A few cow pics

[220]

Put a load of these boys on the truck to market yesterday.
Aug/Sept calves with our harsh by Australian standard winters we always have a feed shortage. Best option for us is to sell as weaner cattle in autumn to lower feed demand and let someone else grow them out.


Took a pic of this old girl as I was letting them out of the yards, she is 12yo and in calf with her 11th calf. No free rides for the girls they get pregnancy tested every year and those not in calf sold. Usually sell them at 10yo but with drought and bushfires we had lower than expected conception rates last year so she stayed, still trying to increase breeding numbers so she is staying for another year.

[RanchRoper]

Good pics, thanks.

[JEBar]

nice indeed .... thanks for the pictures and info

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

Nice pics and nice old cow. Why at 10? Teeth legs udder what breaks down - that 12 year old looks good to me. It is sensible to send them down the road if open. Some producers I know run both spring and fall calving herds to give a cow a second shot and hit a different market - it does depend on your production environment though. Have you ever figured out pounds of calf weaned per cow exposed?

-Ed-

[BrokenolMarine]

Our cow is due in nov... We just have the one milker. Two and a half to Three gallons a day.

[220]

Hey All,

Nice pics and nice old cow. Why at 10? Teeth legs udder what breaks down - that 12 year old looks good to me. It is sensible to send them down the road if open. Some producers I know run both spring and fall calving herds to give a cow a second shot and hit a different market - it does depend on your production environment though. Have you ever figured out pounds of calf weaned per cow exposed?

-Ed-

By 10 a cows best years are usually behind her, there are exceptions and the girl in the picture is one for sure. The other thing is your best genetics should be in younger cattle if you are selectively culling replacements based on their performance. Makes sense to try and keep the average age younger as they should be more productive.
Most years we get 90-95% conception, we sell those not in calf so nearly 100% marking. 98% marking this year so it would be over 600lbs weaned per cow.
Selling calves when we do greatly simplifies weaning, they come straight off the cows and onto the truck, only weaning is the replacement females we keep.
Those sold today made $1652/hd very happy with that for Aug/Sept calves.

[220]

Thought I might as well put this one here I know its not a cow
Found it driving around Saturday, 6 weeks early for joining so one of the boys got to her somehow

[JEBar]

nice looking stock .... they both look to be very healthy

[220]

With the cattle market very strong at present I sold some calves yesterday. If I was happy with last years result I am ecstatic with yesterday.
I over estimated their weight thinking they would average 280kg (617lbs) but they only went 259kg (570lbs) still at 775c/kg came back at over $2000/hd. Unreal for 6/7month old calves.

Converted to US dollars it is about $1450/hd or over $2.50/lb on the hoof.

Sheep are meant to be lambing presently although off to a slow start, I snapped a pic of a couple of the girls yesterday. A 5 week joining so they could have a month to go but I dont think it will be that long for this pair

[dave77]

No doubt that those sheep are pregnant. My limited experience with goats is that they don't get nearly as big. I didn't even know my first one was expecting until I looked out the window one morning and saw a baby goat. Even Brownie who had 3 (first was stillborn and then 2 healthy babies) didn't look that big.

Funny, your photos only show up as "image" for me. I have to right click on the text and select "open image in a new tab to see them".