Summer Calving

[PureCountry]

Hello all, long time no talk.

I just thought I'd give a review of my first-time summer calving program. So far we've had 45 calves - 9 left to go. We had 75.5% of calving done in our first cycle, and I've only seen one calf born. They've all been between 60 and 80lbs, no troubles, no scours, no sickness and surprisingly, no coyotes.

I'm thinkin' maybe coyotes have their pups later than I thought, because I've only started seeing pups big enough to run in the last 2 weeks. I'd pity the dog that tries my cows, though. Calving on open ground does bring out the instincts a little more. A cow that was mildly snuffy all her life gave me an early morning roll in the...dirt. I was late for work 'cause I had to go home and change and wash the crap out of my ears.

Over all this has been the best calving season I can remember. I wish we had done this years ago. I've never seen a prettier sight than finding a cow at dawn with a wet, wobbly calf nursing at her side, both standing in 2 feet of grass.

And I can't go without saying the Galloway calves are better than I'd hoped they'd be. I wish we would have tried them years ago, too.

Blast away, y'all.

[rkaiser]

Blast away at what ya old fart.

How's it goin?

Sounds to me like you are enjoying life waaay to much.

See you next week.

Oh by the way folks. Anyone interested in a day of fun at the Olds College next Thursday, give old Pure Country or myself a call. Sponsored by the Alberata Galloway Association, the day will see a number of speakers talking about real cattle stuff, from grass to marketing. No BSE (Bull Shoot Economics)

Randy Kaiser (403) 946 - 0228

[cowman]

We didn't do any summer calving this year but we did go late spring. Worked out well but sure is a pain trying to find new babies in the bush and a real pain getting a cow up to the chute if she needs some help.
I'd be a little concerned if I had a cow that wanted to "roll me around"? You might end up hurt like grassfarmer! Maybe you should talk to him about buying a "shark cage"? So a question? How and when do you tag, dehorn, cut those babies?

[cowman]

only a dedicated cattleman would say it has been the 'best calving season ever', after being rolled in the dirt by a snotty cow !!!!!

[cswilson]

We work our summer calves in the traditional way-woodfire and a branding crew. As for tagging if I can't run them down I just rope them off a saddle horse-it's easy you just throw till you miss. Don't think we'll ever see a shark cage here-that's kind of like a sign of the apocalypse to a cowboy lol. If I think a cow is too hard to get her calf tagged we just leave it untagged and sort here into the sin pasture with the buckers.

[bob-b]

This is how we have been doing it for about three years now. Leave them be! We will tag them in early August when we run the cows through for BVD shots....The trick to the chute is to put portable panels around your water trough in the middle of each 1/4 (underground pasture pipelines) any cow having trouble will easily walk to the "water pen" where we keep a portable maturnity pen. If she won't get up, you deal with her where she is.
We wean calves off in early December when pasture pipeline freezes and nut calves before fly season usually in March...(cut them) I have also had a great calving season. Possible 365 cows to calve but don't know how many are left to calve. (Don't care!) I've thrown out about 10 dead calves but as of yet haven't had a dead cow or even one that has thrown her bed. (usually have 1 or 2 of them) Haven't seen a new calf for a few days so must be near done....No worries, plenty of time to count them when the hay is all up.
Had another inch of rain here last night so I get most of the day away from forage harvester....good luck fellas!

[FRENCHMAN]

I got to agree about them Galloways.Those 1 hr old calves can run like a deer.We bred all our heifers to a Galloway bull last yr.IMO I think they are even better calving than M-3 Beefbooster bulls Not one assisted none over 67 lbs either.

[PureCountry]

Cowman, I just check the cows before I go to work in the morning, and again in the evening. I tag and BAND every new calf I find, and if I don't find them for a couple days and they get too fast, I catch them in the corral when there's 3 or 4 to do like the other folks were saying. I'll never use horned genetics, so that's not a chore I have to worry about.

There are 2 or 3 more meathead cows around here than there should be, but they're getting culled out slowly. And the funny thing is, the one that rolled me, I scratched her that evening! In all honesty, I think it was just how the calf bawled and jumped at the wrong time, and she snapped. 9 times out of 10 she probably wouldn't. I won't keep cows around like that, and I sure as Hell won't have a shark cage. If they're nasty or just worked up, why fight them? Leave them be, and grab the calf when they're off grazing, or in the corral.

And about the Cattleman's Day at Olds College, please call if you'd like info or to register.

Randy's @ 403-946-0228, or me @
780-888-3791. pcstockfarm@yahoo.ca

It's next Thursday, July 14th.

One more thing, if any of you know of a good hand to start out a 2-year old gelding in Central Alberta, at a reasonable rate, please let me know.

[grassfarmer]

Pleased to see your system is working Pure country.
You say "I've never seen a prettier sight than finding a cow at dawn with a wet, wobbly calf nursing at her side, both standing in 2 feet of grass" try a Luing bull they'll give you the same result but the calf won't be wobbly,LOL.

Frenchman - out of interest what size, weight, breed, age are the dams of your 67lb calves?
bob-b, reality is we are entering the traceability era and calves will have to be tagged at birth. We have got to find a way to do that safely as an industry.

I was visiting a bull customer yesterday who is just delighted with his first calf crop. His small Red Angus herd, previously bred pure bred instead to a Luing. Previous years results: took up to 4 cycles to calf them all, birth weights ranged from 50lbs-130lbs averaging about 84lbs, assisted calvings from 30-65%.
Year one with Luing bull saw 90% calved in first cycle, average weight 78lb with a range from 68-96lbs. Zero assists including a set of twins, zero deads. One happy customer although he found the calves took a lot of holding at one day of age compared to the angus!

I'm not saying mine is the number one breed or that it will displace the Angus or any other breed but IMHO I think it highlights the difference between a breed where anything with 4 legs and a tail has been saleable for several years now versus a breed where you select tougher because you have to work damn hard to sell every bull.

[cowman]

bob-b: So how does that work cutting those big calves? Do you find they go back quite a ways after you cut them? Do you cut them in a calf cradle or just do them standing up in a shoot? Do you give them a shot of anti-biotics?

[cswilson]

Cowman when we do our bigger calves we just rope one hind foot and the head then tail them over-it's easier than dragging them with doubles. If the vet is around we do them standing in the chute with a Newberry Knife and emasculators. About my roping -were just finishing calving and I found a heifer with the nose and feet out yesterday-told the kids to saddle up and ride out and phone me if she wasn't calved-well they did so I decided we'd ive it a tug. I dabbed a loop on her as she walked away-missed my slack and picked up her heels slick as can be. Can you believe my kids don't believe I did it on purpose-I can't fool anybody ny more lol. It was a very easy pull-she shoved it right on top of me.

[cswilson]

grassfarmer, not much wonder your bull customer's herd took four cycles to calve if the assist rate was between 35-65%. Good thing you sold the man an easy calving bull regardless of what breed it was. That rate of assists is just not acceptable regardless of the breed. I don't know how any producer can make money even in the good years with those stats, if even 1/3 of them were vet assists it sure must have been a high maintenance herd.

The assist rate here averaged over 32 years is less than 5%, and that includes the year we brought in 20 mixed heifers bred horned hereford and pulled nearly everyone of the calves !!

[pandiana]

Yes, it's been another good calving year. 100% calving (3 sets of twins offset by 1 calf died in utero, 1 at 7 days-failure to thrive, 1 diet at 6 weeks-cocci). Average BW 92lbs bulls, heifers 89lbs, cows 1410 lbs or 6.3% of dam Wt out of 110 purebred Gelbvieh cows. We assisted 1 heifer (not including the one with the dead calf in her) out of 19, no cows. It isn't always this easy but the last two years have been great.

Unfortunately, not finished yet as, although we pulled the bulls July 15th we had a visit from neighbors bulls, so a couple more to go. I guess this is ok as 'opens' would normally have been sold but, under the circumstances, a calf is better than $300.00 for a cull cow.

[rkaiser]

The kind of results you guys are posting boded well for your management practices and has little to do with the breeds of cattle you chose.

If I were in the market for Gelbvieh breeding stock, I know where I would be heading. Same with Luing, or some of those Galloways up in the Pure Country.

[bob-b]

just cut them standing with a splash of Kreosol or what ever that is. maybe 1 out of every 40 or 50 will not come to the bunks the next day but they soon come around.