From the Barns: Breeding season

Whew! Over the past 10 days or so, many of which turned out to be 12- to 13-hour days, they are about to wear me out. We have been going hard with AI synchronization and breeding, both cows and heifers. Lots of CIDRs were put in and the necessary drugs that go along with the protocols. Time bred 64 heifers in one evening alone — that took us 2.5 hours.

Had a four-man crew where each had their own responsibility and things were flowing well. There will be more CIDRs to pull this week and then heat detection on the cows, along with embryos to put in. Of course, that is not all it entails.

There are females to be rounded up from various pastures, sorted, hauled in to be ran through the chute, then may be sorted again and penned where they need to be waiting for their next trip through, or maybe back out to pasture.

That also doesn’t account for the normal feeding regimen, breakdowns, fence fixing or whatever else pops up, thus understandable the long days. And just when you think you might have one slower day to catch your breath — well, of course, that never happens.

We didn’t sell any fat cattle in November. Nothing pressing to sell, and with the market softening, maybe it was a good time not to be in a have-to case to get some gone. Feed still cheap enough that it is cost-effective to put on more gain, so hoping this market will head to the upside again and recapture some of those higher prices. Whether the downturn stabilizes or continues, we had to know it was going to happen sometime. We may end up selling a load before the end of the year. Just playing it by ear now.

Earlier in November we were able to get all the fall-born calves vaccinated with Nasalgen 3-PMH. Wanted to get it done two to three weeks before the cow commingling and breeding, hoping that vaccine will take effect before putting any stress on the calves. In the past we have waited and I think it caused us some health problems, so maybe this strategy will prevent those problems from occurring.

We have had some really, really nice work days. A pleasure to be enjoying those and doing the work we love and need to do. The cattle are liking them, as well. They are very active during the day, you can tell they are feeling frisky and their feed intakes are quite frankly amazingly good, so performance numbers should be well on the positive side.

Hope the year ends well for all of you, enjoy the Christmas holiday and please celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, with your family and friends. Stay safe. May all go well as we wind down 2025.