Baby Bull is Here, So Now What???

[Music] I think we better head down to the ranch and check on that cow because the sun's starting to go down out there if we don't go now it's probably going to be dark by the time we do go so let's do it [Music] foreign come on nope I know the way I fit as I'm filming this it's Friday evening and that means that we are more or less out of the really hot days um that we've been having here for the last uh seems like the last month but I think it's only been a week or a little bit over a week during that time I was really worried that my number 20 Cal was going to give birth to our Embryo transfer Bowl because I didn't want him being born you getting friendly I didn't want him being born when the temperature was that hot because we were getting up into like 113. I think we might hit 114 one day but it looks like those days are behind us so really now I don't have to worry about her having a calf but I more or less just want to know if she's had it you're not too sure about Cali are you I think we're all friends now we'll go ahead and walk out here and see if we can find her I don't see any obvious signs off the bat that somebody's out here in labor or having recently given birth but we might be able to once we find her get an idea of how close we are one thing that I've certainly noticed about this cow is that she doesn't like to hang out up by the gate too much it seems like every time I walk out here to find her she's always cleared down at the other end I think this is her clear down at the end well no calf yet so that's actually you know it's kind of funny because usually I'm always wanting the calves to get born I'm wanting them to get going but this is one that I was really I was hoping that she would hold off a little bit and that's what ended up happening but I think now we're in the clear I can tell just walking through them tonight it's a lot cooler I mean I'm not even sweating and haven't haven't said that for a few days now and something that I also notice is that usually you can walk right up to that cow and kind of stand and talk and she doesn't really care but this evening you notice that she kept wanting to move away from me that could be nothing but it could also be that she's starting to feel that that things are happening and labor is you know within the next couple of days animals are strange that way cattle especially I think they know that they're going to give birth a day or maybe even more before it happens because if you really pay close attention you can start to pick up on things like that before they're showing the real obvious signs like you know discharge or holding their tails up or nesting things like that you can if you really look for it sometimes you can spot little subtle hints like she was just doing uh not really wanting me to be right next to her whereas normally that's not a problem all right I think that's about all I need to look at over here well it's about all I'm going to be able to look at because it's going to be dark here pretty quick foreign to check cows and I don't have all my camera stuff with me so I'm filming this on my phone but obviously the first cow we're going to look for is nice number 20 that's about to have our E.T bull calf and I think that's her laying out there so I don't know if she's had it yet or if she's in the process of having it or if she's just having a lazy morning and just laying around but let's go take a look oh I think I see a baby see a baby yes good job honey well he looks good and healthy uh ears are perked up eyes are wide open so I'm not I'm not worried about him but I do kind of want to check and just verify that it is actually a bowl so let's uh let's see if we can take a look if you're a heifer I'm going to be real disappointed she doesn't seem too happy about me being here I just won't look real quick okay I'll leave you alone now yes it's a bowl and yes she does not want me messing with it all right I've got a regular camera now so this should look a little more familiar I guess so yes we had our Bowl calf and really I couldn't ask for any more as far as the weather today I think the high I don't even think we're gonna hit 90s today so this was this is good fair weather for that guy to be born in the only problem is that today is the day that the cows move clear down to the other side of the ranch and I think that's that's a bit of a walk for that little guy so what I think I'll do is I'll open the gates for the main herd to go down there and I'll just leave them open today and hopefully they get moved up on their own today but if not then I can probably go one more day before I have to start water and at that point we'll have to uh to do some things but for today let's just leave these gates open and hopefully after a little while Mama leads him on down to where the other cows are foreign I don't really want to try to like push them and make them go I think that I'll be more successful if I just kind of let them do it on their own time you guys he can't go until I get there you know somebody gotta open the gate for you hope you guys stop okay now you're all set well I can see up to the other end there where she was laying and hadn't really thought about this but she is she's wanting to come with the rest of them and she's kind of leaving the calf behind I don't think she's gonna abandon it down there but it sure be nice if she stayed with it so I might even go close the gate to block her from coming all the way up here um just because I want her to wait until the calf's up on its feet and we'll follow her and see now I know you guys wouldn't be able to see that far with the camera but she's kind of walking this way and then she stops and looks back like come on let's go let's go um but the calf is too young and he's still wanting to lay down yeah I don't know if I'm gonna beat her to the skate that's the problem hey I think you forgot something go back to your baby what are you doing I heard you were a good mom what's this about well that's really not what I was hoping was gonna happen here I mean obviously she knows where the calf is and I'm sure that after a while she'll come back for it I should probably just couldn't quite resist the thought of fresh grass so right now I'm not gonna do anything I know some people would say well just go grab the calf and and take it down to where they're going and you could do that but what I have found is that if you kind of mess with whatever they got going on as far as moving the calf or doing this and that um he kind of just screw things up so like if I go and grab that calf and take it down there odds are when she's wanting to find it she's going to want to come back down here where she left it because she doesn't know that I moved it I'm actually tempted to go jump on it and put an ear tag in it right now while she's not nearby because I noticed when I was down looking at it that she was pretty protective which is good but not good when you're trying to put an ear tag on the problem is if I go and do that right now I run the risk of spooking the calf and what Young calves like that will do when they're scared is they just run and they don't use their brains they don't use their eyes they just run so usually what happens is the calf goes through a fence or it just ends up somewhere completely different and kind of going back to what I was saying before when mama wants to go back and find it it's not where she left it well it's been a couple of hours now I've been working in the shop and I decided to come back and check on them and sure enough she did what I hoped she would do and she's back up here with the calf although they're still in this front pasture that I was hoping they would get out of but you know she's she's back with it the calf has moved so I assume that it's nursed usually if Mom and calf are hanging out together and the calf has moved then obviously you know it was up on its feet and almost every time they nurse so I'm not too worried about that well it's the next day now and it looks like my patience has paid off mother is here in the small field leading into the pasture where the rest of the herd is and the baby oddly enough is in that pasture so she apparently led him up in there last night and decided that this grass was just a little bit better so she stayed behind but that's all right because I've got them out of the field that I need to start water on and I think you know as time goes by they'll eventually rejoin the herd and I won't really have to lift a finger if you're new to the channel or you haven't been following along you might be wondering why is this calf commanding so much of my attention he's actually very special and like I said if you haven't been following along then you might not know why about a month ago I bought this cow from split Creek Ranch up in Los Molinos California and when I bought her I knew that she was carrying this calf now she is not the biological mother to this calf this calf is actually a product of an embryo transfer program now for those that are unfamiliar with embryo transfer what that is basically you take an egg from a really good cow and you fertilize it with semen from a really good bowl and then you take that fertilized egg put it into a recipient cow who then carries it it gives birth to the calf and raises it as her own and while my number 20 cow here is a very beautiful female she really can't compare to the dam of this calf extw 89 which is you know not a real sentimental name but that's what her name is The Sire to this calf is named savv Bismarck it's a little bit of a better name and I don't know why the sires always get like the nice sounding names and then the mothers get you know EXT or w89 they play an equal role in what the cath becomes but for whatever reason the sires you know get all the attention I digress Sav Bismarck is a pretty big deal in the Angus world and I'm really excited to see if this calf ends up looking anything like his daddy the little guy was born on September 12th which would put him right in schedule with a fall Calvin herd the problem is is that we are a spring calving herd so basically what his uh future or at least in the next few months is going to look like obviously he's going to stay with Mom but I need to decide where I'm going to house them for the winter time and then next summer by about May or June he'll be ready to wean at that point he will have to stay separated from the herd because she will be with the herd and if they're together we're not going to be able to wean him so he might end up staying in the bullpen for the summer I haven't quite decided yet where he will go but we'll have to find a nice spot for him to stay where he can't get to Mom so why spend the money on a recipient cow that is carrying a verified bull calf and bring you know go through all the trouble to do all this well it's because we're going to use this bull as a breeding sire in this herd for a small operation like mine it really does not make sense to go to a bull sale and spend five plus maybe as much as ten thousand dollars on a bull with this quality of genetics but what I am able to afford is to do it this way and the drawback is is that I'm buying the both side unseen and I really don't know what he's going to turn into what he's going to look like but I can look at his pedigree and be fairly confident that he's going to be at least pretty good so because I'm not spending all the money up front to buy him ready to go that means that I need to raise him for close to two years before he will be ready to go out into the herds it's a give and a take but for me this makes a lot more sense in a year from now when he is a yearling he will be old enough to do some breeding but by that time all the cows in this herd should be bred so there really won't be anything for him to do until the following breeding season where he will enter the herd for the first time as a 20-month-old bull he could definitely go to work prior to being 20 months of age but for our schedule and our breeding season and his birthday that's just kind of how it's going to work out so I've got big plans and high hopes for this little calf but for now I'm just glad that the cow delivered him with no problems he's alive he's healthy or at least appears to be and so far everything is going the way that I was hoping that it would Jeremy at split Creek Ranch did not ask me to promote his business or anything like that we don't have that sort of a deal but I was so happy with the whole experience of buying the cow from him and being able to do things this way that I do want to leave some contact info for split Creek Ranch I'll put some on the screen here and I'll put some down in the description if you're in the area and you're looking for a bowl for your herd give Jeremy a call he may not be the biggest breeder in the North State but he's utilizing all of the technology and the genetics that the big guys do so if you're in the area and you want a bowl give them a call thanks for hanging out with me today guys and I hope I'll see you again on Farmer Tyler Ranch foreign [Music]

Channel: Farmer Tyler Ranch

Views: 38,486

Keywords: Bull, Angus, Breeding bull, Farmer Tyler ranch, Bull calf

Id: GWum6T78kCc

Length: 18min 18sec (1098 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 15 2022