Cow Life Span and Husbandry

The average cow life span is 15 years, but it can vary between cow if the cow's environment is excellent or if the environment is poor. To insure a healthy, long living, and happy life style you should always do the following; make sure you have plenty of room for shelter and pasture, make sure there is always a dry place to lie down on when the weather is bad, know what you are doing when it comes to feeding and watering your cow, keep all of the vaccinations and medical needs up to date so no diseases occur or other nasty infections, lastly make sure the hygiene of the cow is nice and healthy for comfortable living conditions for your cow.

Hay and Pasture: what is inside everyday feeding hay and pasture

Some times the question will be thought of what is in the hay and the pasture that my cattle are feeding on. These are some of the grasses in the hay we get: meadow foxtail, perennial rye grass, annual sow thistle, shepherd's purse, Lambsquarters. Alopecurus Pretenses, known as the meadow foxtail , is a perennial grass belonging to the grass family. It is native to Europe and Asia. This common plant is found on grasslands, especially on neutral fsoils. Lolium Perenne, common name perennial ryegrass, is a grass from the family poaceae. it is native to europe, Asia and northern Africa, but is widely cultivated and naturalized around the world. Sonchus oleraceus is native to Asia, Austrailia, and Europe. The latin name Sonchus refers to the hollow stream, while oleraceus refers to its good taste. Capsella bursa-pastoris, known by its common name shepherd's-purse because of its triangular, purse-like pods, it is a small annual and ruderal species, and a member of the mustard family. Chenopodium album is a fast growing weedy annual plant in the genus Chenopodium. Though cultivated in some regions, the plant it else where considered a weed.f

Castration on Bull Calves

When you get a male calf there are a few decisions you need to make, but there is one you need to make quickly. That is if, when, and how you want to castrate your calf. The methods of castration are Burdizzo, rubber banding, and surgically removing.  The rubber band method is simply putting a tight rubber band around the base of the scrotum. It will cut the blood supply off and the testicles will eventually shrivel up and fall off. This method is used when the calf is very young and is virtually painless and is the best method of castration. If you wait to long to do the rubber band method you have to decide on either the Burdizzo method or the surgical method. If a calf is more than a couple months old it is to late to do the rubber band method.

The Burdizzo method is a non surgical method. A Burdizzo is a castration device which employs a large clamp designed to break the blood vessels leading into the testicles. Once the blood supply to the testicles is lost, the testicles shrink, soften, and eventually deteriorate completely. There can be complications from the Burdizzo if you do not do it correctly. Most people use the surgical method when castrating because it is the most common to people. The surgical method is simply cutting the testicles off surgically.

Calf Growth

The Bovine species grows at an unbelievable rate. There is a difference in size and weight between the bovine species. There is the beef breeds and the dairy breeds, the beef breeds are usually short and meaty while the dairy breeds are tall and lean. The common beef breed is usually angus or hereford cattle. The common dairy breed is either jersey or holstein, holstein cattle are tall and huge cattle while jersey cattle are small. Anyway calves usually will grow to be around eight hundred to one thousand pounds in a year. As they get older there consumption rate will skyrocket.

The Effect of the California Drought: Part 2

The hay that was delivered to our barn on monday was 200 bales short of what it should of been. The reason for that is that morning before 7 the semi truck had a collision with a herd of deer and the bales broke open and scattered on high way 20. We are getting a refund for the hay and hopefully get another 200 bales. This amount of hay that was delivered will most likely last 7 to 8 months at the most so hopefully we get a lot more rain before then so the prices will drop and supply will be high for California.

The effect of the California drought on hay prices: part 1

The drought that has occurred recently is going to make less hay and make the prices for the remaining hay extremely expensive. Ranchers and farmers say that as long as the drought continues, the nation's largest agricultural state will remain in turmoil, with repercussions stretching to consumer pocketbooks in the form of higher prices for such basic staples as meat, milk, fruit and vegetables. We are getting a full semi truck load of hay before the prices go up and it is going to last about 10 months to a year. Getting hay in bulk is better buying when cheaper even though it is a lot of a money but it would be the difference of 250 dollars a ton  or 350 dollars a ton which can add up to a couple thousand dollar difference.

Scours

Scours is technically just bad diarrhea, which you will almost never see in adult steers, bulls, or cows unless they are sick. Scours is more common in nursing calves because of the amount of milk they ingest in one feeding. My calves are nursing once in the morning and once in the evening. They nurse for more than five minutes on one cow. This used to be a problem because even five minutes would give them scours but now since they are getting bigger they can handle more milk quicker. If a calf gets extreme scours it could be fatal. So when my calf got scours I would reduce the amount of time he would get nursing until I saw good solid poop then I knew I was in the clear.

Grass Fed Dairy Meat

People who have bought our dairy steer meat have gave us amazing feed back that it is the best meat they have ever had and we thought the same thing. Many things have made it taste so amazing the way it does. The steers nursed off of their mothers until the day they died which people don't normally due for reasons they feel necessary. They were grass fed which led to the taste and they were never stressed out in their hole life which was played a huge role in the magnificent taste.

Heat behavior

My cow lost her calf a couple of months ago as I already talked about. She came into heat last friday which was also valentine's day so we had to get her back on track and pregnant again. The most revealing signs we saw that made us for sure that she was in heat was, walking our fence line and mooing, she did not come in and eat like she usually does, our calves started mounting each other and her vulva was reddish. When calves start mounting each other it is not sexual behavior at all, there is a sent that gets spread around when a  cow is in heat and it is just a natural reaction that they get.

Introducing New Babies to Surrogate Mothers

After we had their sons slaughtered for meat, the mother cows still produced enough milk for them, even on top of what we got by milking. We wanted to try to let Cortana, the one cow who has a baby due in June, dry out and rest for a while, but she is the one who got mastitis recently, so we can't yet. We now have two baby beef calves on loan from Nevada County Free Range Beef, to help ensure milk production stays high in Betty, the one cow who is not bred back yet, the one who had the mummified calf.

We have been letting the two two-month old beef calves nurse off the cows morning and night for a few weeks, since they arrived. We were waiting until the steers were gone before we let them out with the big cows because we thought the steers might hurt them. But now we are ready, especially since the weather is nice again.

We had let them out in the pasture a couple of times with the cows for just an hour or two. They all, even the big cows, ran around and bucked and played. They were happy to be out. Yesterday, we finally let them out together for the whole afternoon. They stayed together as a herd, and when the babies strayed off, the mamas went looking for them, softly mooing to them. So, they are at least looking out for the babies now. The calves tried to nurse, while out at pasture, but the mamas would not let them... yet. I will hopefully be able to report success with that soon!

mastitis

Mastitis is an intramamary infection. If mastitis isn't treated it could be fatal to your cattle. More common in lactating cattle mastitis can come in two forms, clinical and subclinical, and can affect both dry cattle and cattle in lactation. Subclinical is a diagnostic detected form of mastitis that can only be detected through laboratory settings such as microscopic evaluation, culturing, somatic cell counts, or CMT evaluation. Contrary to subclinical mastitis clinical mastitis can be detected through both laboratory diagnostics and in the field evaluation including observation of swelling, heat, hardness, masses, pus, blood, and sepsis as well as fever.

Butchered

Even though we are talking about dairy cows, when their calves are male and you raise them, they will meet the almost inevitable fate of being butchered for meat. That is what we have been facing with our two 13 month old steers. The drought this year only reinforces that this is how we must handle these animals who have become our pets.

We have chosen not to let our steers go to slaughter. We think it’s most humane to have them killed quickly at home. We researched reputable meat shops and kill/transport companies and talked to folks who were satisfied or dissatisfied with their past experiences. We decided to have Bill Gonzales (362.2550)  come out and kill, skin and transport the steers. He will shoot them together—one, then the other, very quickly. We separated them from their moms the morning of the kill, which was  January 20. We did not want the moms to see this happen, obviously. They didn’t. But later on we could tell that they knew what happened and were very upset, of course. It was hard on them, and us.

The meat shop we decided on is Tootles (Ron), in Marysville on 3^rd St. He uses vacuum bags, so the meat will last up to 24 months. With paper, it is good for only about half that. He charges .89/lb. “hanging weight”, which is the weight of the animal hanging to cure. There is 618 pounds of hanging weight for one steer and 716 for the other. The packaged amounts are about 60% of that weight. The price to our buyers is $6.45/lb.

The local beef ranchers such as Mark McEwen of M&A Angus, as well as Scott Costa, have recommended we have our beef cure (hang) for 21-28 days, so it is most tender. These are guys who take their cattle to slaughterhouses and may not have had their cattle killed and processed at home in recent years. After talking to Ron Tootles, we are not going to have our beef cured that long. It will be cured for 7-10 days. The fatter the animal, the longer it can cure. The fat breaks down and is scraped off over the course of the curing.

We understand now that whether the meat is tender has more to do with how well fed the steer has been, rather than curing length. And, the meat shrinks the longer it is cured, according to Ron T. Our steer meat will hang approximately two weeks. It will be ready on  February 6^th.

Bvd

 Betty had very high titers to two BVD strains. Since she and Cortana tested negative to BVD in April 2012, they will never be BVD positive themselves. Also, they continue to be vaccinated against BVD, to protect them. The high titers indicates exposure to a PI (persistent infected/typhoid Mary) BVD cow during Betty’s current pregnancy. The exposure would have had to be one of our beef calves from Jim Gates, another cow over the fence, or at the Nevada County Fair. Betty was three months along at the Nevada County Fair. If a PI cow was at the wash rack next to her and peed or breathed on her, that would have been enough to infect the calf. PI calves are born to either PI cows or non-PI cow. This type of infection is how a non-PI cow ends up with a PI calf. There wouldn’t be an outbreak at the fair, as a result, because most cattle are vaccinated. The susceptibility is with a pregnancy—a new fetus, like Betty’s.

With a booster vaccine, as Betty and Cortana had on 12/28, Betty should be ready to breed 30 days later with no risk to herself or baby

Neospora

This week I will be talking about things that may have caused my cow to have an abortion. My cow Betty had recently lost her calf and we did not yet know what the cause was of it. We had our vet come out and draw blood from her and she tested positive for Neospora. Neospora is picked up by grazing near infected dog, coyote or fox poop. It is passed only from mother to baby within a herd. Since Betty has had this through one pregnancy, the calf she lost, she should now be immune which means it will not affect future pregnancies. We do know my other cow "Cortana" slipped a calf, early term. Since Neospora causes later term abortion, this is probably not the cause of her abortion.

continued form last post

So I now have the results from last post. My cow aborted her mummified fetus two saturdays ago. Our vet came out last thursday and pulled the aborted fetus out of her. A mummified calf is about 1 2000 chance of happening, which is extremely strange and weird that it happen to us.

Mid and late term abortions

Abortions are something no one wants to deal with. It is stressful for both the animal and the owner. There are many things that can cause abortions. A few examples are: eating pine needles, eating mistletoe, lack of selenium in the diet, something that is very stressful on their body. Heat waves and very cold weather can cause abortions but usually it happens early on in the pregnancy. Signs of abortion are usually any sign that the cow is doing strange things that are out of the ordinary, like not eating or drinking, signs that they are in heat, sloughing mucous and/or tissue, etc. The reason I am typing about this now is that my prize cow might be aborting her unborn calf. She has many of these signs and I am concerned. The vet is coming out tomorrow and I will post the results in next weeks blog.

Getting Ready To Butcher

There comes a time in almost every steer's life where he gets old enough and fat enough to send him to the butcher for big bucks. The options for where to slaughter your steers can be very different for ever single person. You can get them slaughtered at your house or trailer them somewhere to be slaughtered. The most traumatizing thing for a steer when it comes to slaughter time is being trailered somewhere with several other stressed out steers also being slaughtered. You maybe taking them away from there home for the first time. While this maybe the easiest option for you it maybe the worst option for the steer. You must consider whats most important to you-- the happiness or whats easiest for you. Its also important to consider the price you get for each option.

Well before you are planning to prepare your steer for slaughter there are several steps you want to take to ensure a perfect and happy lifestyle for him. The first thing you should do is make sure they have land to actually roam on and eat grass. The second thing is to always have some sort of shelter to get under in bad weather and stay warm. The third thing is to give plenty of hay grains and access to unlimited water supply. The list goes on but you should just always remember to do whatever you can to make absolutely sure that your steer lived the best life it could of lived.

Backyard Dairy Cow Management

Hi, I am Riley Williams, and I am sixteen years old. I own a small herd of dairy cattle, and have been managing a back yard dairy cow business for over a year and a half. We use our milk for animals and we also drink it ourselves.

I have two mature cows named "Betty" and "Cortana". Cortana is a nurse cow only and Betty is a milk cow. Together they feed four calves that are almost a year old. Two of their calves are their own, and two are foster beef calves owned by Nevada County Free Range Beef. In addition, my prize milk cow delivers enough milk to meet the needs of out animal milk customers. Betty currently gets milked every other morning.

Both cows are pregnant again. We should have new calves in March and June of 2014. We are hoping for females because they are more marketable than male calves. My dairy cattle are a lot of fun, but they are also a lot of work and are somewhat expensive to keep.

Interested in starting a back yard dairy business? Please feel free to ask any questions you might have.

Today I am going to talk about dairy cattle temperament. Almost all dairy cattle are very docile with the exception of one type of bull. Jersey bulls are probably the meanest type of cattle. They are sneaky deceiving animals, once you turn your back you could be on the ground being gored by a nine hundred pound bull. Jersey bulls are not recommended that you own one. On the other hand jersey cows and steers are extremely nice and sweet cattle. They have been bred over the years and have been made into backyard family pets. My steer calves at five months old where trained to go in trailers and are currently being haulter trained and are currently nine months old. They would of been fully haulter trained already but we started later than you are supposed to. All of my dairy animals are very docile and can be approached by everyone and anyone.

Today I'd like to talk about milk production, Jersey cattle produce the richest milk, while Holstein cattle produce the greatest volume, of milk. We have the best of both, because my cows are Jersey/ Holstein crosses. Milk production will vary according to consumption, The dairy cow will produce more when more calves are nursing and as the calves grow. We will take our now ten month old calves off their mothers in another couple months, and milk supply will dry up. This will give the cows the extra energy they need to bring their pregnancies to term and deliver healthy new calves.

Sometimes, you can end up with bull calves rather than heifers, which are more desirable. You can either sell your bull calf young or keep him for steer meat. You must follow a few steps when your bull calf is young if you intend on keeping him as a steer for meat. First you must castrate your bull calf, because if you don't you will end up with a breeding bull and most likely a not too friendly bull. There are at least two different methods of castration. One of them, and probably the easiest, is putting a tight rubber band around the calf's testicles for a few weeks and then they should just fall off. Another method is by surgically removing them, which is more painful and stressful.

The second thing you should do is to dehorn your calf. Dehorning also has several methods. There is no really nice way to do it. You can either put an acid paste on their horns when they are just beginning to grow.  Or, you can also use a hot iron which burns the horns, and then clip them off with a special device. I have had experience with each method and prefer the hot iron approach. If you use paste, then the calf might burn his mother by bumping his head, with paste on it, against her udder while nursing.

A great way to gain some money from your cattle is to show them in events for example, the Nevada county fair and at other cattle shows farther away. Other ways are selling your cattle for butcher, breeding a bull with a cow and selling the offspring either for breeding or beef.

You might be wondering how a person with a backyard dairy operation can ever go away for a little while. The answer to that is that you can't leave town often. Finding competent help to come in and do cow care and milking when your gone is not easy. However recently I did need to be out of town for a memorial service in Texas. Fortunately in our county their is a mobile livestock service called Gold Country Livestock Services. This company offers a full range of livestock services including dairy services. Cheyenne Little the owner of this company is only sixteen and she already she is providing a niche service that can help people like me when I need to leave town. http://hilltopfarmhealth.weebly.com/ She did an exceptional job taking care of my dairy cattle while I was away and I highly recommend her.