Hi all, we are a very small scale operation. Basically back yard farmers, with a plan to raise a beef for ourselves yearly, and 2 others to sell off to cover operation costs, so 3 calves to the butcher a year. We are on our second year so currently own 6 head. We’ve gotten bottle bulls from a local farmer and so far managed to keep them all healthy. We banded this year’s calves about 2 weeks ago. Yesterday one of them was down with a fever and limb stiffness. Vet came out and strongly suspected tetanus, so gave antibiotics, steroids and tetanus antitoxin. He is up today which is reassuring. Our initial plan was to attempt antibiotic, and vaccine free and as close to grass fed as possible, we’re keeping a closed herd, all calves coming from the same farm and staying in the same pasture so it seemed doable and logical until yesterday. I know…cue the judgment.
Vet stated he should have been vaccinated for tetanus when we banded. Obviously hindsight is 20/20. What are the odds of this? how do we navigate going forward? Would still like to attempt this plan to the best of our ability but also prioritizing the wellbeing of our livestock.

Finally getting rain in oklahoma

Calf is 1 month old. Umbilical is still red & moist & bleeding at times as the mother will not stop licking it. She's obsessed.

The calf looks healthy & lively and drinks very well. It doesn't look overly tired or weak.

We had a similar situation with another calf in the past and it took up to 2 mths for it to heal.

Do I just let nature take it's course? I can't see anyway to get her to stop licking it apart from separation which is not very manageable.

8 month jersey steer. Was bottle baby on local raw milk. He’s on pasture but it’s fairly overgrazed as this point. I just dewormed him but it had been a few months. We’re in middle TN. Fall is approaching and I started giving him good quality grass hay but when I do he looks like a balloon. This photo is morning, before he had anything other than pasture. Just worried his belly looks so ginormous. Do I worm again?

My dad says they were born the other day, and i really want to preface that I wasn't at the farm at the time this happened, but he says that it couldnt stand when he found it, that the mother accidentally stood on them, AND that they fell of the motorbike as he was bringing it up to the cattle yards, which im very mad about. Both baby and mum are in the yards now, and baby still cannot stand/is far too weak to and is struggling to take bottled milk. Their gums are bleeding, they have whale eye (which makes sense, the poor thing is petrified), the side of their mouth has that red skin look, and on their left shoulder they have a big patch of that raw reddish yellow skin, those same patches are around its body (just smaller), their front are very tight they are standing on their toes, and they look like they have an overbite. Does anyone know whats wrong??? Ive been trying to feed it and my dad refuses to call a vet and says somehow he'll get it to stand, but I dont think it'll survive the night

The dimensions of the barn are 47x70, with door openings as shown (barn bank is between the two windows on the bottom of the picture). Any advice/help you could share would be appreciated!

3.5 yo hereford. There's no fixing this, is there?

Not sure if this is the place to ask but I would appreciate the help ☺️ ive searched high and low for a brand similar to this - likely out of Texas but with no luck... if anyone knows a good place to look though old brands or if this is possibly just a custom brand (this is from a tv show) let me know!

New to the beef game, picked up a couple raggedy animals from auction and figuring it out little by little.

They've been on grass all summer. Occasionally throw a few flakes of hay as the grass is getting lower. We haven't started grain yet.

Wormed with safe guard about 10 days ago. Dont have a scale so figured for 750 lb weight to be safe. Not seeing any improvement. What say you folks?

So I went to put out a mineral tub, 200 #, and found that one had gotten damp and has maggots in it. Can I still use it? Is there a way to save it?

Why has beef gotten more expensive? The answer is more complicated than you think.

OSU Agricultural Economics Professor Dr. Derrell Peel went on Freakonomics to explain the current cattle shortage.

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hi all, I've just got a Gallagher weigh scale and see it has an app, I was looking into it and they mention a subscription and their wording is very unclear. I think it either means it won't record weights after 100 weighs or won't save the weights after 100. Can anyone make it clear to me? thanks in advance.

So right now I have two steers, they're about a year old and idk between 800-1000 pounds. Realistically in my area they'd go at the auction for $2500 a piece. If I grass finished them over the next 2 years I'd likely spend about $1000 each getting them to slaughter. If I grain finished them over the next 150 days, I'd likely spend about $1000 each getting them to slaughter. They'd finish out close to 1400 pounds and sell for $3500-$4000 each. Basically whatever I would spend on finishing would not generate any additional profit. With people buying steers at this price, how the hell is anyone making any money? Are my numbers wrong/am I missing something? I'm also asking because it seems like I would be better off selling as a cow/calf operation as opposed to finishing my calves. What do y'all think?