Calving time is here again

bordercollie

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I captured this picture of our nurse cow's calf in the flowerbed today. Bordercollie
 

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bordercollie

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ahhh ... Supper at last

Suppertime and then bath time or vice versa.... Life is good ....Bordercolliie
 

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MBDiagMan

E-5, US Army 1968 to 1971
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Most folks in this part of the country do Spring or early Winter calving. I've never been a proponent of that myself. When I had cattle, I planned so that calves hit the ground in the fall. It gave me a much better yearling to take to the sale come the following Fall.

That's a nice looking pair. I'm also partial to floppy ears.
 

bordercollie

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Thanks, We raise a few Jerseys in order to have nurse cows for twins etc and to have gomers for heat detection of the Angus we A.I. We have a closed herd now so have to raise our own everything. So many different things out there that can be transmitted so nothing is on the place that we haven't raised for about 10 years now.. Bordercollie
 

bordercollie

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That wasn't very clear-sorry. What I meant was animal wise on the raising our own. We buy the feed by the 18 wheeler load and includes DDG (dried distillers grains) , cotton moat, cotton seed hulls, corn gluten etc. Bordercollie
 

EastTexFrank

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Most folks in this part of the country do Spring or early Winter calving. I'm also partial to floppy ears.

That's us. We like to see ours hit the ground in early spring. Trying to keep those young calves through the winter, even in East Texas, can be kind of tough. You only need to lose a couple for it to hit your bottom line.
 

MBDiagMan

E-5, US Army 1968 to 1971
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I never had any trouble with losing calves in the Winter, but I always had them on the ground before Thanksgiving. I have several loafing sheds for protection from the North wind and from precipitation. They are arranged with no West wall so they can get as much Sunlight as possible to kill bacteria. I worked pretty hard at keeping the sheds and pens cleaned out and sanitary as possible.

Everyone has their own way of making things work I guess. I got the Fall calving habit from my Grand Dad who was further South in the Hill country with a little milder Winters. I also got the sanitation obsession from him. He always seemed to be raising a few calves on a nurse cow in a shed with Sunlight exposure. His philosophy was that it was all about sanitation and preventing bacterial growth.

All that said, Spring calving is probably the safe play though, and you're right about the loss of a calf or two. The margin is so thin that it's hard to make it up.
 
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