Fall 08 Calving Results

Help Support Steer Planet:

chambero

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 12, 2007
Messages
3,207
Location
Texas
We've got about a week to go on calving out the majority of our "AI" cows.  I'm probably hexing myself, but things have gone remarkably smooth.  Some observations:

Conception is a little on the low side overall, but mainly on last years first calf heifers, that apparently didn't breed back as quickly as we hoped.  All actually bred back for us in 90 days(which was a first), but its looking like a lot of them were to our cleanup bulls.

This is the first year we used Heat Wave.  We bred 17 mature cows to him and have eight babies so far (a couple were bred a few weeks after the others and aren't due yet).  I guess we got lucky, but if anything the babies have been on the small side.  My guess is the fact that our cows run on grass on not much else (at least since winter) probably accounts for it.  Better yet, all but two are bull calves.

We've got five Jimmy the Greek calves that look really nice for babies.  No trouble out of him either.

Our biggest calf has been a Yellow Jacket out of a Cunia grandaughter.  Cow had him unassisted though.  He's going to be our trouble maker though.  I saw him laying out next to one of our stock tanks and thought he was dead.  I went and woke him up.  He proceeded to charge me (at 4 days old), knocked me down, and then proceeded to take off through the shallow end of the tank where he proceeded to bog down.  I wade out to him and pull him out, and then I nearly had to be pulled out myself.  I guess his mom had already given him the coyote speech.  My wife laughed at me for an hour.  This calf already looks the part.

We used Rocky Balboa and Tyson on some heifers and young cows were worried about calving ease on.  One calf out of each from young cows and both were just fine size wise.  Heifers bred to them haven't calved yet.

Golden Child has done fine again.  Five calves and no issues.  We have a real pretty spotted heifer out of him.

Our biggest calf out of everything was an Angus-sired calf out of a heifer.  We gave up on the pull and took her to the vet.  Vet was able to get it pulled (head was really hard to get positioned right), but calf still hasn't stood up yet.  He was a big one (out of a Playmate grandaughter).

That's the only assisted birth we've had so far.  Good thing, because I broke my left arm a week ago falling down the bleachers at a football game.

I'll get some photos up one of these days.

 

farmboy

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 21, 2007
Messages
5,652
Location
south webster ohio
sounds good, looking forward to pics

chambero said:
Good thing, because I broke my left arm a week ago falling down the bleachers at a football game.

I'll get some photos up one of these days.

:D
 

CAB

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
5,607
Location
Corning,Iowa
  Hope that you get a chance to take some pics and get'em up soon thanks for the update on the calving ease of some of the bulls. We used to calve about a fourth of our cows in the fall and seemed to have very little troubles. Is there anything that would indicate easier calving in the fall months? Brent
 

BIGTEX

Well-known member
Joined
May 7, 2008
Messages
1,091
Location
North Texas
I think I've heard that spring calves will weigh 50 lbs. more than the same calf if it had been born in the fall. Maybe our harsh conditions in June and July kept the birth weight down a little. Just a guess.
 

RSC

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 30, 2007
Messages
1,998
Location
Shelby, NE
Our biggest calf has been a Yellow Jacket out of a Cunia grandaughter.  Cow had him unassisted though.  He's going to be our trouble maker though.  I saw him laying out next to one of our stock tanks and thought he was dead.  I went and woke him up.  He proceeded to charge me (at 4 days old), knocked me down, and then proceeded to take off through the shallow end of the tank where he proceeded to bog down.  I wade out to him and pull him out, and then I nearly had to be pulled out myself.  I guess his mom had already given him the coyote speech.  My wife laughed at me for an hour.  This calf already looks the part.


  Good thing, because I broke my left arm a week ago falling down the bleachers at a football game.




[/quote]

You always seem to have one born that acts like that to give you something to challange you,  looking forward to pictures.

Hope your arm heals quickly.  Could be challanging come breeding season with a broken arm.

RSC
 

chambero

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 12, 2007
Messages
3,207
Location
Texas
Well, we finally had that big Heatwave calf yesterday.  It came a flood on us Wednesday and we couldn't get into the pastures to check cattle.  My father-in-law found a cow in trouble yesterday morning.  I'd guess she started trying to have him on Wednesday.  I got home and got the calf pulled (something else I found out I can do one handed).  Calf was dead but momma is fine.  Wasn't that hard of a pull, she just couldn't get the head out on her own.  We didn't weight him, but he was probably well over 100 lbs.  If we had done our job the baby would have been fine too.

On a positive note, we had a beautiful heifer calf out of Rocky Balboa born from a Kadabra-sired heifer yesterday.  She is a nice one. 
 

kane1598

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 9, 2007
Messages
897
Chambero, what ever  happened to the Lights Out calf you had last year?  How is he turning out?
 

chambero

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 12, 2007
Messages
3,207
Location
Texas
He's doing pretty well, but he's a little too tall, hard made, and high flanked.  His 25% Charolais blood is coming out in him a little too much.  The calf has alot of muscle for a shorthorn steer down here, but he just doesn't quite put it all together good enough.  We are working on getting him as absolutely fat as possible.  He might do fine as a slick shear calf, but if all goes according to plan we won't need him for one of our majors.  He'll taste good if nothing else.

032608Photos023.jpg

Photo from back in May or June.

DSC_0021.jpg


DSC_0020.jpg


Photos from our Belt Buckle Bonanza show.
 

chambero

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 12, 2007
Messages
3,207
Location
Texas
P9010298.jpg


Golden Child heifer calf out of a Meyer grandaughter.  She looks like she's gonna be a good one for this age.

P9010300.jpg


Yellow Jacket bull calf, moments before going and getting himself stuck in the mud around the tank in the background.  He didn't stick around for a good picture.

P9010294.jpg


Rocky Balboa bull calf next to his momma.  He's changed a lot since this photo two weeks ago and looks very nice.  We just had a jet black heifer out of Rocky Balboa and a Kadabra heifer that is probably the best looking heifer calf we've ever had this young.  I haven't gotten her pictured yet.
 

SKF

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 24, 2007
Messages
1,057
They look like really nice calves. I especially love the Golden Child heifer!!!
 
Top