I heard something very interesting the other day. I had a neighbor preg check his replacement heifers and ended up with 22% drys. Well over normal for them just like my 24% dry was well over for me. Now I really wonder why my neighbor, over 10 miles and 3 herds away, would have about the same dry percentage as me?
This is really curious. Maybe there is a deeper mystery here. I will have to find out how other people's heifers did in this area. Maybe I don't have as big as problem as I thought. Maybe it's sunspots or aliens or smoke in the air causing the problem. It will be interesting to find out some other people's percentage.
The next question is, will this continue through to the cows? Damn, too many questions and not enough answers.
A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy? Albert Einstein
Related tags
cows farming hired hand markets pairs picture preg check question ranch replacement heife weather wetThursday, September 13. 2007
Heard
Wednesday, May 16. 2007
Drys

Wednesday, April 25. 2007
When it Rains, It Pours
On Monday we got over an inch of rain. Last year I would have given anything for moisture, so far this spring I am getting more than enough. I rode across my plowed field that I want to seed to grass and my horse was sinking in about a foot and there was water standing in the field. You never see water standing in a plowed field around here. When I will get the seeding done is beyond me.
I've about got the cows straightened out finally. All the cows with calves hopefully will be in the hills after today and everything without a calf, at this point I call them all drys but it is not true, will be in a separate pasture gaining weight so I can sell them. Some of the "drys" will still calve yet and make the cut to stay on the place but it is nice to get them sorted out. Between the dry year last year and the late snow storm I have more critters in the "dry" pasture than I would like. That means fewer calves to sell come fall especially since I will have to keep more replacement heifers to try to build my herd up.
If it isn't one thing it is another. Damn the luck.
Most of us regard good luck as our right, and bad luck as a betrayal of that right. William Feather
I've about got the cows straightened out finally. All the cows with calves hopefully will be in the hills after today and everything without a calf, at this point I call them all drys but it is not true, will be in a separate pasture gaining weight so I can sell them. Some of the "drys" will still calve yet and make the cut to stay on the place but it is nice to get them sorted out. Between the dry year last year and the late snow storm I have more critters in the "dry" pasture than I would like. That means fewer calves to sell come fall especially since I will have to keep more replacement heifers to try to build my herd up.
If it isn't one thing it is another. Damn the luck.
Most of us regard good luck as our right, and bad luck as a betrayal of that right. William Feather
Wednesday, May 10. 2006
To Market
About a month ago I talked about kicking the last of the pairs out to pasture. I then kicked everything that didn't have a calf on it into another pasture to get them off the alfalfa fields. There was some that could calve yet in the bunch along with stuff that was dry or lost calves. I wanted the dry stuff to gain some weight and the heavy ones to calves before I sent them to market. It worked.
I gained another almost 30 calves and have a semi load of nice fat drys on the market for sale. Things are going great and the big branding is coming up soon. Now if I could just get a good feel for the new hired man everything would be great. While gathering this bunch of cattle he got bucked off his horse twice and this horse has never once bucked since I've had him. We will see.
It is wise to keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final. Roger Babson
(Page 1 of 1, totaling 4 entries)