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how does everybody manage older cows?

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tlakota

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Ive been having a few problems with older cows going down. They werent in horrible shape last fall and made it through winter very good. But now that it has warmed up they are looking tougher. These are broken mouth cows in that 11-13 age frame. Ive only had problems with these older cows nothing else. But im just curious how everbody manages them. Do you sell these in the fall when you think thats their last year or what. I know they have age on them but they raised decent calves last year. Ive been feeding them pretty good. I know the developing calf is taking a lot out of them right now but i just dont get the second it warmed up they started looking tougher. Anyways like i said if everybody could tell me how they manage these older cows on different operations.
 
We get rid of these cows in the fall before they become a problem. Sometimes we'll get caught with one or two that slipped by, but they have to make it with the rest of the herd until calving time when they may be kept close to the barn on free choice feed and water..... but then they gotta go in the fall. The trick though is to make sure you stay on top of it in the fall when you're culling.
 
I feed all my old cows beet tailings and free choice grass hay all winter. Then usually in December/January I start giving them some alfalfa and start putting out 30% protein/mineral tubs getting closer to calving. They always do really well, considering the tough winters we have around here. The tailings are full of energy and they really like em. Cost on the tailings is very cheap and saves about half of my hay besides. Works for me but you have to be close to a sugarbeet factory I guess.
 
I find you can't get blood from a stone - believe me I'm Scottish and I've tried it. Once old cows get down in condition it generally isn't economic to feed them. Better to head them off in the fall. Having said that we run a lot of old cows and don't find condition loss is much of a problem. We have never knowingly kept broken mouthed cows though. Our old cows go more with arthritis than condition loss. Occasionally we get cases where I suspect the heart or liver might not be working as well as it used to. Having said that I pulled one old cow in a month ago. She'll be 22 next month, suffering a bit of arthritis, but she is a purebred and I want one last calf out of her!
My 23 year old is running with the regular mature cows, grazed through deep snow and deep cold until January 17th this year. They are on a mainly hay, some (poorish) silage ration but are still getting about 6lbs/day of barley straw. One month off calving still.
 
Grassfarmer I would agree with you. It just doesn't pencil out keeping that cow and feed her high dollar feed, plus she probably wont gain anything durning that whole time you feed her. I know this I tried that last year, I figured the hay that I feeded to those old cows I could have sold for $160 (which I figured I had feed close to a semi load of hay I think) ton and made more money when it was all done.
 
Keep heifers and sell older cow's when they come up open.They all get fed the same so normally as they age they come up open.
 
I don't see the point in trying to get one more calf out of the old cow. At first sign of going down hill they go. Sell them when you wean the calf. Even better is to wean early and get into the Aug-Sept high cull cow market.
 
We try to catch them in the fall when we preg or wean. You can pretty much tell in the summer which ones are ready for hamburger heaven, so I just mark them and pull them when I can.

We have had our problems in the winter though. We had a couple this year that weren't worth a hill of beans when they calved. We pulled the calves thinking we could use them as grafts. So we have two bottle babies and no use for them.
 
Your best bet is to wean those older cows calves in August and hit the better cow market. If you feel you must keep them one more year sort them off when you preg check and winter them with your first calvers. Remember cows are social animals and they have a peck order. Those older girls are usually low on the list. Cows that are over 10 around here have more trouble keeping up during a winter that we just had.
 
Pull calves off older cows to graft on younger ones that have lost a baby, then the old cow will fatten nicely on grass to sell in August . Then if you don't need the calf you can wean early, and sell the cow before the cull market drops. Of coarse the wet cow will not weigh with the dry's.
 
You can pretty well tell with the first smaller calf. We calve later. Old cows/open cows sort themselves out, go on grass with the yearlings for a month and sell in August with the grass calves.
 
How we handle our old cows a lot depends on the market. If we are going to give them away in the fall we will keep them with the knowledge that they will have to be a bit babied along the way until they calve. Then we pull the calf off of them and give it to a young mother that lost hers or possibly it goes on one of the nurse cows. We then let mama fatten back up and she heads to town.

If the market isn't to bad then they go to town.
 
As Baxter Black says I gotta a little pasture behind the house .. just keep her one more year... :lol:
 

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