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Calving on large herds
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Russ In Idaho
Posted 2/27/2021 05:55 (#8860939 - in reply to #8860444)
Subject: Hold on a minute carlson,......


“These are the times that try men's souls.”
Carlson every outfit is different, you can't paint everything with a broad brush. Totally different calving on stocks or hay pastures vs. out on my ranges. You would need a helicopter to check our cattle everyday. No way in heck you could even drive a 4-wheeler to check all of them. Second no way if you started at daylight to dawn to see every cow in a day, it's not going to happen. The only thing I have even close to main ranch right now is first calf heifers, they are 1 1/2 miles from the house on grass, sage brush pasture. We supplement feed them hay to bring them into feed grounds, only check twice a day morning and late afternoon or right at dark. We just so happened to get a blizzard roll in right close to dark last night here, it was a white out for 30 minutes. We saw two heifers starting so we went back 30 minutes later they had calves up on feet going. But kind of let them do their thing.

We try our best to grow them, not over feed, plenty of exercise, low birth weight bulls. Try to cull crazy heifers out long before calving time, also don't run them with older cows. If we run into problems we can adjust and bring heifers right by house to a calving yard with pen set up. I've calved both ways you can have a lot of freak deals happen and lose a calf, I've been right there watching a cow calve out of my office window. Cow dropped calf it was in a storm right on straw plie, got to calf in less than 3-5 minutes deader than dead. Wasn't no saving him. I've ran a dairy and shed calved on nice straw. Had just as many cows lay on calves after birth to trying to protect them as calves get froze some years.

A person can throw the argument out to hire seasonal labor to calve, yes you can but what kind of help are you getting? I'm betting I've seen it all from good cowboys that know cattle, to those that just wear a hat. At the end of the day that labor has a fixed cost and a damn big variable cost that most times doesn't justify the expense. Damn hard to find a guy that can pull calf, mother it, know right way to treat or save it. Let alone a guy that can put a prolapse back right in if needed. I start putting a dollar cost on housing, vehicle, wages, benefits, etc. I'm better off losing a couple of calves than paying for seasonal help.

Plus if your family is all set up to handle other chores around the farm, feedlot, etc. you can only take away from those tasks so much. Everyone's deal is different, you need to do a cost benefit analysis. I will agree to try and raise every animal you can, but I've seen ranches that will leave a doggie calf to die. Not us, we try to save them all. But if calf has too severe health problems, i.e.. deformities, etc. we will put it down. I've raised calves that hindsight I should have put them down at birth.

I've seen guys that destroy $50,000 trucks checking and taking every calf to hot box on a pasture deal close to house calving 100 cow deal outfits. Tell me where that pays? let alone buy a $15,00 UTV to tear up checking calves. Don't get me wrong, I own most all that equipment we use it in a times when needed. But a person really needs to run the business and maximize profits and cut expenses. Just drive 30 miles in my area and every operation has different constraints to deal with. We are blessed to have a area to winter graze and calve in, over 150,000 acres with our neighbors. I'm telling you we are lucky to just get water checked in the week. I will put our labor costs to live calf ratios up against anyone's numbers. This ground isn't good for anything else, but we sure can raise calves in the spring. But you have to be off it come May.
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