South Poll Calves | Regenerative Ranching

[@charmainevandiford6622]

They are all beautiful but the dark red Heifer and the little white face are outstanding. Definitely on your way Mr Cliff

[@princepa123]

Congrats Cliff. Your hard work is paying off. Thanks for sharing.

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Thanks Papi!

[@jamiemyers1622]

Congratulations! This is our first calving season with South polls. The docility is amazing and exactly what we were looking for.

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Ditto! Very gentle cattle.

[@finbarrdinneen3430]

Congratulations on all the healthy beautiful calves, Cliff

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Thank you and thanks for watching!

[@Dadnatron]

Enjoy the video. Thanks for posting

[@allenmeinhold7038]

I could watch them all day! Butch Ashland Ohio

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Me too!

[@jameshassel5838]

Great job. They all look good

[@marybraud8718]

Beautiful.

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Thank you!

[@carlharper8842]

That's some good looking calves. I also swapped to a South Poll Bull last year. I have 4 calves on the ground and got alot more cows springing. So far I really like what I'm seeing. I see calves coming out of heifers with no problems, hitting the ground running, and even nipping at the grass at 3-4 days old.

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Great observations Carl! I’m seeing the same! Low birth weights and coming on strong!

[@georgeheller2281]

Some good looking calves there. Gonna do well starting on green grass. Hope we have some when our calves hit the ground. Thank you have a wonderful day

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Thanks George! Green grass is one day closer for you!

[@captken71]

Fine looking calves. I like the white faced as well as the solid reds.

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

She’s growing on me! I’m likely going to keep her for a replacement heifer!

[@captken71]

I would not blame you a bit but if you decide to sell her later on I’m going to email you my info !

[@johnrountree6111]

Excellent

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Thanks John!

[@williambryan2804]

Nice!!! Our heifer is due the first part of September. We want to switch over to May 1st calving.

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Great time of year to have calves hit the ground.

[@davidgay2679]

Beautiful calves, that dark red one is awesome!! I've had 4 born in the last 2 weeks, absolutely love watching them play!!

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

It’s the best part of ranching by far!!

[@kylebrumfield3515]

Congratulations!!! Spring calving is the best!!! I assume none needed any assistance or had any complications, another Southpoll characteristic. I happen to prefer the ones that have a little white.

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Thus far, no calving problems. 🙏🏻🙏🏻 Beautiful days, green grass, baby calves. Doesn’t get any better than that.

[@helenjohnson4593]

Good Cattle!

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Thanks! Trying!

[@balakrishnangovindasamy3473]

For South poll No 6 , please check the milk on the cow. Bag seems to be small and empty for a day 1.

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

She came into her milk today. Good observation!!

[@gmathis4829]

Your trees are about a month or so ahead of ours.

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Where are you located?

[@UnStrungHero]

Pretty babies

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

👍🏼👍🏼

[@ericbradley4204]

It's satisfying to see the payoff of calves hitting the ground. Keep up the great content!

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Thanks Eric!

[@robertduffy5805]

Those are some beauties.

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Thanks Robert 👌🏼👌🏼

[@charmainevandiford6622]

Mr Cliff how will the South poles do at the sale. I know they are expensive to buy and I know they perform on grass better. My question is since you are changing up will they bring good at the sale?

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

I’ve sold all but one south poll private treaty so no good gauge. The red calves that are 50% south poll fetch the same price as the blacks. Last batch I sold brought $1550/head.

[@charmainevandiford6622]

Good deal and I just wandered. They are good looking cows but I heard some farmers around home say the black cows bring better at the sale barn. Maybe that is changing. Once the hide is off they all look the same pretty muc!

[@charmainevandiford6622]

Much I mean.

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

@charmainevandiford6622 I think there still is a black calf preference by buyers but it will be interesting to see what happens going forward. I sure don’t know.

[@jor4288]

Dr. Honnas, are you done with spring calving? Or do you have more to go?

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Have 4 more to go. Should be within a couple weeks.

[@sandymcdaniels8871]

Wanted to see if we could get your opinion on what Freedom Foods is doing on the 4 way cross as far as grass gain in the south?

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

I’m not aware of what they are doing. Tell me what you know.

[@charleskreger9622]

Because your schedule is so hectic, do you have someone who rotates the cows when you are busy? The pasture I am thinking about leasing is about an hour from my home. I don’t know if I could make it to the pasture every day.

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Would be a tough program to drive that far in my opinion (not to mention the fuel expense). Last year, I sectioned each pasture off into 4-6 acre paddocks. It was a strain for sure to move them on some days. This year I’m going to make 10-12 acre paddocks so I can move them about every 6-7 days (weekends). By the time I get around the rotation, each paddock will have rested 45 days or more. Since we haven’t had much rain, I may have to change to a different time frame/paddock. It’s not high density, short time interval grazing, but it works for me.

[@DFTCattleCo]

One thing you could do is setup several paddocks on the weekend and put time released spring gates on each paddock so they will move themselves to new pasture. Might take a little while for them to train to the gates.

[@jeffgood1475]

Nice looking calves! Are these out of the Greg Judy bull you had? Curious why you got rid of him?

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

They are not out of the Greg Judy bull. They are out of a bull or bulls at Sassafras valley Ranch (Bruce Shanks) in Missouri. I bought them as bred heifers. I got rid of the Greg Judy bull because he’s not registered and I want to have registered South Polls so I can provide seed stock to other producers.

[@markodeen4105]

Great to see! Are you going to be selling off the none Southpole or breading them with your Bull?

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Will breed the black cows to the South Poll bull and sell the half blood calves. As I raise or buy more South Polls, I will gradually cull the black cows.

[@markodeen4105]

@@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher UO already have me looking forward to next year!

[@desmomotodesmomoto2033]

Super enjoyed this, where is the stud bull, you recently purchased? Does he stay separate from the cows?

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

No, he’s in the group. I guess he just didn’t make the video this time 😊

[@DFTCattleCo]

How many cows are you running on how many acres?

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

I’m running 55 head (53 cows and 2 bulls). They run on about 200 acres but at least 50 acres is solid woods, so about 150 acres of grass.

[@DFTCattleCo]

If you were doing daily moves, could you run more cows?

[@cliffhonnasregenerativerancher]

Probably, but it’s way more of a time commitment then I have currently, plus we are getting on the shy side of grass currently because of no rain in 3 weeks. If I had the time and the rain was coming, I likely could run 20 more head with daily moves.

[@charmainevandiford6622]

They are all beautiful but the dark red Heifer and the little white face are outstanding. Definitely on your way Mr Cliff