Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ahhh chit, here we go.

Calving time is here, back to work!

Had a hunch and found a (recently rejected)twin.


Followed a lone cow that ate for a minute on the chow-line and then headed back towards the trees.

#winning

#notcoyotetreats

🤣

Looks a bit skinny....

Thought maybe that was a new rez dog.

Bottle baby time!

Hope you are well rested.
For now!

Beef futures look great!
So you got that going for you.

It's nice when the juice is worth the squeeze.

I'm going to pay to farm for year #3 in a row looks like.

Good a cattle thread.
"The eye of the master fattens the herd."

If you lose a calf you have a have one.

That'll buy some 9 em em ammo!


Talked to a rancher friend today....he heard bums going for 500 bucks.


5 weights selling for 390.

We have bought calves to put on cows.

Copenhagen?

Sure appears they’re starting to drop over here.

Check out the vacuum cleaner perched on the fence. 😂

They’re as bad as crows, magpies, and coyotes.

Coolio.

First tractor ride!

That twin you brought in doesn't happen to be a heifer does it? Usually in twins, the cow will kick the heifer off, in favor of bull calf if they are born that way. Same sex twins don't seem to be a problem.

I'm done calving, but the last one has needed some help.



Been on the bottle a couple weeks, and still isn't doing great. Vet bill, etc.

I guess as long as he keeps eating, I'll keep fighting for him. But I hope I see some improvement soon. He's got bad days and good days.

Mama is going to the packer when she dries up.

That’s the first picture I’ve ever seen about calving in a short sleeved shirt…

It was damn near 90 here yesterday.

Some winters it doesn't get below freezing here... It did this year though.

In the Bighole valley, they get less than 35 days a year without frost…

It's about time to change my uniform.

Starts to get hot here and I go from Wranglers and boots to shorts and tennis shoes.

Sorry gentlemen, I got distracted shortly after posting.



Rum, hope it pans out for you.



Jim, my mom saw on Facebook $600-700.



Barry, I was lucky enough to see both calves trying to nurse so it was easy to figure out what was going on. The calf I scooped up was a heifer and the other was a bull. Cow sorta came at me when I grabbed the heifer but she soon backed off and stayed with the bull calf.

Sam the ranch has nearly 100 on the ground, heifers are running behind, maybe 8 have come in, long way to go.

I’ve seen where a cow that’s lost a calf will take an off calf but it’s rare. Had one last year do that, otherwise on to the mix bottle for a bit then off to a fellow who keeps guernsey cows for the purpose near here and the orphans go to him to raise.

Osky

LOL... Yeah mama will blow snot at you when you mess with them.

Sam, that heifer calf is most certainly a free martin calf.

It'll always be sterile. Doesn't matter if it's going to the packer anyway, but she wouldn't do to keep for a replacement heifer.


I think I'm going to have to put that calf down this morning that I've been bottling. Losing battle.

Is there no one in your area that keeps some milking mamas to take your cast offs?

Osky

It's not that.

I don't mind the bottle feeding, and have done it in the past, but the calf was in bad shape from the time I penned it and his mama age day 3 of age.

He improved slightly for 2 or 3 days after we did some treatment from the vet's office. But then went downhill again.

Checked early this morning and it can't raise it's head, much less nurse a bottle. Vet pretty much told me it's a losing battle. I agree with him, sadly.

Calves been hitting the ground here since about January 10

then I fairly trouble free year so far. some frostbit ears early on.
last night started a group of first calf heifers with the first one on the ground no problems.
the first calf heifers is the ones I always get worried about. but this group is half beefmaster half Angus heifers bread back to registered beefmaster bull. so caving problems should be minimal if any.

What is the best way to get a cow to take a calf?

Back in the old days, if a cow lost a calf and they had a calf that needed a mama, they would skin the dead calf and drape it over the live one needing a mama, so that she would accept it as her own.

Good luck. What rancher wouldn’t want to know the secret to that Wabi?

Osky

I've heard of, Mother up.

I know an excellent rancher detailed into everything. His first year heifers do incredibly well (angus) as he is careful to put only bulls with about a 70 pound birthweight on them. He also checks the bulls weaning weights and balances the two. Of course the EPD.

Sam I hope it goes smooth for you.

Osky

Do you think it got colostrum from the hefer or will you supplement?

A head catch, a rope to tie a leg back and time.

I've also seen some folks douse the calf and prospective mama's nose with cheap perfume for a few days.
Occasionally, it even worked!

yes watch the numbers and the epds very closely on all bulls anymore.. the little beastmaster breeds have a way of being born light and lanky but growing extremely fast.
I eventually want to get all cows replaced with half or three-quarter beefmaster cows and go back to a Red Angus bull.. that's going to take a few years down the road to get everything replaced though.

Someone. Ed Bruce, Mamas?

They're sure cute when they're young...

This twin was out of a 6 year old cow and I'm 99% sure it nursed when it was born otherwise it might be dead.

But we still gave it a bottle of colostrum.


Lively little 40-50lb heifer calf!

Awesome.

There's been little ones here since end of January or so.

And late fall calves in Nov as I recall.

I never figured these folks out here, I guess they take their chances with the weather for sure. Easy winter here this season, I think the lowest it got was 6F above.

Drives my wife nuts when we go to town and I see little ones out in a pasture. I yell "Babies, I love Babies".

Sorry to hear about your little one Barry, looks like a cute one for sure.

x 2.

BIL, back in the day, ran about 20 head of Holstein milk cows. We had to pen one of them when a birth was due. She had such a strong mothering instinct she would attack the other cow and take the calf as her own.

She was - shall we say - right sporty when we went to seperate her from any of "her" calves.

When she dropped herself, unexpectedly (Jerry goofed the timing), I had a heck of a time finding the calf. She came in at milking time with the others (he had them trained to come when called). Somehow, she either convinced the newborn to go hide about 100 yards outside the pasture fence, or crawled the fence herself, both ways, to drop or hide her calf out there.

Then there was the time a black white-face heifer (Daisy!) didn't come in with the others, so Jerry sent me out on foot to bring her in, knowing she must have dropped during the day. Big pasture, with just one skinny little 20' tree in it.

And boy was I glad it was there!

When I didn't come in in a timely manner, Jerry came out more than an hour later on the saddle horse, looking for the body.... I was still up the tree, and Daisy was still under it, daring me to come down.

Brownie, the saddle horse, once balked at creek edge which she had jumped a few minutes before. I thought that tensing of her muscles meant she was going to jump it again, but I was all wet.

Working summers for Jerry had it's ups and downs.

Good luck with your calvings, guys.