Knock on wood
October 14, 2011
Hey fellow seekers,
Weaning went well in September, and I think part of the secret is starting them on creep feed several weeks ahead of weaning. Our top 74 are healthy and charging the bunk for silage and grain, with a top-dressed grain ration similar to their creep feed delivered three times a day, plus free-choice prairie hay for snacking. We turned back a handful of them to stay with the cows till preg-check last weekend, because they were a little disappointing in size, attitude or both. Hey, we have standards to keep up!
Along with other family cattle, we’ll get up a semi-load bound for Iowa in November. That will leave just 28 replacement heifers in our pen to go through the winter with another 70 from other family members.
Catching cows for preg checking took less than two minutes,although there were a few hours of truck-and-trailer work last weekend. Two of 82 mature cows were open,and the rest are over in our friend Wayne’s world of winter pasture. OK, fall pasture for now, but it will get me into January and give the home place a break before we bring them back to ramp up for calving in the last weeks of winter. We’ll have two, 1,200-lb. hay bales available for each cow as winter gets underway.
Just looking at palpation estimates, I’m optimistic that we got two-thirds of the 45 AI-bred cows to settle. Later this month we’ll preg the 36 heifers. All were AI’d to the same sire as cows here, S A F Connection—although of course this is not meant as an endorsement. We just look for a highly proven bull that complements everything else we’re trying to do here. And what are we trying to do? Build the most predictably profitable and high-quality producing herd possible. We won’t use this bull again after going all in, but certainly look forward to those calves next year—especially the heifers.
We’ve got some good herd bulls, too, and might bid on another so as to rotate an older one out of business. We’ll stay with straight, registered Angus bulls to maintain the highest level of predictability in cow families.
Until next time… let’s aim for profit, target the brand and keep building tomorrow together.
–Steve
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