Bring Out the Ranch Jackets

The first frost of the year has brought out the ranch jackets

It was a lite frost but the weather has been cool enough for the ranch jackets. The temperature only dipped down below freezing for a few early morning hours, so the grass wasn’t damaged. What little grass there is. Recently a few showers during the last few weeks has popped up some of the cooler weather grasses. But we’re still stuck in the worst drought in Texas of all time.

Saturday morning I did put on the rain jacket and wet gear for a little while. It was nice to know my rubber boots didn’t dry rot from lack of use. I’m hoping and praying that wearing those rubber boots becomes a common occurrence soon.

Not looking forward to putting on the ranch jacket on for full day, I can do without the colder weather. Just hoping that I don’t see that really cold spell until late January and it only last but a day or two. The weather has been nice with temperature around 70’s during the day with colder mornings. That’s normal November temperature for south Texas.

The calves have their ranch jackets on

We’re pretty much set with this group of calves. May pick up a calf or two but we’re fine for now with ten calves being fed on the bottle. I don’t like to go over twelve. It starts to be work then. The break down of the ten calves are seven Holstein steers, red with white face baldy steer, and two heifers one red with white spot in the forehead and yellow white face baldy. 

There has been a few run of the mill scour cases, but nothing that has blown out of control. So far. Two of the Holsteins steers came down with a respiratory problems. Droopy head, coughing, and feeling icky. It has been a tough case for the both of them. I gave them a shot of Draxxin to start with which normally cures about 85% of most cases but it didn’t help much with these two. Four days later I followed up with Micotil and an anti-inflammatory shot but it still didn’t knock it out. About 5 days later they started to turn for the worst again so they got some more anti-inflammatory and Baytril. One snapped out of it and looks like he is going to recover nicely. The other still is battling with it some. I probably should have tried Nuflor  instead of the Micotil but I have had go success with this follow up combo lately. The others all look good and everyone is nursing the bottle well.

Black Diamond and Rudolph

left to right

Dean, Clay, Roman and Charlie Joe.

Charlie Joe being nosey.

Dean and Roman

Blaze he’s only a week old here.

The two new kids.

Black Diamond and Rudolph

 

Clay

Rudolph taking a mid day nap.

Rudolph woke up when the others started making noise.

Lucas also taking a mid day nap. He’s loves going to the calf pen when it’s feeding time.

Livestock Supplies for Treating Worms, Ticks, Lice, and Fleas

Treating cattle for common parasites like worms, ticks, lice, and fleas can be easily done with just a few livestock supplies. I like to use pour on livestock supplies like Brute or Ivomec.

One of the ways I like to apply pour on livestock supplies to calves is to place the pour on in a spray bottle and then squirt it on the back of the calves as they nurse their milk bottles. I will start at the back of the neck and go down to their tails making sure the cattle supplies are even placed down the back of the calf.

I will first fill the spray bottle with water and then squirt the water into a 20 mL syringe to find out how much liquid comes out when the trigger is pulled.

The dosage amount of many pour on cattle supplies dewormers  is 1 mL to 22 lb of body weight of a calf.

A 100 lb calf will need roughly 4.5 mL of cattle dewormer

A 130 lb calf will need roughly 6 mL of cattle dewormer

A 150 lb calf will need roughly 7 mL of cattle dewormer

A 170 lb calf will need roughly 8 mL of cattle dewormer

Most of the squeeze bottles that I have used have squirted 4 mL of pour on livestock supplies with each pull of the trigger.

With a little practice I can squeeze the bottle half way of 2 mL.of pour on livestock supplies,

A 100 lb calf will need 1 squeeze of cattle dewormer

A 130 lb calf will need 1 ½ squeezes of cattle dewormer

A 150 lb calf will need just about 2 squeezes of cattle dewormer

A 170 lb calf will need 2 full squeezes of cattle dewormer

Most of time a measuring cup will come with the  livestock supplies of our choice and you can just pour it on the calf with that.

Most pour on cattle supplies will also treat roundworms and other internal parasites and external parasites like ticks, flies, flees, and lice, so you get both the outside and inside parasites at the same time.

So at what age can you deworm a calf? Most cattle pour on livestock supplies are labeled for both beef and dairy cattle of all ages.

 

del.icio.us Tags: livestock supplies,dewormer,cattle supplies

Building a Rack for Feeding Calves

You need:

• 2- 1” x 6” Rough Cut Corral Boards 38” Long*.
• 8- 1” x 6” Rough Cut Corral Boards 5” Long*.
• 2- ¼” Think Furring or Lattice Strips 38” Long.
• Screws 2” or 2 ¼” Long

Directions:
Just screw the boards together following the pattern below. The main key is that the opening for the bottles are 4 ½” wide by 5” tall (that way you cut them at 5”). The space in the middle will not be big enough for a bottle to fit, but this rack will still feed six calves. Then just mount the rack between two post, I would use 4 bigger screws about 3” to 3 ½” long. It is kind of hard to reach the inside of the rack, but a drill with an 8” – 10” bit extension will be able to screw the rack on the post from the inside of the rack. Two screws will do the job most of the time, but if rack seems unsteady place in a few more. Rack can be made longer if you have post already in place, just remember the opening for the bottles are 4 ½” x 5” or 5” x 5” would work. When mounting the rack tilt in down so all the milk will be able to come out. We set ours on about a 45 degree pitch down.
*Rough cut corral boards are thicker than regular 1” x 6” boards but if you can’t find them use the regular 1” x 6” just make sure they are treated for outside use.

You want these two stripes to be thin. ¼” thick. Lattice’s strips work great and leave enough space for nipples of the bottles to go in easily. Just nail or screw on front of rack to hold bottles in.



Note: Calves must be watched while feeding from rack. They can rip the nipples off the bottles and waste milk. They also like to steal other’s bottles (a small stick and light tap back of their ears will help them stay off of other’s bottles). Always use bottles with a screw on nipple.

del.icio.us Tags: Livestock,Farming,Feeding Calves,Homesteading,Cattle