Cold one last night

[J-L]

Not a good night calving last night. Sky cleared off and the mercury dropped to 6 or 7 (hard to tell on the old thermometer). Had five calves in the night, only two of which will still have full ears. Froze one to the ground. Wind has blown all day again, but seems like it’ll be warmer tonight (I hope).
Brought one calf down from top of the place and grafted her on to a new mama. Her mother is one of my uncles’ old cows that I tried to get him to ship last fall. Not a tooth in her head, ain’t got a drop of milk. Jerked the hide off the dead calf and put it on this heifer calf. Ran the new mama in the stall with her and it was love at first sight. Will pull the hide off at daylight and kick them out. Works every time.
Had an interesting conversation with a neighbor about grafting calves. He won’t skin one, takes too long he says (only takes me 15 minutes). Gives the cow a shot of Rompun, rubs perfume in her nose, hobbles the cow, leaves her in the stall with the new baby for 2 or 3 days (sometimes up to a week) and whacks the cow with a pitchfork handle whenever she kicks at the new calf. Whew, sounds like somebody ought to sharpen their knife and save some time.
Over the years I tried all the gimmicks, the only way thats worked consistently for me is using the hide off the dead calf.
Funny thing happened, I had just talked to Jonathan Lawton on the phone about snorty Angus cows. Had one submarine my horse today while I was tagging another cows calf. Jonathan if you read this, breed some more Hereford and keep those cows tame.

[sickle hocks]

Funny, that’s the second time I’ve heard about the calf skin trick in as many days. Folks seemed to use hairspray out here quite a bit. Don’t know if you can even buy hairspray anymore. Anyway, I’ll file the calf skin method away in my head for when it’s needed.

It’s easier for me not having as many, I can baby them some. Had one in the cabin with me by the woodstove one night a few weeks ago. Didn’t bother me much, but the dog was a bit put out about it.

[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!

[near horse]

Wes – you should be seeing some snow soon enough. We got 8-10 inches in the last 12-24 hrs. Could’ve been more if the snow wasn’t so wet.

The grafting technique you use has saved a lot of orphaned calves and lambs.

All the best with calving. It always seemed like animals ready to give birth would linger on until there was some change in the weather (usually for the worse), then it was Katy bar the door!

[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.

[near horse]

Wes – do you try and have your heifers calve at a different time (earlier or later) than your cows? How many heifers do you carry each year? They seem to be the real issue with all that first timer stuff.

[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.

[near horse]

Yeah, I always wonder about how people make marketing/management decisions. It seems that when prices are good do you retain fewer and take advantage of prices and wait to grow your herd more or do you make the decision to grow and then go with it, regardless of prices. That doesn’t even consider the disease issue you experienced – sometimes “poker” looks like an easier, less stressful way to make a living.

[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.

[mink]

j-l on an average year how many calves does a big beef ranch out there lose ? it seems like out west all the ranches calve outside , well the beef is outside year around i guess . here in new york we have mostly holstein dairys , so most all the calves are born inside . then after the calve dries off and has colustrum they go outside into calf hutches . they claim the fresh air is a healthier enviroment compared to the barns.

[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.

[near horse]

Also- the fresh air thing is a good idea. Barns easily can quickly become “pneumonia chambers” with inadequate ventilation. It’s amazing how much moisture is exhaled by animals – a recipe for respiratory trouble.

IME, a 5% death loss is close to standard (not including the weather related ones).

[J-L]

You’re right on the mark Geoff.

[Author]

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