"Gordon Couger" > wrote in message
news:1n3fd.87024$tU4.1594@okepread06...

> I had a 3 year old steer that made it just fine. It took that long to
catch
> him. He got in on the neighbor on a place that the only way to catch
> anything was to wait til they came out or go in with a dart gun.
>
> He was 2 when I bought him from the landlord along with the rest of his
> cattle. I managed to catch him off the place. I had one of the neighbors
> calves in with the bunch when they went to market. And I ask if he wanted
> met to cut him out and leave him penned or take him to the sale. When he
> asked how I would know which one was his I said it was the one that
brought
> the most money because it was another one that had got away for a while
and
> was bigger than mine and he was happy with that.

We ended up selling a bullock to a neighbour for him to finish, because the
lad kept wandering across the beck to check out next doors grass. Once we
had sold him they had no more trouble, he just stayed there quite happily.


>
> I could sure take some of your rain. In the last 10 years mine has
decreased
> 9% on the average.

We seem to be going the other way. Five feet of rain per annum isn't
unusual.

>
> I would sure hate to try to do anything in that much rain. Your fertile
bill
> must be terrible but you get something for it every time.

Yes. It means that we can grow grass (or grain) like you wouldn't believe,
but harvesting wheat or barley can be very hit or miss. There is virtually
no chance of producing milling wheat. Some people round here do grow maize,
for ensiling for cattle feed only, no chance of grain maize. It is a bit hit
and miss, I suspect you would be contemptuous of a maize crop that only
stood 7ft high. Also harvesting it can be difficult. Most try to grow it on
light sandy land, but a couple of years ago autumn was so wet that it couldn
't be harvested until Christmas week. The contractor had a tractor pulled
forager rather than a self propelled and as he went along the side of the
slope he was dragging the forager, its wheels weren't turning it had got so
deep into the ground.
I already have about a third of our farm I will not take a tractor on until
April.


Working cattle in
> that kind of weather would sure cause problems. Leaving bulls intact
solves
> that problem. I am sure that you make every effort to keep disease and
> stress at a minimum. In wet weather they are killers. Of course your
cattle
> are acclimatized to your conditions that makes a great deal of difference.

Yes. Our problems come on housing with wet weather, little wind and
pneumonia. We vaccinate for it. This summer has been a sod for pneumonia in
cattle outside!
Yesterday I went to check a dozen bullocks down on some of our bottom land.
There is no standing water (or not much) but everything is soft underfoot
and all twelve bullocks were standing on a concrete bridge looking fed up.
When Charolais and the other continental breeds first arrived in the UK they
had a bad name for not being able to cope with wet weather, but now they are
pretty well acclimatised.


> We have a rule that you never ship cattle east. To keep from shipping them
> into wetter climates than they are used too. Dryer, colder and lower seem
OK
> but wetter and higher past 5,000 feet are not.
>
higher that 5000 feet isn't something I have ever had to worry about. If
cattle are outside and it gets too wet, if they get a choice they will come
inside, but go straight back outside when it fairs up a bit.
Indeed I know a lot of people who will let milk cows have access to cubicles
365 nights a year, with the choice of being inside or outside completely
their own. A really wet miserable autumn night could see 90% of them inside,
a beautiful summer night and there will still be a couple of old girls who
prefer a cubicle to lying on grass

Jim Webster