Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/958929
farm406 20 "Our cows have to be able to go out and rustle up a living and maintain body condition without much feed," explains Courtney. "We don't range calve, but we can't invest a lot of time in problem cows. We can't have bad bags, they consume too much time." The Herzogs start calving heifers in mid-March and cows in April. They usually have the cows spread out over several locations, where the Herzog wives help check cows. "We will calve in four places instead of one large group, so there isn't too much demand on water or facilities, and less problems like scours," says Courtney. "If you give them more room, it takes care of some of those problems." Yet, Courtney is anticipating having some unusual calving problems this year. "I expect we will have more issues this year because the cows have been walking on ice for two months," he explains. "I am mentally preparing myself for weird stuff. Bad footing can add to birthing challenges like turned around or stillborn calves." Courtney hopes to be farming when the cows start calving. "We plan to plant quite a bit of barley for seed, but we have a lot of snow, so I have a contingency plan if it gets late and is too wet," he says. Courtney says he plans to plant sorghum in June for grazing, and may shift some of his barley acres to later seeding, warm season crops like safflower or sunflower. The Herzogs have grown a variety of crops, including peas, lentils, sunflower, safflower, wheat, barley and corn. They have been growing silage corn to graze the past four years. "We will try to grow just about anything," Courtney says. "Our corn yields really well, even on continuous crop fields. We graze it in September to put some bloom on the calves." The Herzogs also graze their wheat in the fall. "The cattle graze until it freezes, then we run them on crop residue, and take them off when it comes out of dormancy," says Courtney. "This snow will be beneficial to the wheat; the moisture is a good thing." Courtney Herzog pulls hay wrapping off round bales while feeding his expectant mother cows. The Herzogs began breeding their own replacement heifers about 10 years ago, creating a breeding formula to produce hardy, drought-resistant cows that calve with ease, says Courtney.