[J-L]

Interesting. I had a few questions about this.

Do you have any problem with weeds coming up from this? I should say, more weeds than usual?

How effective is it in establishing good grasses?

I have a hay meadow that just doesn’t seem to grow anything but this grass my neighbor calls Johnson grass which we think crept in off the highway. I have been trying to figure out what to do with it.

[J-L]

I think his missing $10 was due to my fat fingers on this keyboard!

[J-L]

I know of a few McNabs out here (in Wyo). They seem to work just like the Border Collies. By the way, you see more Border Collies than anything working cattle in my area. There are some BC dogs that are ‘sheep’ or ‘trial’ type dogs that sometimes don’t have enough power to work cattle. There are Border Collie dogs here that have been bred to work cattle.
By the way, the McNabs that my cousin used have a lot of run. He uses them out on the open range moving cattle and they can cover many, many miles in a day (just like the Border Collie). So you need room and work for them.

[J-L]

There was a Case dealer in our valley who sold a fair amount of Case #5 mowers. They had a good reputation with the folks who used them here. Not having used them personally, that’s about all I can tell you. I’ve looked at a few of them (#5 Case that is) and they look like a good enough machine, I never went after any of them because I was unsure of how to get parts. Lot’s of #4 JD and IH#7 and #9 around here too, and parts are easy to find.

[J-L]

You’re right on the mark Geoff.

[J-L]

It depends on the operation Mink. I figure on 5-10%, 10% being a bad year for me, although I’ve had worse. We had a storm the end of March one year that gave us 1.5′ of snow and -20 (without windchill) right during my heavy calving period. At that time we were running 500 cows and we had 21 calves in the night, froze 8. That spring we had a lot of scours and other problems like calves drowning, pneumonia, etc. Didn’t make a 90% calf crop.
There are some smaller operations that will bring their herd into a lot and gather the droppers at night and put them in barns. Many of them calve in Feb. I don’t have enough barns for that, and only barn calve my 2 year olds and some high risk cattle.
The way my place is set up we calve in the river bottoms with lots of brush/tree lines. The cows are confined to about a square mile and when things get busy I’ll crowd them into a smaller place and sort pairs around to ease the crowding. We ride around the place two or three times a day horseback checking calving progress and keeping an eye out for sick calves. During the period when my A.I calves are coming or during bad weather events I’ll get around them at night on a 4 wheeler or pickup truck and keep and eye out for froze down babies. Take them to the barn or house and warm them up, gather the mama next day and put her with the warmed up baby.
Crowding cattle together is a bad idea.

[J-L]

I don’t gamble at all (as in cards, slot machines, etc.) because I get all the gambling I want just running cows for a living. Up side is awesome though. Am my own boss and get to work with my horses and mules every day.

[J-L]

Good questions Geoff. I do start my heifers earlier. However, we’ve been trying to build our herd numbers (always a struggle) so I’ve typically kept even the later calving heifers. I start the heifers a good two weeks ahead of the cows.
This year I’m calving 60 head of heifers. I bought some to put with my own last year and bred them to my bulls (and some A.I.) I run my uncle’s cows along with mine. He has only kept 10 replacements for his hundred cow herd and it’s been hard to keep his numbers up. The consequence is a herd of old cows.
I keep 15% minimum for replacements personally, and I’ll fudge that up on years when I can afford to. Usually you make up most of the lost income from the extra heifer calves by culling the old cows and marketing them. I have one neighbor who runs around 700 head and they keep 150-180 replacements and cull the older cows while they’re still marketable as running age bred cows. They seem to make that work well.
I had a disastrous bout with a disease called Trichomaniasis (sp?). Had a neighbor with 3 bulls dirty with Trich that ran in a common pasture. The following year I lost 1/3 of my herd with the cows coming up empty or aborting pregnancies in the first trimester. Had to get rid of all of the open and late calving cows. Big blow to my income for about 3 or 4 years while trying to build back. Finally am back to what I used to run but had to finance some more cows to do it.
So that’s how come I kept as many replacements as possible and bought some cattle to fill in. Going to take me 7 years to get it all paid off. What a drag.

[J-L]

I’m hoping that’ll go north of me Geoff. I’d like a little warm, dry spell. Should have a big gob of calves this next two weeks. You are so right about the weather change making those babies come. They tend to hold it in as long as they can, but when you get three days of bad weather the dam has to break some time.

[J-L]

I hear you on the calf by the fireplace. Bet you guys chill quite a few up north there. Have had them in the tub, by the fireplace, etc. When those cold snowy nights get me real bad I have my little girls with hair dryers and towels working over those chilled calves. Amazing how many you save that are just froze bad. Some I even debated on bringing to the house. Little girls and hair dryers have saved quite a few.
I had one of those calves that was going to die (I thought) that the girls had worked over with the hair dryer and then left for school. I had dropped the calf off and went out looking for more victims and got tied up with other calves/cows until about 11:00 came back and found the (dying) calf wandering the house looking for mama. Crapped all over one of Mrs. rugs. Oops!

[J-L]

Well put Grey. I think that working with animals at times is as frustrating as it can be rewarding. Temper is something I always have to work on and watch. Especially this time of year when fatigue and sleep deprivation helps me out.
Don’t know the first thing about working cattle in a yoke, but have worked with many, many beef cattle. I still say anyone who can make those good ox teams is blessed with something I don’t have. I do love to watch videos of working cattle. Amazes me every time.
Guess the only thing I can say is keep at it and remember what your reward will be.

[J-L]

Matter of fact sickle hocks I have thought about calving in May to June. Big problem for me is keeping everyone elses bulls out of my cows. Lots of guys around here calving 1st of March (some even in Feb), which I think is nuts at 7000′. I try to hit the brunt of my cows starting right about the 1st of April. Of course that was just in time for 2′ of snow and some sub zero two of the last three years! Still most of the snow storms are going to melt off in a few days that time of year.
One thing I never really think of is that during that time (May and June) I am scattering irrigating water out, trying to get ditching done, get meadows drug, and maybe a little bit of farming. Not much time left to check cows. Usually headed out to grass the tenth of June also. Hard to say what is best.
Oh well, it’s supposed to warm up a bunch later this week. Then we’ll have a bunch of mud.

[J-L]

Last summer I ran my 6′ #9 right next to our 430 JD tractors with 7′ New Holland mowers. Actually in the same hay patches off and on. With my team in shape I would actually have to check up quite often because those black horses were just slightly faster than those little tractors could run. I am faster on corners with a good broke team than the tractors (at least with my brother running it). BUT…no matter how good a shape your teams are in, they will need a break. Even with a good running mower and sharp knife you still have to let your team blow. Thats when the tractor passes you up. I also found that 6 hours of mowing was all I wanted to put my horses through, while we will put in 10 hours on the tractors. This year I have spares and will run two mowers with 3 teams. Should be able to get some good out of them rotating a fresh team in every third day.
Had I been able to swap a team out at noon I may be able to come closer to the tractor mowers, but they are a little faster in my grass hay.
Been talking to Jonathan Lawton about the I&J mowers he uses and I think I can afford a new 9′ mower (with a small inheretance from my late grandmother). Having to put up enough hay to feed nearly 200 cows plus some yearlings, I suppose I can justify it. This should really make my brother on the tractor work his arse off to keep up with me.

[J-L]

think you’d run out of horse flesh if you are doing a lot of mowing or if you are sledding your hay very far. My teams of Perch or Belgian horses get worked down pretty hard by spring.

[J-L]

Pretty interesting subject. I watched a video I have of Roger Clark’s farm in the UK. Part of this was haying. He worked without a brichen on the mower. I can say that it does work fine….but in my small, irregular fields with lots of hills and turns, I would use the brichen. My teams with brichen harness will make so much more time up in the turns than he does that it makes a lot more mowing time in a day. My horses and mules hit the end of the swath and back and turn w/o picking up the knife, and when done right you have 6″ or better to get your knife running before hitting the new swath.
Not sure how it takes so much extra time to put on a brichen harness as to make any difference. If your harness is adjusted right you won’t rub anything but a little hair off their rear ends with your brichen.
I have an old neighbor who swears the Big Six was the better machine (just like Big Horses and others). He uses it over all the others he has.

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