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Writer's pictureAbby Ropers

The three "P"s of June


angus bull calves

It's the three "P"s at Scott Angus Cattle right now: hay Production, calf Performance in the pasture, and Pregnancy checking.

Making that Hay: All of us have been busy in the hayfield this month mowing down and baling up forage crops. We use the majority of our hay production to feed our own livestock during the winter months but if we are blessed with surplus we have sold a few semi loads here and there. With the great rains we actually had issues getting to and into the hayfields....what a great problem to have right!? Haying is all about timing -- when to mow, when to flip/rake the hay, and when's the perfect time to bale it up....and mother nature ALWAYS has her say in the matter. We mowed down 106 acres of wheat the other day on a field we call "Crossroads" when we saw a gap in the rain for about ten days. Of course the forecast changed when we scheduled to bale up over the course of a couple days and realize the storm was coming THAT night the day we were raking. It was decided we needed to be FULL FORCE and hook up all three balers we had to race the rain coming later that night around 2 AM. In the battle of man against nature...this time, MAN won! We were able to get 492 wheat bales put up before the 4 inch rain storm!


Pasture Evaluations and Tours: We have been fortunate to host some fantastic people the last couple weeks for pasture tours. Some stopped by to see future bull prospects, others to see the upcoming heifers and current donor cows, and others were able to stay in the SAC bunkhouse and talk angus cattle! Thank you all for coming! During the tours, we take the time to evaluate the performance of the calves now that they've been on grass for a month. The bull calves are starting to put on muscle and the heifer calves are starting to grow into their femininity -- this is definitely building excitement for the future! My personal favorite sire groups right now are the Pappy bull calves and the Logo heifer calves. But that's my opinion, so feel free to contact Scott Angus cattle for your own tour day and tell me I'm wrong. ;)



Seeing the Future through an Ultrasound: This week we started "preg check" ultrasounding. First group up -- the registered virgin heifers. If they stuck A.I. first round, they will be close to 80 days along. The whole crew gave a little "woohoo!!" every time our veterinary, Dr. Lance Kurz with Countryside Veterinary, hollered "She's bred!! 80 days with a bull!". Mom would yell out to the group which sire we A.I.'d the heifer to and everyone would start to discuss how the future calf might look like and his "sale topper" possibilities. Granted, we have a LONG way to go until 2025 calving season (December '24 - February '25) but it's cheap therapy to start dreaming.

 

A Lesson: Along side the preg checking, we have started to pull bulls from the heifer pair pastures (we don't need a 2,000 lb. bull trying to breed a 6 month old heifer calf). Sam and I were assigned the challenge of getting the two bulls off Crossroads pasture in the 102 degree heat yesterday. Since Sam knows the ruts and ravines best, he took the four wheeler with a bag of cubes to cattle call the herd out of the cedar trees and I rode RimRock our trusty quarter horse to poke them up from behind. We found the pairs nestled comfortable under a group of shade trees at the far south side of the pasture. To get the herd to the corral up the hill was about a half mile past two dams and up a pretty decent incline. Things were going well until the heat started to bother the cattle and they ducked into the cedar trees. The cows were smart enough to know that I couldn't follow them into the shade by horse and were pretending I couldn't see them as I was yipping and hollering to tell them they needed to keep moving. I finally decided to do a quick horse tie up to a small tree branch and crawl in on foot to pop the pairs out. The pairs cooperated but when I looked back to grab RimRock....he had broke the pathetic little branch and high tailed it ALL the way back to the trailer by the corral. I calmed Sam out of a slight panic when I jumped back out of the trees (all he could see was RimRock racing by him) and yelling "Don't worry! Not dead!".

Long story short, we were successful that day pulling the bulls off the herd after giving them a quick dip in the dam. I re-learned a value lesson to "take the time to do a job right and you'll do it once"...in this case, take the time to tie up the horse right.


With yet another life lesson, I'll put a close on this blog. If you have any questions about Scott Angus Cattle program, feel free to contact me directly or through our website's contact form to schedule your tour date. You can also ask questions you have in the comment box below. Don't forget to follow us on Facebook or Instagram as we share lots of day to day there as well as notifications for future blog releases!


Well, until next blog, here's to content comfortable cattle!


Abby Ropers with Scott Angus Cattle


SAC Elba 9232 bull pair
SAC Elba 9232 bull pair


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