Educate me on having cattle

[ponytug]

You might want to think about where you put water access, and having some one way gates. If you have centralized water, your cows will come to the water at least once or twice a day. If there are one way gates, say at your circle with water there, you can arrange it for the cows to move themselves, once they learn to push through the one way gates (prop it partially open to train them to push in). Rousting out a recalcitrant mother and calf out of a pasture gets old.

If you plan on feeding at the barn, consider concreting over the entire feeding space and then some. It will make keeping the area clean much easier. Also, consider designing things for feeding the largest bales that your tractor can unstuck and handle.

Just my $0.02

All the best,

Peter

 

[LouNY]

The shorter the distance they travel for feed and water the better weight gain.
The smaller the pasture the better the grass utilization, small pastures 2 to 5 acres with water especially with cow numbers.

 

[MossRoad]

That's my front entrance. It leads to my houses. The pasture above is the 5 acre feed area. It has a small half acre pond, and my little barn.

Corral yourself in there too!

 

[MossRoad]

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View attachment 770594

That's very similar to what I was describing our friend has done with his place, only his is all rectangles and right angles, and he has about a 100' long alley between all of them with gates to a corner of each pasture and his barns. His water is all at the outside of the barn, so that stays open anytime the cows are in a pasture so they can walk over and drink as desired. And if he has to, he can just shut them in the immediate area of the barn, which is probably 75x75.

Another humorous note. He had some high school kids help him stack hay bales in his barn. They didn't stack them very well. He woke up the next morning and saw a bale out in the middle of the barnyard. What the heck?

Sometime during the night, the stack of bales fell over in the barn up against a dutch door that the top half was open on. A cow reached in and pulled a bale out!

 

[EddieWalker]

A friend of my brothers helped us with the cattle. He came over and showed us how to load them up in his trailer. Then we took them to his place where we worked them. He has a very nice set up to handle large numbers of cattle. They where all weighed and then given shots according to their weight. We put new ear tags in them and sorted them into several different groups. The six that we are keeping, the bulls, and the ones we are selling. They are all in good shape, maybe even a little fat. All the cows and heifers are pregnant with calves due around Feb to March. The heifers where 800 to 850 pounds. The bigger girls where 1,200 to 1,600 pounds. The angus weighed 1,650 pounds and he looks to be 3 years old. The plan for him is to put some weight on him and sell him as a breeder. We brought the six back to my brothers place, and I bought some minerals for them. He had a mineral feeder, but it was empty.

This is them at my brothers place after I gave them some Creep to get them into the pen. I moved the feeders to the fence so we didn't have to go in there with them. They are gentle and I'm not afraid of them doing anything, but they are also pushy at getting to the feed, and it's slippery with mud in there. This just made it a lot safer. Karen, slowly kept them fed while we got the panels in place to get them into the trailer.

 

[LouNY]

One caution with the feeders up next to the fence they are liable to crowd around and get to pushing and shoving for the feed which will be rough on your fence. The cows are not likely to be very aggressive when being fed other then trying to get there greedy noses in the bag or bucket while you are trying to feed them.
I would be more careful with the bulls not because they are "meaner" per say even though they can be, but they are stronger and are more likely to injure you unintentionally. In a group they are not as aggressive as individually.

 

[ponytug]

@EddieWalker that sounds like progress, and a great situation. Congratulations!

All the best,

Peter

 

[Creamer]

Eddie - Sorry about your loss of a brother - that is a hard one especially at your age.

Growing up on a cattle ranch that my nephews still run in South Dakota I have to laugh at some of the comments. I was raised on the Triple S Hereford ranch where we raised purebred and commercial horned Herefords and sold bulls and bred heifers as well as fat cattle and I cannot think of a better breed to raise due to a lot of their traits as far as growth, durability, meat quality, feed conversion, etc. My nephews have however crossbred a lot of Black in them as your brother was looking to do because they do sell better - for instance my nephew just sold two loads of fats and got them in CAB (Certified Angus Beef) which is a bonus on the receipts end. They run about 850 head of cows.

1st thing - I have never heard of sun-burned belly on a white bottomed animal - we never had that problem and there are a lot of Herefords in Montana.

In looking at the pictures your brother has some nice cattle not just run of the mill. I am seeing moderate sized cows that have a lot of body length and straightness which will produce nice carcasses and a high carcass yield. I am seeing coloration around the eyes which is one weakness of Herefords and the coloration really helps to keep eye issues down. The bull has nice size without courseness which should mean he is an easy calver but good growth. A little light in the rear but not bad.

it would really help to have some records on calving ease and milk - another area where Herefords have been a little weak in but a little feeding the calf supplemental -creep feed - after they are 3 months or so can make up for that if that is an issue.

Your cows look like nice and tame and good disposition - something we always considered a must. One person getting hurt is not worth it and you shouldn't have on the place. You have to watch Angus - they can get snorty. My nephews just sold off some bulls last year because the calves did not behave properly. He bought new bulls and and said this years calves have a totally different attiude. he always watches for this in the bloodline of his bulls that he buys and is very particular but he got three bulls that had an attitude and passed it on.

It is not too late to neuter the three young ones. You do not need to purchase equipment if you have a couple of cowboy friends around. I have another niece and nephew who ranch and run about 450 head and they do it all the old fashioned way, i.e roping and both the head and the back legs. It would be easier to take them to a friend or vet that has equipment though. The other option is to put them on feed and fatten them quick and sell the meat privately. There is nothing wrong with young bull meat except that it is a little leaner than steer meat - they don't fatten and marble quite as well. The castration goes back to the old west days when they butchered animals 3-4 years old and then it would make a big difference. Under 14 months and fed hot (a very rich ration) you wouldn't know the difference - may be the easiest way to get the most out of them. Taking three of these to sale barn will get you about half price of market value because there are only three and a potential problem.

You do not need barns - my nephews cattle never see barns unless there is a sick one or something odd happens and it is just easier to deal with it inside with small pens. Remember a cows ideal temperature is 40 degrees F - it doesn't get too cold where you are at. Shade is important though as these breeds do not take the heat quite as well as a brahma or other light colored slick haired breeds.

The bottom line though is that you are only going to make any money if you sell breeding stock or private meat. Your herd is too small for the commercial meat guys to deal with and they are not going to bother. They have big herds and anytime they bring in outside cattle there is a risk of bringing in some disease or problem and you don't have enough for them to want to deal with that issue. You do have cattle that are nice to be around though and are very enjoyable and if you like that they are well worth the stress relief and a few tax breaks. Not living on a farm I miss the cattle - they were just nice to look at at the end of the day - so calm and relaxed and very pleasant. And of course being a Hereford guy the white face guy always looks better!

 

[lman]

When I was a kid, we picked a Limousin bull that we bred with our herefords. The calves were nice but ornery and there was a big difference in working the calves.

 

[OldMcDonald]

@Creamer Giving just a "like" is not enough for such a knowledgeable and well written post. I had to tell you too.

I have no USA experience but where I was in Australia 30 to 40 years ago they were the only breed that sold well. As you point out, white eyes were their biggest problem and brown eyes should have been bred into them long before. I shudder every time I think of a cow with Pink Eye and I am not squeamish about anything.