Our calving season is mid-May through mid-July. We like this time frame because pasture rotation has already started which means that the calves are born on clean, fresh pasture. Clean pastures allow umbilical cords and dam’s udders to be clean, which lowers the chance of infectious pathogens taking hold. The … Continue reading
Category Archives: Herd Management
All for $20
Do I know it all? No. Have I tried it all? No. Do I know what ideas work and what ideas don’t? Sometimes. The aforementioned is just one of the reasons that Don and I are members of the Green Hills Farm Project located right here in Missouri. The knowledgeable … Continue reading
Handling Cattle
Hard to handle cattle make for extra work and time. One of our important management practices is to have calm, easy-to-work cattle. We interact with them every day as we rotate them to a new lot, water them or just walk out and take a head count. It’s okay if … Continue reading
Breeding Calendar
The bull has been turned in which designates the beginning of our ongoing breeding, calving and weaning cycle. Here is the simple breakdown. The herd bull is turned in with the breeding-age females on August 10th of the current calendar year. The bull is then pulled out on October 10th. … Continue reading
Bark, shovel and a wheelbarrow
We wean our calves over-the-fence from their moms. It reduces what little stress they have but can increase mucked up ground around the stock waterer – which is what happened this year during some extra wet weather. The waterer is a common place where and momma cows and their calves … Continue reading
Bull Turn In
It’s herd bull turn-in time. To control our calving season, the herd bull runs with the cows from August until the first calf is born the following year in May. We are strict about calving from mid-May to no later than mid-July. So far, this plan has worked well. We … Continue reading
Surprise opportunity
From 2010 to May of 2017, our calf crop has been a large majority of bull calves. That was certainly good for us. May 2018, however, gave us a 100% heifer calves. I’m calling this a surprise opportunity. Over the coming months, Don and I will be deciding which heifers … Continue reading
Breeding Season
Breeding season has begun. The bulls have been turned in with the cows, and they are taking their job seriously. The season will end in mid October. That may seem like a tight window of opportunity, however it works for us and our stock. I believe that calving in May … Continue reading
Calving Season
June eighth marked the beginning of our calving season with a bull. He is a handsome fella and eighty-three pounds of spunk. Before the mamma cow had completely shed the afterbirth, this calf had already nursed and was prancing around with his tail cocked. To some, June might seem like … Continue reading
This, I can side with.
On my February 4th entry, I commented on an article about genetically modifying bulls to create an endless supply of semen from “superior” sires. This same article also specifically reasoned that heat tolerant bulls could be modified to make them more fertile. Basically, young, healthy bulls would be sterilized then … Continue reading