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| Fall - 2004 | We had an awesome summer best since the beginning of 7P Ranch, with moisture and moderate temperatures. Our coastal was overseeded in October after closely grazing or after cutting it for hay. We use a 12 ft. no till drill for our maton rye and put our tam 90 out after October 15 with our fertilizer. Funny thing happened this fall much moisture and late warm weather caused the coastal to grow like crazy, so we had to graze this down but by so doing the rye grass was eaten down with the coastal. Actually our fertilizer was used on our coastal and not as much for our winter rye. The cost for winter pasture this year is increased because of the increase in fuel and fertilizer cost. A used 24 ft. no till drill with two boxes was purchased so we can drill our maton rye and drop our tam 90 at same time and not fertilize until after the first frost. The other reason for this purchase was to allow us to get seed in the ground quicker with less fuel cost. (At least, this was what I told Mary)
A crowd of more than 300 people attended our Annual Fall Production Sale. There was great interest in the thicker red and black purebred Simmental Bulls. There was also good interest in our ½ Angus, ½ Simmental bulls. The Simmental females were well received. We even sold a premier set of F1 Brahman/Simmental bred females as a preview for our next sale which will be February 19, 2005. We will be selling 70 to 80 bulls and 150 commercial heifers. There will be bred F1s, both Brahman/Hereford and
Brahman/Simmental. We bred these AI to calving ease Angus bulls and cleaned
up with Angus bulls. We had good luck with AI this time, settling a good percentage of
them. These will be sold in lots of three to five, according to kind and breeding.
Fall breeding has started. Our heifers are synchronized with CIDRS at least six days and we give lutalyse one day before we pull them. We have done mass synchronization of our cow calf pairs with variable results. We are breeding our pairs AI on natural heats for now. This was started on November 17 a little early but it lets us have August bull calves that we can sell in our fall bull sales. The best time to start calving in our country is mid September - normally cool enough and the calves will be large enough to really pour it on when our winter pastures crank up. Another thing about winter pastures in our country is that the folks at Texas A&M Extension Service in Overton, TX feel that you should top dress with about 60 units of nitrogen soon after the first frost to get early grazing. This works well unless we have a very cold winter. We will top dress again in the spring.
Our cattle are rewormed with Ivomec Plus the middle of December which is when we should get flukes. We have not had them in years but better safe than sorry. We also worm in mid summer with Ivomec.
Our heifers are calved separate from our grown cows. We feed these differently slightly more TDN for heifers. Two months before calving by using calving ease bulls, we have very little calving problems. We also try to calve on fresh pastures and rotate these pastures. We feel that Dystocia is less of a problem than calving in a confined area with mud and all that goes with it.
Just a note on our winter nutrition program. Dry cows mineral and hay. Hay waste is a universal problem. We are trying a hay wagon that will hold six large round bales in a trailer that can be moved so you can save waste and move to fresh ground frequently. This was designed and made by one of my friends, Dr. Charles Beall, a surgeon who can also fix something that doesnt bleed. Be sure to check the protein of your hay. Dry cows need about 1.5 lbs of protein/day and they will eat about 2% of their body weight. Therefore, if they eat 20 lbs. of 10% hay, you got it made could possible use 8% hay. We never waste our winter pasture on dry cows. The energy requirement for dry cows is about 9 10 lbs. of TDN. TDN hay 50% - so 20 lbs. of hay = 10 lbs TDN and this meets her requirements.
Wet cows need 2.5 lbs. protein/day and 16 18 lbs. TDN so with hay, we meet 1.5 2 lbs. protein 10 lbs of TDN so we need .5 lb. of protein and 6 lbs. of TDN from supplemental feeding. Silage (hay) and corn gluten 22.2% protein and corn are used to meet this. Then when winter pasture is here we use hay mineral and winter pasture and they will eat very little hay. The above is a simple look at the nutritional requirements but Dr. Dave Hutchinson, our nutritionist, will give you more in depth information in the nutrition section on our website. Hope you have a great Christmas and profitable 2005.
Joe
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