that kind of thing. The bull would be worth $7269.54. Pretty good price for a bull.

http://minneapolisfed.org/Research/data/us/calc/index.cfm

If I continue to keep my late cows instead of culling them, I will be calving into September too. Ouch.

[farmers_son]

Hey, I had two late cows that should have been gone, one gave me a nice red limo bull calf this AM at 4:00. Calf was up and going before I left at 5:00. I think that those old gals are smarter than the rest, why would they want to have their baby in -30 when they can lie down and have it in June ?????

[grassfarmer]

Yes Emrald, it's one potential benefit of most commercial operations running a few later calvers due to the current crisis - they get to try the benefits of grass calving versus winter calving without moving the whole herd over. Unfortunately with regular grass management (ie no management)they will turn in very poor calves in the fall as the peak grass season will have come and gone before they get a chance to really graze.

Cowman, as far as I'm aware there is no intent to record birth dates of cattle born before the 2004 season on the data base. It really would not be possible to do that on an industry wide basis with any credibility. The mouthing rule will remain the governing factor in determining age of pre 2004 cattle and then we will be good to go with any calves born in 04-05. I still really question the uptake of this program for 2005 as most producers I know were buying up the cheaper bar code tags this spring versus the rfid's. There are lots and lots of older (and some younger)producers out there who are not computer literate and more than that just don't want the hassle of age recording. It doesn't bother me as I've done it before and can see possible advantages as a marketing tool in this period when some record and some don't. Once everyone is dragged kicking and screaming into the program that advantage disappears and it becomes the new norm - it's just another job and cost to be born by primary producers.

[15444]

It's not the late calvers that worry most people, but the potential for heifer calves to get bred and not know until they are too late into their term. Neighbour has a 15 month old heifer that is due to calve in a few days. He has been pulling his hair out, worrying about what is going to happen. He said he won't make the mistake of leaving the bulls in for the entire summer again.

[grassfarmer]

That's why I prefer to stick with my usual 42 day breeding period - maybe stretched to 55 days, then pull the bulls but run them out again post weaning. The weaning process is natures syncro program and anything open tends to cycle in the first 10 days I find.
I had great luck with cows bred this way in Fall 03. Late April calvers slipped to first week of July but then bred back to be May calvers this year.
I turned out the two biggest July born steers in late May weighing 860lbs and they haven't had much feed in them. Perhaps I should look at calving some in July to produce heavy yearlings off grass for the August trade every year?

[mb_rancher]

I keep my bulls in longer than 42 days but I usually end up aborting some hiefers that turn out in calf. Not many though. And it doesnt seem to hurt their growth or maturity.

[mb_rancher]

well, my other GRASS CALVER had her calf this afternoon, she is a 15 year old cow that doesn't owe me a thing but she has sure got a nice little heifer calf. Now I am officially done calving !!!

[cswilson]

Were chugging along calving wise other than the buffalo induced slips were at 100 percentnot bad for maybe a half hour of checking a day.

[cowman]

Whats a buffalo induced slip?