SE Manitoba | oldtiger - 2/27/2021 22:39
I guess during the course of the day I read and reread a lot of that thread. We run both spring and fall herds, and run a lot of cows by Missouri standards. Fall calvers take weather mostly out of the equation, but require lots of feed when calves get to be eating in the winter. Spring calving is a broad range, which one is it, cold weather or when the grass greens up? For us it's starting Feb 1 with AI hfs, AI cows and cleanup hfs next. We check every 3 hrs or less (around the clock) in really cold weather, less if it's warm. We are lucky with good old facilities, and can pen up lots of cows if weather gets bad. Question is, when is the weather gonna be bad, a week ago like this year, or first week of March like a few years ago. 2 years ago we heard staggering loses from a lot of operations in our area, did good here. We, mostly son in spring, works hard, and the percentage shows it. We run maternal based cows that get the job done, but, things can happen, and the extra attention shows. I guess we are more like Carlson in his approach in this way, If we weren't spending extra time with the cows, we'd just be sitting anyway. I failed to see in any of the posts what the calving percentages were, and I'm guessing all of the hands off guys would say that they are 95-100%,,,first liar wins.
Russ, your posts make sense about 99% of the time, but who the hell beats up a $50000 dollar pickup out in the mud gathering up a chilled calf? Here. it's a $900 truck I got at a farm sale, and the heater doesn't work. Not saying you haven't seen it, but that's dumb for sure. We've all seen plenty of cow guys (well maybe they aren't) that shouldn't have cows.
I guess my take away from the whole thread is,,why can't everybody leave everybody else alone?? If Carlson wants to put the time in, and he has the drive to do it, leave him the hell alone. If whoever else wants to not ever check their cows, don't mean s**t to me, go for it. As usual, somewhere in the middle is most correct, and location makes a HUGE difference. Why does everyone have to get on here and try to convert everyone else over to a different way of thinking?
Well - - - - (quoting part of Carlson's post) "Checking once or twice week, your flipping lazy and lackadaisical! Frick that! I’m a cattle man, I know your full of ****! "
Is sorta easy to get one's hackles up when you read something like this.
I used to think a lot like that and so did almost everyone I knew.
Then I heard of a guy that was trying to calve more with nature - - - he was trying to calve around when grass became available.
We've calved all the way from around Christmas to the late April Mayish time frame now.
If you think that getting up and checking every hour and a half (which I've done for a few years) means that you're a great cattleman - - - more power to you - - - - but it ain't necessarily so!!
I'd tend to very agree with your post but its sorta like when you dump the pot, never mind stir the thing, and then poke fun at it - - - - - - well you're going to get some reaction - - - - and likely not a positive nor an accepting one. |
Calving on large herds Part 2
