Age of cows

[Horse]

I used to A_I a good percentage of my cows and I dont have real records to back up my claim The cows that calved larger calves had larger cervexes that were scared and I feel did not seal therefore did not catch or aborted in the 2-3 month range and then mabey rebred or not. I always used a cleanup bull but there was opens then to.

[hayburner]

You are right about the bulls also. When we buy bulls we always attempt to find out the lenght of time his mother carried him. The information is sometimes impossible to get but since alot of breeders AI we can get the information we need and since we started asking our regular bull suppliers they know keep track for us. We feed with a processor and the bulls activity is recorded every day of what cows were cycling.

[hayburner]

PS I forgot to mention the data base as a recovery time frame in it as well. The time from calving to the time enters her first cycle.We found some interesting data here when we started to see dramatic change when we changed mineral % arround.

[perfecho]

What factor(s) made the greatest impact?

[hayburner]

When we first started this program we began testing our winter feed and tried to match the mineral that was required. After a few years we began experimenting with phosporous levels and magnesium,calicum. What we found was the younger cows had a completely different requirement after calving to bring them in to first heat cycle than the older herd. Once we started to increase phos. a week or to before calving the younger cows had no problems with birth sacs not breaking and with cleaning . Once she calved the phos levels were reduce to a 1:1 calicum and Phos. the number of youner cows catching on the first cycle improved dramaticly. Instead of flushing with grain we started to balance our mineral.

[perfecho]

Thanks for info! Is your program mainly hay or silage for cows?

[hayburner]

Mainly hay

[rkaiser]

Ever tried a natural mineral hayburner? I don't have experimental data to prove the results of improved absorbtion, but certainly believe it is there. We feed a free choice natural mineral year round and find exceptional conception rates as well as simply healthy cattle.

[sundance]

rkaiser
Could you provide more info on the natural mineral you use. Such as brand name & where it is available.

[rkaiser]

Seven Star Products - Barnwell AB. (403) 223 - 2722
Cal - 15% Phos - 4% Sodium - 6% Magnesium - 6.5%
Joe will tell you the rest if you give him a call. No use showing this mix to a nutritionist - he will laugh at you like mine does. I do get the last laugh when considering my feeding program however.

Randy

[WilIow-Kreek]

So let me get this straight rkaiser.
Science is a GOOD thing when it means opening the border wide open....but its a Bad thing when a nutritionist uses it to tell you about mineral??

[hayburner]

Back a number of years ago when looking for a bunch of yearlings in the forestry I came upon a natural mineral lick that it appeared our cattle had visited quite frequently and also by jugding from the amount of elk,moose,and deer evidence arround this site it gave me a real brain wave to sc**** a way a sample. If cattle and that many wildlife were visiting this site I thought maybe I could have it looked at by a lab to find out what was the makeup and could I duplicate it.
??? Yes believe in natural mineral. The question is what is the source and composition? I would be very interested in to talking to your source .

[farmers_son]

I did some checking on minerals. To feed UFA’s 16:16 mineral at the recommended rate on the bag would cost me $10,000 a year for an average sized herd. That is just mineral, vitamins would be that much more again.

I notice feed testing has not been mentioned. A good feed test can be had for $50. $50 or so more will buy you a copy of Cowbytes from Alta. Ag. For $100 a lot of questions about supplements can be answered. If they are needed they can be fed profitably but the animals will excrete out anything that is in addition to their requirements.

I was told of one top producer in the early days who plowed strips of sod and stored them to be fed to the cattle throughout the winter. I also remember feeding bone meal to everything, that does not happen any more. I see our UFA mineral is made by ADM which I take to be Arthur Daniels Midland. I think it is very possible they are just selling our animals and grains/weed seeds back to us with some bluestone thrown in.

I have heard of cattle chewing on bones etc. but apparently they are not able to tell if they lacking mineral. Cattle will eat salt well in excess of their needs. Water is an important source of minerals. You can get a water test free in Alberta.

[hayburner]

You should also check the fill portion of the 16:16 what mean is the amount of fill in bag to arrive at 50kg weight. I often thought of sending a bag of commerical mineral for testing an confirm the composition thats on the label. Not that I am suspicuous but the fill material I see sometimes when I help out a neighbor it really makes you wonder ie whole peas corn you name it. Is he paying for something he not getting yes the weight is there but ????

[cswilson]

There's alot of herds up here that pay their bills strictly from cattle that the only thing they feed is hay and blue salt. It might fly against all the reccomendations but their cows calve on time and raise good calves well at least for the 75 years we've ranched beside each other.