Feeding calves for weaning/ holding

[clovlanfarms]

Are you selling the big calves privately as freezer beef or selling to packers? How long are y'all feeding these calves and how old are they at finished weight? I see you said 12 months but not sure if that's age or time on feed. I don't think we could get a calf to 1,350# at 12 months of age but it would be great if we could.

you can with the right calf and the right feed. i do. Calves dont grow on 14% feed and grass u got to feed the right feed the right way .

 

[clovlanfarms]

you can with the right calf and the right feed. i do. Calves dont grow on 14% feed and grass u got to feed the right feed the right way .

 

[CowboyRam]

The barn I prefer to sell at just got some new owners. They are wanting to do like 2 special weaned calf sales. No one does that around here. They were actually able to drum up about 150-200 weaned calves when we sold ours. They actually stopped and said these calves have had these shots and been weaned x days, etc, even though they sold as singles.

After the sale I talked with the owner a little he said he is definitely going to have to do some work to get some different kind of buyers in for those sales.

It's interesting. It's some thing new, for us.

With this deal we had the wind at our back and the price increase helped a lot. To really make it viable year in and out they will have to get some thing Iike that kicked off.

Let me get this straight, they sell everything as singles? How many head do they normally do? that just seems like it would take forever.

 

[Lucky]

Let me get this straight, they sell everything as singles? How many head do they normally do? that just seems like it would take forever.

All the barns here sell as singles unless it's a special sale.

 

[Brute 23]

Let me get this straight, they sell everything as singles? How many head do they normally do? that just seems like it would take forever.

2000 is avg. Fall sales might go up to 3K. There is a barn on every corner though. Very few do calving seasons or any thing like that.

 

[bird dog]

I have been in a few conversations like that the past couple of weeks.... online, at sales, at ropings and pennings, etc. Consensus is while steers may stay where they are for a while, there is no way for them to go but down. If they get any higher, people are going to quit eating as much beef. But so many cows have been, and are being, slaughtered.... that there is about to be a shortage of brood stock. Heifers, open or bred, bred cows, pairs , and 3 n 1s are all brining more and more each week. 2 producers I know that had intended on breeding their cows back with sexed for male semen, have told Dan to order sexed for female semen. Clay bought 3 out of those 7 reg Red Char bred heifers I got last month. He was going to AI them with BH sexed for male semen. He gave $3200 for them and has been offered $4500 for the pairs ( All 7 were bred to reg Red Char with sexed semen to produce heifer calves). He now plans on AI-ing his 3 back with sexed for heifer, Red Char semen.

The man that raises the reverse black baldies, got the other 4. He was going to breed them to his Black Hereford bull, but he too has decided to breed them back with Red Char sexed for female semen. When he sold out last month, Clay kept 2 reg Brangus cows and a black BM cow, the Red Angus x Charbray and the red Brangus x Char heifers he got from Dan a year or so ago and the Brangus bull he got from me in February. But, he is gonna take that bull down to the Kudzu place Friday, and AI any those 5 not already bred with sexed for female semen now. And , that is what I am gonna do with those 8 Brahmas I bought yesterday...breed then for f1 Black Hereford and f1 Red Char heifer calves.

I always think it is foolish to retain heifers for your own brood cows but those who have this year, may be sitting on a gold mine if they decide to sell them as open long yearlings later on.

My thoughts on it are: I don't think I would AI my entire commercial beef herd for heifer calves Steers neither, as far as that goes, I think I would use regular semen, or just use bulls, and get some heifers and steers. I think that in the coming year or maybe 2, your heifer calves will sell as well as the steers. I just wouldn't put all of my eggs in one basket.

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[CowboyRam]

All the barns here sell as singles unless it's a special sale.

That must take forever. Here it is not uncommon to sell them in cuts of 60 or whatever would make a pot load. Sometimes they may say take 10 or more. I strive to get most of my calves near the same size as they seem to sell better in larger groups. I think the sale last January when I sold my calves there was somewhere around 4000 go through the sale barn that day.

 

[Lucky]

That must take forever. Here it is not uncommon to sell them in cuts of 60 or whatever would make a pot load. Sometimes they may say take 10 or more. I strive to get most of my calves near the same size as they seem to sell better in larger groups. I think the sale last January when I sold my calves there was somewhere around 4000 go through the sale barn that day.

Here in my area of NE Texas there are 6 salebarns within an hour drive of my house. A couple have 2 sales a week but most have 1 sale. I'd guess the sales have 700-1,200 each week. Most of the time they seem to start at noon and end around 5-6 pm. Every now and then they'll have a big run and stay open half the night. They actually run the cattle through fairly quick. We ship our calves to OKC National Stockyards. There's no way those guys could do singles, seeing as they have 7-10,000 head sell on Monday. I think good calves sell better in groups. We carry cows and bulls to the local barns.

 

[Brute 23]

Ya they are done by 5 most the time.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Lots and lots of GROUPS sold here. They sell a bunch of singles too. I did buy some today!
Scruffy heifer. 2 sort off horned beefmaster bull calves. (Horns are coming off Saturday, fly tag em and run) and 2 black steers. All about 350lbs. Only things I could get under 1000 bucks each. All hard weaned. They will put some condition and pounds on fast!

 

[Lucky]

I wonder if the barns selling calves in groups has to do with the size of the ranches in the area. Lots of ranches under 40 hd in Texas. Also most in our area calve year around. I'd guess most ranches North of Oklahoma have a defined breeding season so they can sell in tighter groups. I'm just guessing here I've never been North of Oklahoma.

 

[anewcomer]

Brute 23, if I'm not mistaken, implants in growing cattle are the most profitable, most researched added technologies in the cattle business.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Same here, looking at #3-400 this go around.

The calves bigger than that are getting sold. We don't really want to take the smaller ones, yet, but I don't want to take any chances on dragging the cows and pasture down be because we don't know what next year may have in store for us.

If we can hold them until the March, April, May time and get in the #450 range we will be doing good.

Now that it's all done.....

Which calves brought more money? The big ones u sold back in January or the ones you fed and sold recently?
Since you did both, at different times of year granted, just curious how the profit margin compares. I know it's been brought up numerous times about selling right off the cow vs weaning for 90 days...

O yeah! Did you buy any back to do all over again?? Only this time with spring grass too.

 

[bird dog]

A lot of our sale barns don't have the pen space or the people to sort calves properly to sell in groups not to mention the fact that a lot of them come in on sale day while the packer cows are going through.

 

[Jdc]

I'm looking in to a better system for weaning/holding calves. We have a combination of drought, now freeze, and other things going on that would warrant weaning early or even kind of backgrounding to hold calves. Usually with heifers it's mainly hay and grass with small amounts of feed initially to help switch over. It is rarely on a large scale, or in these conditions. Labor has always been a big issue with feeding too much, especially daily.

My question is has any one had luck with any kind of free choice feed with limiters?

I'm talking to co-ops and mills in the area about different option. I'm getting recommendations all the way from creep feeds to accuration mixes.

So far I have a co-op offering either a creep feed or and 80/20 accuration mix, both are "their" mixes. I'm not sure about startling weaning calves out right on the acc. It seems like trying to transition from creep to acc could be tough. Both feeds are running about $0.19/lb that includes 4 ton feeders and they come out and refill them. They are going to send me labels on those next week.

Interested in suggestions or experiences with some thing like this, both good and bad.

I wean at 5 months and put them in a feeder pen with a creep feeder. I feed them the Co-op feed called crunch it seems to put 50+ lbs on them in the month then they go to sale

 

[GoWyo]

I've only seen videos, but it looks like they sell each critter in about 5 seconds. Whoever tracks which buyer bought each animal must be on the ball to keep up. Pretty impressive the pace of southern auctions.

 

[Brute 23]

I've only seen videos, but it looks like they sell each critter in about 5 seconds. Whoever tracks which buyer bought each animal must be on the ball to keep up. Pretty impressive the pace of southern auctions.

When I watch the pace they sell groups in Oklahoma, the guys here would give them a run for their money running selling that same group in singles, time wise.

I prefer the slower pace though because you don't get much time to look at the singles.

 

[gcreekrch]

Lots and lots of GROUPS sold here. They sell a bunch of singles too. I did buy some today!
Scruffy heifer. 2 sort off horned beefmaster bull calves. (Horns are coming off Saturday, fly tag em and run) and 2 black steers. All about 350lbs. Only things I could get under 1000 bucks each. All hard weaned. They will put some condition and pounds on fast!
View attachment 44798

Those ones will make you money Murray! Good buying!

 

[gcreekrch]

There again, I keep it simple. Feed is so much a lb, pen gets so many lbs. Per head cost divided into total daily feed. Income over expenses, initial value plus vet plus feed and mineral minus death loss subtracted from sale proceeds is our wages for the project. We have had several bunches pay us well over $1 per head per day on some very common cattle at purchase. One nut depreciates a calf's value by 40 to 60 cents here. It takes an extra 3 to 5 minutes to make that $250 change to a 5 weight calf. There is far more profit in buying right than any other part of the equation.