Livestock/General Farming photo thread TAKE #2 ::::RULES IN 1st POST::::

Buford T. Justice XIX

Grueller wrote: »

Never in my farming career have I tubed a suckler to dry her off and I would be Autumn calving most of them so drying in June to meet the flies. Never get problems from drying them off either.
Just to say my cows would be 3/4 or more beef breed so no real milky first cross Angus cows either.

He's probably talking about sealers?

Anto_Meath

I do tube dry most of my cows as most of them are fairly milky, I have thankfully never had an any issue with mastitis. What I have always done is bring them into the yard in the morning then after dinner separate the cows and calves to tube the cows. Calves will have the cows drank dry when tubing. I feed the cows straw for a few days in a pens beside the calves, there would be a little bit of bawling but not a lot as the cows can lick the calf through the bars, it has aways worked well for me. The cows then go out to a bit of winterage ground for awhile.

Grueller

Lie back is ready now for the calves. I will get 8-10 weeks before having to touch that.

pure breed

Anto_Meath wrote:

Hi looking for peoples thoughts on the quite wean paddles, I see a neighbor has them in at the minute, he tells me it's his first year using them so he isn't sure how it will go yet (Saturday will tell). What I have noticed is some of his cows now have a good elders (they nearly look like they are springing). Do you let the calf drink the cow once before you remove the calf and tube the cow or have you to milk out the cow before you tube her?

we've used the wean pads and their good unless the cow has big teats where the calf is still able to work around the wean pad.
We've been putting a few inch long screws onto the wean pads and this seems to do the trick.
We also use them on young cows that are inclined to suck as well and it works for this too.
Usially tube the cows a 1-2 weeks after weaning them.

bogman_bass

Anto_Meath wrote: »

Hi looking for peoples thoughts on the quite wean paddles, I see a neighbor has them in at the minute, he tells me it's his first year using them so he isn't sure how it will go yet (Saturday will tell). What I have noticed is some of his cows now have a good elders (they nearly look like they are springing). Do you let the calf drink the cow once before you remove the calf and tube the cow or have you to milk out the cow before you tube her?

You missed your chance. Tube them the day you put the paddle in. The cow has a seal at this stage you are only causing problems by going in with tubes

funkey_monkey

Grueller wrote: »

Lie back is ready now for the calves. I will get 8-10 weeks before having to touch that.

What age of calves will be in there and what would the density be? Any reason as to why you go for sawdust over straw?
The thing I like about the sawdust is you can go in with a shovel and lift the dung where it lies without causing much disturbance to the reset of the bed, then shake the dust around it and its good to go for another while.

Grueller

funkey_monkey wrote: »

What age of calves will be in there and what would the density be? Any reason as to why you go for sawdust over straw?
The thing I like about the sawdust is you can go in with a shovel and lift the dung where it lies without causing much disturbance to the reset of the bed, then shake the dust around it and its good to go for another while.

Autumn born calves. 4 weeks to 3 months going in. I will have 30 of them lying back there with access to the cows on the slats 24/7.
I go for the sawdust simply because I have a neighbour who is a joiner and he dumps it there from the extractor system. In other words it's free. I find the labour saving over straw a godsend even more so than the cost savings.

funkey_monkey

What should be the expected kg/day weight gain for suckler calves at 200 days? I've done a quick scoot on Google and it seems to be 1.3-1.4 kg/day and 1.1-1.2 kg/day for males and females.

Is that what you all work off?

Hard Knocks

funkey_monkey wrote: »

What should be the expected kg/day weight gain for suckler calves at 200 days? I've done a quick scoot on Google and it seems to be 1.3-1.4 kg/day and 1.1-1.2 kg/day for males and females.

Is that what you all work off?

That’s probably about right
It can vary due to many factors, grass quality, milk, nuts, worm burden & weather
When I weighed for Beeps in July, I’d ranges from 1.2kg/day to 1.6kg/day

We weigh here as 300-350kg is ideal weight to sell bulls
Plus it lets you see your better and worse preformers

funkey_monkey

Similar range to ours.
For some reason our heifer calves are weighing better than the bulls. Considering they never seen meal until about 2 - 3 weeks ago when housed, then we're happy enough. Not sure how they'd grade though.

CloughCasey1

Sunset over Galway

Lady Haywire

Two May blue bulls. Just weaned so was a noisy shed for a couple of days

tellmeabit

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Two May blue bulls. Just weaned so was a noisy shed for a couple of days

What bull are they off?

Lady Haywire

tellmeabit wrote: »

What bull are they off?

White is SOY off a Charolais cow & the black is BZC off a Limousin.

patsy_mccabe

A bit of Opticlox will sort that sore eye.

Lady Haywire

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

A bit of Opticlox will sort that sore eye.

Aye he's done, only cropped up this morning so did him after I was in town.

tellmeabit

Lady Haywire wrote: »

White is SOY off a Charolais cow & the black is BZC off a Limousin.

Lovely animals.

How do you find SOY at calving. 13%
I have used dbz, and rws, 11% I think, a few times, chanced a DEP 18% this year not sure what I've let myself in for. Big cows alright but the fear factor or the high %. Thought rws was grand after.

Lady Haywire

tellmeabit wrote: »

Lovely animals.

How do you find SOY at calving. 13%
I have used dbz, and rws, 11% I think, a few times, chanced a DEP 18% this year not sure what I've let myself in for. Big cows alright but the fear factor or the high %. Thought rws was grand after.

Only used SOY twice, got twins the last time, I got the vet for this fella as I wasn't sure those shoulders were going to come out naturally but the Jack did the job in the end.
Next year I've used SOY, OOT & BB2247.
Used an Ecolo straw along with the SOY one though so dunno which she held to.
I don't really look much at the CD if a cow has proven herself a good calver or is wide & the dam of her calved handily enough. Would just watch the diet a lot if they're looking heavy.

tellmeabit

Thanks for that. Haven't had an extreme muscle animal here for a while. We're all Mozart until last couple years. In March have bb5223, dbz, rws and an sfl (was the only blue in the tank that day.) Cows getting older now and I'm getting more tempted by the blues. Thanks again

Lady Haywire

tellmeabit wrote: »

Thanks for that. Haven't had an extreme muscle animal here for a while. We're all Mozart until last couple years. In March have bb5223, dbz, rws and an sfl (was the only blue in the tank that day.) Cows getting older now and I'm getting more tempted by the blues. Thanks again

SFL! Those straws go a good price now. Hope for a heifer from that one!! Best of luck with them anyway, the bit of muscle is always tempting alright

Hard Knocks

Lady Haywire wrote: »

SFL! Those straws go a good price now. Hope for a heifer from that one!! Best of luck with them anyway, the bit of muscle is always tempting alright

SFL was a Great breeder
BB2247 is gone too

Lady Haywire

Hard Knocks wrote: »

SFL was a Great breeder
BB2247 is gone too

He's gone? Did he get hurt? Thought he was only new this year.
Funnily enough, he's on both the mothers of those two calves.

tellmeabit

Hard Knocks wrote: »

SFL was a Great breeder
BB2247 is gone too

He had a few of them. Will see how this one goes. The cow is a long tall skinny Charolais🤣 was thinking it will end up being a plain calf.

charolais0153

tellmeabit wrote: »

He had a few of them. Will see how this one goes. The cow is a long tall skinny Charolais🀣 was thinking it will end up being a plain calf.

Blues don't really cross well on charolais, won't get mad muscly stock usually

tellmeabit

charolais0153 wrote: »

Blues don't really cross well on charolais, won't get mad muscly stock usually

Ya thought the RWS would throw better. Sold one of them this week. Weighted 335kg at 225days old. But not as much muscle as I thought. Some of them cows have blue blood too. Keeping a few limos for breeding this year. Oldest cows got blue bull and could be their last twist.

charolais0153

tellmeabit wrote: »

Ya thought the RWS would throw better. Sold one of them this week. Weighted 335kg at 225days old. But not as much muscle as I thought. Some of them cows have blue blood too. Keeping a few limos for breeding this year. Oldest cows got blue bull and could be their last twist.

Them white bulls are never as muscled as the black ones, used bb4399 and wbh here

tellmeabit

charolais0153 wrote: »

Them white bulls are never as muscled as the black ones, used bb4399 and wbh here

Calve away with some help? This is my 2nd year of all AI, that's interesting 're the colour. When my dad used Ai, he used pick coloured blues alight.
The CH cows are throwing chunky calves alright but not explosive muscling

charolais0153

tellmeabit wrote: »

Calve away with some help? This is my 2nd year of all AI, that's interesting 're the colour. When my dad used Ai, he used pick coloured blues alight.
The CH cows are throwing chunky calves alright but not explosive muscling

We' ll see, white bulls bring nicer colours, if ya get the cow right and keep the silage back from them, they should calve away,

tellmeabit

The above comments is what I really like about this forum the way people share what they know from experience so openly, info that you can't find in a book , well I haven't yet anyways,.
Like the crossing bbq with Ch, or the colours. We see all these roan heifers going for wild money, and I suppose I have eyed up a few of mine with effort to come up with that flavour of animal, or the well muscled animal. The years it takes to learn from own experimenting can be reduced . Just wanted to say thanks to everyone whom contributes to these threads.

CloughCasey1

Last bit of grass and natures shed!