Calving season is here again. :)

[ErinP]

OK, so DH had his actual first calf a week ago. (Two weeks early).
But for me, calving doesn't officially start until we have a bottle baby out in our barn. He brought us one today. Mama is an ancient cow (the boss doesn't believe in culling ) and she has no bag. It's still too early in the season, there aren't any cows yet that have lost a calf, so she won't be grafted anytime soon. She's ours for a while.

Yep, the first bottle baby of the season...
My other marker is when he moves his bedroll out to the tack room in the corral's barn so he can do night checks of the heifers.

[Shygal]

Perhaps they have an emotional attachment to this cow. If they dont want to cull, thats THEIR decision to do so. Not everyone is fixated on the bottom line.

Maybe "profit" isnt as important to them as giving something that has given them the best years of its life, and I assume many calves to make this "profit" on, a good life for the rest of her years.

As for the guy that loved his cow so much to have it spayed, GOOD FOR HIM. Love isnt limited to dogs and cats and horses and the typical pet. So what if it cost a lot of money for him, he could obviously afford it and loved the cow. not everyone looks on their animals as freeloaders. yeesh.

I don't see why a thread about calving season, has to be turned into something else here. Just because you don't see the sense in it doesn't mean they don't.

[Wanda]

As far as the cost of spaying a bovine, tis not that much. All feeder cattle from Mexico to the states are spayed or castrated as I understand it.

[Shagbarkmtcatle]

Originally Posted by Wind in Her Hair

(where's the "scratches head" emoticon/smilie?)

you raise cattle (assumably with "profit" as a goal) and your husband (the boss) doesn't believe in culling?

While I understand an emotional attachment to livestock, I cannot imagine NOT culling. I remember a hobby farmer I knew back in Texas (who was NOT trying to make a profit from raising cattle= hobby farmer) who loved his old show heifer sooooooooo much, he had her SPAYED! Yes, SPAYED. Those of you with large dogs who have had them spayed - imagine that same procedure and associated costs but on a much grander $cale. We're talking mega $$$. Muchas dinero.

Cattle get old, their teeth get short, they can't maintain themselves nutritionally and they have difficulties getting bred or giving birth, their bags give out, then they don't produce milk and some other cow has to carry their weight and raise their calf. You have to feed the "free loader" a whole nuther year to give them a chance to fail again - perhaps this time, they'll be on the meal ticket all year, but they either won't breed, or their old uterus will give out then they'll prolapse or have to have a C section or they'll lose the calf entirely.

and he still won't cull them? He'd keep feeding her?

I must be missing something here, Erin.

Coming from a commercial cattle background, I just cannot imagine having deep enough pockets to NOT cull. In commercial cattle ranching, a cow does not get "three strikes". If she did get "three strikes" - we -the rancher - would be out of business pretty dern quickly.

It's not uncommon for farmers around, in beef operations, to spay heifers that they don't want bred. Then they raise these spayed heifers for meat just like steers. If might be different in Texas but they do it in West Virginia. Our neighbors spays 50 head a year. I do not know the cost as we don't personally do ours but it must not be too bad with the way he is doing it.

[menollyrj]

Originally Posted by Wind in Her Hair

I loved calving season, too. There's nothing in all the world like a new calf to renew your faith in spring and life and hope for the future -however - the reality of cattle ranching is that - unless you are a hobby farmer - there is an expectation of breaking even and hopefully enjoying a profit.

Erin, have fun with the babies. Babies are one of the best parts of farming. Baby calves, baby rabbits, baby chicks. Love 'em.

Break even? You mean we're supposed to break even? <grin> I do understand what you are saying about some amount of culling being necessary to make a profit. We do sell with an eye to improving productivity - old cows, late breeders, difficult birthers. In conjunction with that, we don't consider our cattle as pets or objects of affection. They are a business. They don't have names, just numbers. The kids aren't allowed to play with the bottle calves or the baby rabbits or the baby chicks. (Okay, so they do manhandle the baby chicks more than the other babies, but we hatched 'em ourselves.) Our rule is we only name the animals we don't plan to eat or sell. Very few animals on our small farm get names. While I don't dislike cattle, I just can't see myself putting them on par with a dog in terms of personality & affection level. Ah, well. I guess that just makes this thread interesting.

-Joy

[Judi Reilly]

Mornin All...-8 below in SD...and thank goodness we haven't had a calf yet,,if we do its cause the bull got out!! We generally start in March and even then the weather can get nasty. We've warmed up many a baby in the mud shower, and there have been times when momma decided that when we took her "kid" then we can have it and won't claim it after its all warmed up..hoping that don'e happen this year..after 40 bottle calves last year,,I'm burnt on doing any this year..they just don't do as well as a cow raised calf no matter how well they are fed and cared for..
As for naming livestock..thats optional here,,we had a calf afew yrs ago..born in a blizzard, but mamma took her back when we returned it..daughter named her Wendy..she had a brown ring around 1 eye..was extremely tame even grown up..gave us many a calf,,a good little herford,,daughter could go out in pasture and call and she'd come for a ear rub..she worked on this farm till she was just to old..(cow not daughter)
we have some of her offspring but no names..we cull on a reg. basis,,if ya don't produce,out ya go..in this bzness ya can't show favorites..
What gets names around here is 1 rooster,,1 cat, and a tractor!! Ahhhhhhh..life on the farm..nothing better!!
Have a nice Sunday,,God Bless...Judi

[ErinP]

you raise cattle (assumably with "profit" as a goal) and your husband (the boss) doesn't believe in culling?

No, my husband fully believes in culling. It's a basic part of herd health and management. He's been a cattleman his entire life, except that four year stint in college, and has worked ranches from 500 head up to 7000. (Which included buffalo, btw)
DH manages our ranch for a Florida investor. -Who doesn't believe in culling. And does indeed have deep pockets. Though he does get bent out of shape when we have a bunch of opens. 120 of them one year, out of a herd of 700. Even the vet tried to call him.
We did manage to convince him to sell the leg-draggers out of there, and "found" 70 leg-draggers, but three years later, a bunch of those open cows we kept still haven't bred back...
Surprising but true. lol

We've warmed up many a baby in the mud shower

Us too. That's why there's a bathroom on the porch, afterall. Not so much for cleaning up before coming in the house, but to be the in-the-house-but-not-in-the-house spot for new calves.

As for the name thing; we tend to name the bottle calves, but only so much as we have a few a year. Most orphans get grafted.
And there's no way we could name the entire herd! We'd never remember them. lol

[ErinP]

Nope, it's not the bulls. We try to keep around 30 of them and we fertility check each breeding season.
No, cows go through menopause just like any other mammal. But corporate doesn't understand that... Fortunately, we've been keeping 50 replacement heifers per year for the last four...

[NeHomesteader]

Erin,
We started calving also. Good luck,Dawn

[ErinP]

Originally Posted by Wanda

As far as the cost of spaying a bovine, tis not that much.

You're right. We've never been on a ranch that had it done, but it must be relatively reasonable. Spayed heifers are not at all uncommon... And we have been on a couple that bought both steers and spayed heifers to run on grass...

And I will say something about the grizzled old cows we have around here. DH and I both have learned that you can sqeeze a lot more out of a cow than you might think. Should we ever start our own herd by buying bred animals, they'll be old, gummer cows that we can sell off as we get heifers.
We've also discovered that the genetics of those worn out old cows, that are still producing healthy, sleek calves at 18 and 20 are something you want to hang on to!

[ErinP]

Originally Posted by dawn

Erin,
We started calving also. Good luck,Dawn

To you too!

[ErinP]

Originally Posted by Wind in Her Hair

I personally LOVED raising bottle calves and loved watching them chase the kids around the house trying to suck on their fingers and how they always came running to me when I was in the pasture - like reuniting with an old friend.

My daughter's first Fair bucket calf is one of the second-calf heifers. I get a kick out of seeing her in the tub/alley when we do things like preg.
Last month we preg. checked and I'd been watching for her as I was working the tub. As soon as she came in I said, "Hi Lacy!" and reached down to scratch her head.
She flickered her ears and looked up at me and was the only cow in the tub that was perfectly calm.

[Shygal]

Dumb question here probably but the spaying heifers Im not sure what the benefit would be in that, do they grow faster? I could see maybe an old cow like WIHH said was spayed, but why a heifer that has not even had a calf?

[Shagbarkmtcatle]

Originally Posted by Shygal

Dumb question here probably but the spaying heifers Im not sure what the benefit would be in that, do they grow faster? I could see maybe an old cow like WIHH said was spayed, but why a heifer that has not even had a calf?

Because you don't want to breed them, you want them raised for beef just like steers. I am told that they do grow better too.

[Shygal]

Originally Posted by Shagbarkmtcatle

Because you don't want to breed them, you want them raised for beef just like steers. I am told that they do grow better too.

Cant you just raise them for beef without spaying them though?

[65284]

Originally Posted by Shygal

Dumb question here probably but the spaying heifers Im not sure what the benefit would be in that, do they grow faster? I could see maybe an old cow like WIHH said was spayed, but why a heifer that has not even had a calf?

First they don't get accidentally bred. Then, there isn't all of the "in heat" related problems, steers and heifers can run together without the riding, bawling, fence walking and breaching, and other energy wasting activities that are eliminated by spaying. Simply makes for a calmer more efficient feed lot situation.

[ErinP]

Originally Posted by Shygal

Cant you just raise them for beef without spaying them though?

Absolutely. In fact, I'd venture to guess the vast majority of heifers in feedlots aren't spayed. And, it's probably for the simple reason that bulls are easy to castrate that steers are so much more common than spayed heifers.

[Shygal]

Originally Posted by 65284

First they don't get accidentally bred. Then, there isn't all of the "in heat" related problems, steers and heifers can run together without the riding, bawling, fence walking and breaching, and other energy wasting activities that are eliminated by spaying. Simply makes for a calmer more efficient feed lot situation.

Ah yeah, forgot of that stuff. My cat is in heat and driving me insane, I cant imagine a 800 pound heifer

[orangehen]

IMO, an 800 pound heifer is a fence-jumper/fence-breaker. When those hormones start kicking up, seems nothing can stop them. Harsh lesson for my son; when one of his heifers came in season, she jumped the fence, went towards the highway looking for a mate, got hit by a truck and had to be destroyed.