We put bulls out on heifers for 60 days, then preg check as soon as possible and sell the open cattle. 60 days may seem like a short time, but it has been my experience that if they don't breed in that time frame as heifers, they will be slow breeders the rest of their life. We were also out of grass and water until last week, and needed them off the payroll. 12 inches of rain the next day!!! It saved us from total ruin.
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| Bred cows got shots and fly tags |
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| Boredom at the cut gate |
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| It's a dirty job, but.... |
Never a dull moment. We preg the heifers in 2 weeks. Would have done it sooner, but time scheduling! Moving cows here, bulls there. We leave the bulls in with our heifers for 33 days. And leave the bulls in with the cows for 62 days. Get rid of the ones you who are wasting resources! We were thinking of doing the blood test. But I don't think it would work for us. 28 days, then again in 28 days. Not with this many cattle. Have you had any experience with the blood testing? If so, how was it?
ReplyDeleteNo experience with the blood test yet. Our vet is as good as I've ever seen on these light bred cattle. If he has a question on a few, we haul them to town for a sonogram. Getting our cattle to a set of pens is quite a chore sometimes, I wouldn't want to do it twice.
ReplyDeleteRight. It is a chore. Down right pain in the butt! Our vet is pretty great too. If we have any "accidents". And we usually do. Like the bulls get in too early or get back in after we've pulled them. He can tell if they will be early or late. And then we sell them also. Its so nice having a short calving season. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel! We used to have a 60 day breeding with the heifers, and a 75 with the cows. But we had so many dinks. It took a few years to cut it down. But its been worth it. Nice uniform set of calves.
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