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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 742
  
| I don't know a thing about cows but I was wondering what happens when there are too many cows on a piece of property and there are no castrations being done? Do the bulls just figure it out or do some lose their lives? I do sometimes notice pretty good puncture wounds on the younger bulls and suspect they tussle alot with the big guys. The property has about 100 acres and about 60-75 cows. The owner does not even live in the state. When I ride by his land I often wonder about this. I do notice the bulls stay in one corner while the cows and babies stay at the other corner. They look like Longhorn mixes. T/Y in advance because I just want to learn more about these creatures.  |
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  Northern Chocolate Queen
Posts: 16576
 
Location: ND | For that many cows there's likely a few bulls in the pasture to make sure that all the cows are bred in a timely manner. When running larger herds like that, yes, sometimes bulls will get seriously injured fighing over a cow. Because of that we typically run our cows in smaller groups with 1 bull during breeding but it's a lot of work to do this so most do not.
Now the no calves being cut doesn't make any sense as there's no sense in keeping a pile of bull calves in the pasture....money is made selling your steers every year. |
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 Off the Wall Wacky
Posts: 2981
Location: Louisiana | SaraJean - 2015-07-28 9:22 PM
For that many cows there's likely a few bulls in the pasture to make sure that all the cows are bred in a timely manner. When running larger herds like that, yes, sometimes bulls will get seriously injured fighing over a cow. Because of that we typically run our cows in smaller groups with 1 bull during breeding but it's a lot of work to do this so most do not.Â
Now the no calves being cut doesn't make any sense as there's no sense in keeping a pile of bull calves in the pasture....money is made selling your steers every year.Â
This. Hubby has cows and they sell off the steers every year. He started out with a couple heifers his grandpa gave him as a kid, and now has quite a few nice mamas. He, his brother and grandpa run all their cows together and I want to say they have 2 bulls with them. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 742
| SaraJean - 2015-07-28 9:22 PM For that many cows there's likely a few bulls in the pasture to make sure that all the cows are bred in a timely manner. When running larger herds like that, yes, sometimes bulls will get seriously injured fighing over a cow. Because of that we typically run our cows in smaller groups with 1 bull during breeding but it's a lot of work to do this so most do not.
Now the no calves being cut doesn't make any sense as there's no sense in keeping a pile of bull calves in the pasture....money is made selling your steers every year.
Oh the calves not being cut has to do with I think he has just forgotten about them and are probably just a tax writeoff. I doubt he has even seen this place in a year or so. The place is very overgrown. I am just wondering what becomes of the herd if they are on 100 or so acres and left to their own devices? |
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Northern Chocolate Queen
Posts: 16576
Location: ND | kramerica - 2015-07-28 9:16 PM SaraJean - 2015-07-28 9:22 PM For that many cows there's likely a few bulls in the pasture to make sure that all the cows are bred in a timely manner. When running larger herds like that, yes, sometimes bulls will get seriously injured fighing over a cow. Because of that we typically run our cows in smaller groups with 1 bull during breeding but it's a lot of work to do this so most do not.
Now the no calves being cut doesn't make any sense as there's no sense in keeping a pile of bull calves in the pasture....money is made selling your steers every year. Oh the calves not being cut has to do with I think he has just forgotten about them and are probably just a tax writeoff. I doubt he has even seen this place in a year or so. The place is very overgrown. I am just wondering what becomes of the herd if they are on 100 or so acres and left to their own devices?
That many cattle on 100 acres are eventually going to starve to death unless someone is feeding them. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 742
| I can see this happening. I do see someone dropping round bales from time to time but its very infrequent. The place is very overgrown with native thorny trees so I have no idea if any of the cows have died there. They look like longhorns but LH's always seem skinny to me. This place is in Tx so with allthe rain we got this year at least the grass is good.
Thanks for the bovine info. =*) |
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Expert
Posts: 1314
Location: North Central Iowa Land of white frozen grass | I bet someone is watching them. 60 to 70 head on a 100 acres they would have the grass gone in 2 months. Then they would be out all the time once the grass was gone because they would be running the fences reaching thru it for something to eat. 70 head would go thru a round bale of hay every day. What cattle are worth right now nobody would leave them fend for themselves for a year. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 742
| BS Hauler - 2015-07-29 2:44 PM I bet someone is watching them. 60 to 70 head on a 100 acres they would have the grass gone in 2 months. Then they would be out all the time once the grass was gone because they would be running the fences reaching thru it for something to eat. 70 head would go thru a round bale of hay every day. What cattle are worth right now nobody would leave them fend for themselves for a year.
How often would they have to be fed and what would they be feeding that many cows? No one lives at the house and I believe the owner is suffering from leukemia so i know he doesn't get out to the place. He lives in or near Dallas. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1857
| If you know who the owner is why don't you call him and ask if anyone is taking care of them and tell him your worried? If you can't get a hold of him i'm sure his family might be helpful. your county assessor's office will be able to tell you who owns the property... |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 742
| FlyingJT - 2015-07-29 2:58 PM If you know who the owner is why don't you call him and ask if anyone is taking care of them and tell him your worried? If you can't get a hold of him i'm sure his family might be helpful. your county assessor's office will be able to tell you who owns the property...
I'm not worried about them, yet. I was just curious how all the cow herds work when no one is controlling the population and such with so many bulls. |
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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | kramerica - 2015-07-29 7:10 PM
FlyingJT - 2015-07-29 2:58 PM If you know who the owner is why don't you call him and ask if anyone is taking care of them and tell him your worried? If you can't get a hold of him i'm sure his family might be helpful. your county assessor's office will be able to tell you who owns the property...
I'm not worried about them, yet. Â I was just curious how all the cow herds work when no one is controlling the population and such with so many bulls. Â
Stock contractors run groups of bulls together all the time. As long as everyone has room to get away and aren't crammed into a super tiny area they should be fine. It's not ideal from a business standpoint to not be castrating, however. And like someone else pointed out, they will run out of grass soon. We have around 50 cows + their calves and 2 bulls on our 125 acres and it only lasts them a few months (they're kept off most of the property for winter/spring because we flood, then we just wait to turn them down until everyone has calved; by then the grass has grown pretty tall). They let us know when the grass isn't enough... when I go into the barn every morning to get hay for the horses and I'm greeted by mooing cows, they need hay lol. Right now they're still good on grass and I rarely see them anywhere near the barn.
ETA during the winter our two bulls are kept in a smaller pasture together with their own side of the barn. My parents have 3 farms, each farm has 2 bulls and are kept in a similar set up. Very rarely do they fight. Sometimes there is one thats a jerk during feeding, but there's plenty of room to space them out. The only time we really have to make sure they're playing nice is in the spring when the cows start calving because then their hormones come out and they can be more aggressive to each other.
Edited by livexlovexrodeo 2015-07-30 11:55 AM
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 Peecans
| We generaly have 5-6 mature bulls and a hand full of going to breed next year fellows. The baby's are kept separate and feed a diffrent ration over winter. The others all live together.
They will push and play fight a bit but we have very little fighting issues, our breed tends to be pretty easy to be around on the whole though.
Some bulls breed together as a team, some just do whatever, some need a younger buddy to keep them honest and my little buddy walks around bellering gets the old boys worked up and slips away to the ladies lol. We like 1 bull per 25 cows so bigger pastures get multiple bulls to keep our calving season tight.
Then once everbody stops cycling they just lie around and chill
I have seen herds with zero human interaction over years get seased SPCA. Honistly the issue and trouble is not with the bulls, its the pour moma cows. Many will not self wean, the cows were dieing because they had a three years worth of babies sucking them down. The babies were not able to compete and the cattle were wild and hard to ceatch and deal with. If the cows are in good condition, and only this years babies sucking them then all is well and I would not worry.
ETA - about the castration we cut them at pasture turn out, but there are some whom pefer to do diffrent methods at weening time, or just ship them all as bulls you lose money, but save work and the buyer then makes them steers for feeding.
Edited by della 2015-07-30 12:20 AM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 915
Location: SE KS | kramerica - 2015-07-29 9:10 PM
FlyingJT - 2015-07-29 2:58 PM If you know who the owner is why don't you call him and ask if anyone is taking care of them and tell him your worried? If you can't get a hold of him i'm sure his family might be helpful. your county assessor's office will be able to tell you who owns the property...
I'm not worried about them, yet. Â I was just curious how all the cow herds work when no one is controlling the population and such with so many bulls. Â
Just because you aren't worried yet, doesn't mean it won't take a little time to track down the "right" person to help the cattle in time. Might be good to start the process of getting a hold of someone now!!!
Glad your looking out for them!!! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 742
| Yall are a wealth of information. Thanks! I will be keeping an eye on them.  |
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Folks on-line