Sucklers anyone miss them ?

Wolds Beef · May 10, 2022

@jamesy Have you had problems? I understand you lost a LR breeder and his partner on the island a few weeks ago, very sad and tragic.. Back to the subject, what breeding was he? What proportion of the herd have you had problems with? I am calving 24 cows this year at present(This will jinx it) 22 calved, only 1 helped, 1 born dead(Calf was not right, stub of a tail and inerds were wrong.) 20 calved naturally and with no assistance and 2 to calve.
WB

Wolds Beef · May 10, 2022

@M-J-G Depends on the breeding and management like all cattle but I am sorry to hear he had problems. How large were the heifers and how old?
WB
Tears!! We all have tears with our cattle!!

britishblue · May 10, 2022

I have been moving from Lim x cows with BB bull to Saler cows with BB bull. Calving has been a dream but the temperament of some of the cows has been a problem. Some there was just no way you could get near them to tag etc. Using a lot less iodine as I don.t want to get caught when my back is turned to the cow.
Just been thinking of buying a shorthorn bull to cross with saler to see if that makes a quieter cow while still retaining easy calving traits. It's not easy and my sympathies when you have a bad calving. I think we have all been there!

Woolless · May 10, 2022

britishblue said:
I have been moving from Lim x cows with BB bull to Saler cows with BB bull. Calving has been a dream but the temperament of some of the cows has been a problem. Some there was just no way you could get near them to tag etc. Using a lot less iodine as I don.t want to get caught when my back is turned to the cow.
Just been thinking of buying a shorthorn bull to cross with saler to see if that makes a quieter cow while still retaining easy calving traits. It's not easy and my sympathies when you have a bad calving. I think we have all been there!

I haven't had much to do with Shorthorns but if temperament is the issue, then a Hereford might be your best bet? @Chae1 I think has experience of this combination.

Sharpy · May 10, 2022

britishblue said:
I have been moving from Lim x cows with BB bull to Saler cows with BB bull. Calving has been a dream but the temperament of some of the cows has been a problem. Some there was just no way you could get near them to tag etc. Using a lot less iodine as I don.t want to get caught when my back is turned to the cow.
Just been thinking of buying a shorthorn bull to cross with saler to see if that makes a quieter cow while still retaining easy calving traits. It's not easy and my sympathies when you have a bad calving. I think we have all been there!

We have dolly mixture cows here, no rhyme or reason to calm cows at calving. Self locking feed barriers are a godsend. Yoke cows in pen, walk in, see to calf, walk out, release head yokes. Same technique to separate calfs for dehorning, teaching where creep is etc. Makes a lot of jobs safe and easy.

Vader · May 10, 2022

hendrebc said:
No but a lot easier to find natives that are easy to look after than continentals in my experience.
*Apart from Welsh blacks they can f**k off

Any continentals that have problems you cull out. Breed own

M-J-G said:
Maybe big arsed extreme continental types.
I think a lot of people don't really follow much logic when keeping cows, keeping big arsed cows that are more mucular than many bulls isn't generally clever.

A cow should look like a cow and be feminine, if you want fancy calves, add it in with the bull if you must, but people want to keep these fancy things as cows, which isn't ideal IMO.

I regularly see cases on FB where Lim x BB x Blonde heifers is advertised for sale, and some cretin comments saying that she'll make "some cow" and then some other clown bids her up to 5 grand to cut show calves out the side of her.

We always kept the best big arsed heifers for breeding.
Goto piedmontese for easy first calf, then use blonde bull.
Hardly ever had to cut a cow open.
Main trouble i see is ppl bull to soon, heifer dont grow big enough.
We never bull till 2 year old.
Make big cows so can deal with calfing ok.

gatepost · May 10, 2022

No is the simple answer, I had cows all through after leaving collage until about 10 years ago, multiple suckling, then single when the calf export went silly, BBx cows cross with a blonde then lim, angus on all heifers, all by AI, anyhow which ever way I added it up, waste of time and a bit of an expensive ego trip for my one sale day a year, never been so well off since they left, but I still miss seeing those young calves, however I make do buying and selling a few stores, much better.

onthehoof · May 10, 2022

britishblue said:
I have been moving from Lim x cows with BB bull to Saler cows with BB bull. Calving has been a dream but the temperament of some of the cows has been a problem. Some there was just no way you could get near them to tag etc. Using a lot less iodine as I don.t want to get caught when my back is turned to the cow.
Just been thinking of buying a shorthorn bull to cross with saler to see if that makes a quieter cow while still retaining easy calving traits. It's not easy and my sympathies when you have a bad calving. I think we have all been there!

I was thinking about buying pure Saler heifers as replacements, was asking breeder about temperament, he said they were a lovely quiet bunch but had to have a radial tb test over summer and they got a bit upset and now can't get near them, so had a rethink

JMTHORNLEY · May 10, 2022

Pan mixer said:
I would miss them, they are my friends.

Me to I love my cows and know each one of them by name and appearance. I don't keep lot's of cattle as it really is a hobby for me. Yes a very expensive and very time consuming hobby but I'd be lost without my girls, they've seen me through some sh!t times and always been glad I've had them to sit and view on a warm July evening and just watch the time go by. I'm lucky in that respect.

I have Shorthorns here and bull with a Blue or Sim. Works fantastically well

steveR · May 10, 2022

Northeastfarmer said:
I doubt anyone misses keeping cows when you’ve got shot

I did about 12-14 years ago.

Took about 20 months and then Herself and I "went to look" at as Hereford show and sale...

Big mistake all round, although we still have the He Bull we got out of one of the cows!!

Missed the cattle a lot (at the time) and the farm felt dead walking around fields of Hay or winter tack sheep. No swallows as no flies off the cowpats.

Right now, I'll be happy to see the cows gone. They were described to me as "largely, an expensive hobby" by a long dead ex-pat Canadian beef farmer, with many years of experience here in the UK! I suspect, he was and still is, right. Except for the odd, really good producer.

jed · May 10, 2022

The only thing different this year to previous is we changed the bull if the cows stay the bull will be going .
As for getting more sheep I’ve got too many of them already .
No two years are the same and maybe a good job .
I take it if I sacked them off I would be looking at more tax as I’m selling an asset or could I just roll it over into more weanlings?

JMTHORNLEY · May 10, 2022

jed said:
The only thing different this year to previous is we changed the bull if the cows stay the bull will be going .
As for getting more sheep I’ve got too many of them already .
No two years are the same and maybe a good job .
I take it if I sacked them off I would be looking at more tax as I’m selling an asset or could I just roll it over into more weanlings?

I had a terrible year calving last year but I put that down to a one off as these things happen.

Yes just roll the money into weanlings and 'move' the asset as such

Oldmacdonald · May 10, 2022

Vader said:
Main trouble i see is ppl bull to soon, heifer dont grow big enough.
We never bull till 2 year old.
Make big cows so can deal with calfing ok.

Calving at 2 is only a problem with poor breeding and management.

jamesy · May 10, 2022

Wolds Beef said:
@jamesy Have you had problems? I understand you lost a LR breeder and his partner on the island a few weeks ago, very sad and tragic.. Back to the subject, what breeding was he? What proportion of the herd have you had problems with? I am calving 24 cows this year at present(This will jinx it) 22 calved, only 1 helped, 1 born dead(Calf was not right, stub of a tail and inerds were wrong.) 20 calved naturally and with no assistance and 2 to calve.
WB

He was with 12 home bred simx heifers that were out of two different sim bulls. One of them calved herself. I’m happy enough with the calf’s.

Like I say, he’ll just get cows this year and my heifers will go to Simmy bulls as I would normally do.

As for the first part of your post, yes a tragic shame.

Wolds Beef · May 10, 2022

@jamesy Was that who you bought him from? Do you know his breeding? I am sorry you had so much trouble as LR are normally easy calving. Did they go over there due date or you like me and have know idea of gestation length.
WB

jamesy · May 10, 2022

Wolds Beef said:
@jamesy Was that who you bought him from? Do you know his breeding? I am sorry you had so much trouble as LR are normally easy calving. Did they go over there due date or you like me and have know idea of gestation length.
WB

No, he came from mainland Scotland. No idea really about due date. It’s just one of those things. I was just pointing out that native breeds do not necessarily go hand in hand with easy calving

Wolds Beef · May 10, 2022

Do you Know the Prefix and name of the Bull as I can find the breeding for you? If you have his details I can look on Grassroots which will give me a clue.
WB

Timbo · May 10, 2022

Vader said:
Main trouble i see is ppl bull to soon, heifer dont grow big enough.
We never bull till 2 year old.
Make big cows so can deal with calfing ok.

Cant agree sorry. Correct breeding feeding and management.

In calf at 15 months, natural birth at term, milk well, have condition, and are back in calf again 3-4m later.

Vader · May 10, 2022

Timbo said:
Cant agree sorry. Correct breeding feeding and management.

In calf at 15 months, natural birth at term, milk well, have condition, and are back in calf again 3-4m later.

What breed?

Oldmacdonald · May 10, 2022

Timbo said:
Cant agree sorry. Correct breeding feeding and management.

In calf at 15 months, natural birth at term, milk well, have condition, and are back in calf again 3-4m later.

Same.

Stabilisers here.

Sucklers anyone miss them ?

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Up to 25%

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100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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