Wolds Beef
Member
Timeline of a Pedigree Lincoln Red!! Born 11.15am Up 11.30am Sucking with no assistance by 13.15pm. Cost effective calving!!
WB
WB
Is there any future in suckler cows ?
- Thread starter ges
- Start date
M-J-G
Member
Why did it take it so long to suck?
Wolds Beef
Member
Mother is heifer and kept presenting the wrong end!!
WB
WB
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M-J-G
Member
Bad mother, that's the LR out the window for me
Wolds Beef
Member
No!! Not a bad mother just a stupid Heifer!. I would guess what ever breed you would get that.
WB
WB
- Location
- Hereford
Not sure why we have more passengers. Our cows are either rearing calves or back in calf so all doing a job . Calf all year round cos I've always done it and it suits me .
Don t bother with costings. I seem to do alright and I don't think i can do it any cheaper without compromising the quality of the calves .
- Location
- Hereford
We found that we coukd buy in weaned 'bucket ' calves for around £350 to £375 at 4 to 5 mths old . Got a good supplier . We go to his yard and pick out what we want and he delivers them . Usually an equal mix of steers and heifers .
M-J-G
Member
I'm guessing @Farmer Fin is suggesting that AYR calving gives scope to carry passengers because there aren't as many deadlines to meet.
In the system you describe it's not really difficult to have all cows either carrying or rearing a calf, as long as they are served before weaning. Which should be easy considering they always have access to the bull, which makes getting a barren cow quite difficult.
Do you know what your calving index is?
Don't you get heifer calves served with the bulls and entire calves running with them?
M-J-G
Member
OMG stupid too, unbelievable!!
Have you changed over to working for the competition pointing out all these negatives about LRs.
Wolds Beef
Member
Devil's advocate
Member
- Location
- Posh side of Barnsley
I've worked most types of farming.
I certainly know veg growers who have suffered from frost bite in the harder winters of the past. I myself ended up in quite a state doing a 36 hour shift harvesting Xmas sprouts, including 14 hours of a damp frost working in the dark.
On the other hand vegetables don't attack the growers. If stock are dying of hypothermia or starvation, may be time to plant trees.
We really as farmers should not be critical of each other & if we think the grass is greener. Well sell up & buy a different type of farm
M-J-G
Member
Yes, of course I am, I have a soft spot for the LR. Good cattle.
- Location
- Hereford
No official calving index but just went through my records and over the last 6 yrs all my cows have consistently calved within 12 months of previous calving . ... having said that I keep a very strict record on when cows are bulling and if they are seen bulling a third time then they are removed from the bull and put into the cull field, though this is very rare ,and immediately replaced with another in calf cow which will be purchased from one of the local markets or off SML.
All bull calves are weaned at 6 mths or very close to and shut inside and then go onto a rolled Barley mix. Which I grow myself . Heifers go inside for 3 weeks and then out onto another farm .
M-J-G
Member
Don't you find yourself handling cattle a lot, if you're calving all the time you'll be weaning all the time, pd'ing etc.
Don't mean to question, I'm just used to doing everything at once, so I'm curious.
beefandsleep
Member
- Location
- Staffordshire
Frequent handling probably makes the job easier and the cattle quieter. You must practically live with them. Fair play but all year round calving sucklers wouldn’t be for me, though I do enjoy working cattle.
- Location
- Devon
Wolds Beef
Member
M-J-G
Member
I don't have any LR myself.
Wolds Beef
Member
Ohhh.!! I can not like that!
WB
WB
- Location
- Hereford
Weaning calves is easy . Shut them in the creep feeder when they go in, back up with trailer and take off to shed at farm . All my cattle are fed out of a bag with a bit of rolled barley dribbled along the ground at least 3 times a week purely for the reason of cattle management . You only you have to stand at the gate and rattle a bag and they come running . I have purpose built holding pens between some fields where I can easily get cattle in just by following a bag .
Pd'ing is not that necessary as I keep a record of which cows are bulling and when and, like I said previously, if they are seen bulling 3 times then they are moved to another patch away from the bull left to rear their calf then they are gone (they are Pd tested before leaving just in case I have got it wrong )
I'm happy to be questioned as there's are probably not many do it my way but it works for me and there is ,in my book, nothing more satisfying than sitting in the truck at half 5 or 6 in the morning watching the cows . You see so much! . As I posted earlier it is surprising how quite a few of the cows calve quite close together, i.e. we have had 9 calves in the past week and 7 of them bulls .
TB'ing is our biggest headache. We have 3 tests coming up and it's a lot of work moving the kit around but because I spend a lot of time with the cattle they are very quiet and it usually goes smoothly ......it's me that usually upsets the job!!