|
| I put bulls in to start calving the first of March, will be mostly all calved out by May 1. We leave bulls in cows till we bring cows off higher country, around middle Sept. No need to have them home tearing things up. We will preg. check main bunch of cows in Oct. All open cows will be pulled, either fed for markets to pick up or sold at that time. Never had over 10% old & open cows at preg. check time, usually a 50/50 deal. I will sometimes put bulls back out to graze alfalfa stubble pastures w/ confirmed bred cows in late fall. After preg. check, it will tell you if you had a trich. problem. But never with any open or unpreg. cows. Will then bring bulls back to ranch Trich. test in winter, at that time they are kept separate from any cows till spring turn out.
As far as yearling heifers, I bull them up two cycles with low birth weight bulls. Then they are turned with older cows. Then in Fall when preg. checking anything out of time frame will be tagged to be sold or tagged to be watched at calving. As of today this year, my heifers are at 75% calved out, 16 days into the first cycle. Why mess with A.I. when you can do that? Usually get 85% calves on first cycle for heifers, all finished by end of second cycle.
My comment about light calves in earlier post, might have been taken wrong. We run in real rough country, probably not as rough as some of MarkWright country. So the first calf heifers calves will sometimes come in 100 lighter than older cows calves. We group them together, sell light grass contracts. When you can sell 460 wt. steers for $1.46, why do I need to press for a 550 wt. calf? Usually market bigger steers at 580 wts. and 650 wts. to 700 wts. for cows that run in better higher mountain pastures.
Granted pounds always sell, you need to maximize returns. That's why we pool calves and sell light & heavy contracts. We don't sell just one weight w/slide. As MarkWright will tell you, these ranches out west running on desert country can be very profitable. Yes, they sell light calves but they run cows cheap. Your net return is far greater than a cow having to be fed 6-7 months out of the year on hay. It's not what you make on calves, it's what you put in your pocket after it's all said and done. | |
|
How long do you leave your bulls in?
