Livestock/General Farming photo thread ***READ MOD NOTE IN POST #1***

porter shark wrote: »

thanks. october november. the part calf is only march.

What age would the dwarf calf be? there some fine heifer calfs. How do you find bbxfr cows? Are they tall cows or are they small muscley cows.

I calved 3 heifers to roe this spring, all calved unassisted and are lovely stock. I will definitely be using him again

pakalasa wrote: »

Great calves Portershark. What Lim bull did you use on the blue cows? had they any trouble calving?
As for the snoring, I have a BB heifer that I noticed only a few day ago making a snoring sound like you said. I didn't take any real notice, to be honest. She seems fine in every other way.

you have to be with them calving, out of 23 only 3 calved unassisted, 3 operations, vet pulled 2 and i pulled the rest.
angus the first year might be worth consideration, we live and learn.
lim bulls ODZ FL27 BYQ and one RHF-operation.
most of them carrying CWI or NHL this time.

porter shark wrote: »

http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q611/portershark/DSC01844.jpg

blonde heifer calving september... i think, never wrote down insemination.
she'll be 27 months.
what would you put into her the first time folks?

My opinion is 1st time go easy calving, particularly if they're ~24m. In order for cows to be profitable on the long term the aim is to get 10 calves from her in the next 10 years. So 1st time easy. Then 2nd time you know what she's like to calf and take it from there.

But I think you're asking what to give this heifer next time after she's calved? She looks to be a good square heifer and should be well able to calf. I've no experience with blondes (cows that is ) so can't advise. You hoping for a replacement or looking at a terminal sire?

Kovu Murr wrote: »

I need to get you to come talk to my father. We're at least 6-7 cattle understocked:o

We are much the same and likewise my father is hard to get to change... I would be in favour of rotational grazing because we have 4 and 6 acre paddocks while he is more in favour of set grazing. There are pros and cons to both systems but I just think we could utilise our grass a lot better if the cattle were in bigger numbers and moved more regularly. He would prefer to have the cattle in groups of 12 or 13 on a 6 acre paddock and leaving them on it for a month, the only problem is that this means that often there is cattle on all the paddocks and there is very little grass growing ahead of the cattle and we regularly run short. I suppose the other side of it is that big numbers together in wet weather can end up doing serious poaching, its a very hard year to manage grass.

reilig wrote: »

I don't know what I'll give her yet. Most Bull buyers are basing their choices on SBV figures. She has a low enough SBV, but that's only because Sauvignon has very few calves on the ground yet. His figures should increase a lot over the next few days. I suppose whatever i choose, it will have to have a high SBV. I like bulls from the Ampertaine Herd at the moment.

I don't think this heifer is really anything special to look at when you compare her to some of the heifers that the likes of Millbrook or Claragh Limousin herds post pictures of. They tend to have heifers that are fed to the hilt - bulging with fat. I can't understand how they get cows to come in heat (unnatural methods i presume) and I expect that they have a lot of problems with calving.

As I have said in the past, we operate on wet land. Its not bad land, it grows a lot of grass, but its wet. Heavier cows don't suit us. therefore, we don't over feed them and we tend to have better calving intervals (than we had in the past) and easier calvings as a result. the heifer above is an ideal animal to add to the herd.

Reilig,
You are obviously giving the Lim ped route serious thought. I have done a bit on investigating on this. Everyman and his dog had Lim. But this is for a reason. They do exactly what it says on the tin, a bit of everything. This has created a few problems.

When you research the back breeding to the top animals, especially in England and NI, as the Ampertaine Herd are, the whole genetic base seems to be very narrow, yet nobody (Lim breeders) seems overly worried, still prepared to pay at least 20,000 guineas for a bull.

In saying that some of those animals have to be sen to believed. i recently seen a gentleman's stock, he won Balmoral and Red Ladies (http://www.livestock-sales.co.uk/2011/pedigree_cattle/limousin/1216/index.html) in recent times. The plates and size of these 4th, 5th and 6th calvers was very impressive. These animals get nothing but grass and silage, very little meal. I know this man feeds to his animals exactly like he says, unlike other ped breeders. When you see these animals in the flesh with very little meal, then you can understand why they produce the quality of calves they do, it in the genes as they say.

But that gene pool is getting smaller though!

Expenseive business, it's not worth getting involved unless you are in at the top end, and embroys are maybe the best way to upgrade.

Good luck