Angus and Hereford Diet

[Radi Cilo]

What are the basic diets of Angus and Herefords? I am looking for some food with good nutrition that will fatten 'em up.

Here are some I've heard (Besides Grass):

-Corn
-Oats
-Hay

Not sure really anything else.

Thanks,
-Radi

 

[Mahoney Pursley Ranch]

You will go broke feedin them all that high dollar feed. Put um in the pasture with salt and mineral blocks and watch um grow. ;-)

 

[flaboy]

Grass/minerals in the summer. Hay/minerals in the winter.

 

[Radi Cilo]

Thanks,
-Radi

 

[Susie David]

I like the Angus Hereford diet...put on quite a few pounds over the years and it tastes great...especially a two year old Hereford thats been corn finished for four+ months.
Sorry Radi, gettin old and couldn't resist...feeding alot of grain to a cow is like you eating alot of junk food...all the extra energy goes right into fat. Learn what your cow's nutrient requirements are for the gain that you are feeding for...everything else that you feed is just making expensive manure. Grass, hay and minerals just like the folks said with a little grain to keep then interested and comming to the barn for evening muster. Finishing is another matter, cross that bridge when you get to it. Good luck.
Dave mc

 

[1848]

I like the Angus Hereford diet...put on quite a few pounds over the years and it tastes great...especially a two year old Hereford thats been corn finished for four+ months.

Now that's funny! :lol2:

I'm glad cilo clarified "besides grass"

Flatboy and Mahoney I got to agree with you there..100% ;-)

 

[la4angus]

...feeding alot of grain to a cow is like you eating alot of junk food...all the extra energy goes right into fat.

She did say that she's looking for a food with good nutrition that will fatten them up.

 

[1848]

...feeding alot of grain to a cow is like you eating alot of junk food...all the extra energy goes right into fat.

She did say that she's looking for a food with good nutrition that will fatten them up.

You're right l4angus,

I'm sorry Cilo, but usually a good grass diet will fatten cattle up better then anything, unless your wanting to eat them, then you might want to throw a little corn their way. Be careful with too much oats! (bloat, sick..bad)

 

[Radi Cilo]

Thanks.
I was planning on selling.

Any reason to give 'em a bit a corn if I'm gonna eat them?

-Radi

 

[1848]

Some people would say it makes the beef taste a little better. I think it just makes more fat, but the fat tastes better!

 

[Radi Cilo]

Thanks - Would it be good to feed corn to a cow to put more pounds on cattle? Since payment per pound is common.

Thanks,
-Radi

 

[la4angus]

Some people would say it makes the beef taste a little better. I think it just makes more fat, but the fat tastes better!

IMO the beef taste's better.

 

[ChrisB]

Putting cull cows on a high grain diet for 30-60 days before selling is good management in my opinion. Cows coming off pasture may not look thin, but they can put on a lot of pounds in a short period of time. This is if you have a cheap feed source and facilities to do so. You can usually put on a couple hundred pounds and also get them to grade higher which will make 10-20 cents difference too.

 

[1848]

Some people would say it makes the beef taste a little better. I think it just makes more fat, but the fat tastes better!

IMO the beef taste's better.

Tell the grass fed beef people that!

 

[la4angus]

Some people would say it makes the beef taste a little better. I think it just makes more fat, but the fat tastes better!

IMO the beef taste's better.

Tell the grass fed beef people that!

I tell it to any. That is my opinion. If the grass fed people don't like it, tough titty.

 

[1848]

Putting cull cows on a high grain diet for 30-60 days before selling is good management in my opinion. Cows coming off pasture may not look thin, but they can put on a lot of pounds in a short period of time. This is if you have a cheap feed source and facilities to do so. You can usually put on a couple hundred pounds and also get them to grade higher which will make 10-20 cents difference too.

What? :shock: :shock:

Ok, lets consider the recent post and use 2% of body weight of 1,000 lbs to get an animal in shape. That would be 20lbs of feed a day. At a good price of $10 a hundred for "grain". So, 100 lbs would last 5 days, divided into 60 days would be 1,200 lbs of grain or $120! So "if" I get $50 cwt on that cull cow, that's $500, and if I get $10 cwt more by feeding it that's $600. Now "if", and I say if, a poor cow gains 100 lbs on that diet and actually weighs 1,100 lbs when sold that's another $60 bucks at .60 pr lb, So based an an investment of at least $120 I made $40 bucks for my trouble of buying the grain, feeding the animal, letting the animal continue to suck up pasture and/or hay, and whatever else may come up in the 60 days, plus stand a chance of missing a good market? No way! It's not like you cull 10 cows at a time anyway sowhere is the profit in this with cull cows?

If it's a cull...sell it! If it didn't get fat on the grass I'm not wasting my time and energy in her to impress a packer or help my ego by only putting conditioned animals in the sale barn. They have sales for preconditioned calves if I want to feed them out and sell them.

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

This has always been a topic that's interested me, but more along the lines of buying & selling skinny but healthy cows that just need worming, grass & management. But without getting into any of the other considerations and assumptions in 1848's post, and not disputing them either, I'd just guess that when ChrisB said "if you have a cheap feed source......" he was thinking more in terms of say, $5 per cwt for corn, or even less if well positioned and able to buy in bulk or are a vertically integrated farmer/rancher. Say you can get bulk corn at $2.50 a bushel (not unheard of), say 55 pounds per bushel, that's $4.54 per cwt before freight.

 

[1848]

This has always been a topic that's interested me, but more along the lines of buying & selling skinny but healthy cows that just need worming, grass & management. But without getting into any of the other considerations and assumptions in 1848's post, and not disputing them either, I'd just guess that when ChrisB said "if you have a cheap feed source......" he was thinking more in terms of say, $5 per cwt for corn, or even less if well positioned and able to buy in bulk or are a vertically integrated farmer/rancher. Say you can get bulk corn at $2.50 a bushel (not unheard of), say 55 pounds per bushel, that's $4.54 per cwt before freight.

Good point Az. I knew someone would argue the food end of it, but since I don't buy bulk feed I don't have a realization of the actual profit if you have that available. I don't think buying them lean, grassing them, and breeding them to get them to give a return and turn a buck is a bad deal. In fact, I know several who do it, but I still wouldn't fatten "my culls" (which is the way I read his post, instead of buying and reselling) to stick them in the sell barn. ;-)

 

[Texan]

.......I still wouldn't fatten "my culls" (which is the way I read his post, instead of buying and reselling) to stick them in the sell barn. ;-)

You mean, not if you could stick them in Flaboy, as is?

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

I think you read it right, 1848. I also know a guy (well two, but one died) that has made some good money over the years, and accumulated a lot of land, by buying skinny cows and selling them not too many months later. But both guys were lifetime 100% cattlemen and good "grass farmers" and they of course could tell the difference between a dead cow walking and one that mostly just needed worming, grass and management. One also owned an auction barn so he had a little extra edge I'd guess. He always bought with the intention of flipping, but says that about 25% of the time those skinny cows were actually pretty well along in calf when he bought them, so he held them a little longer to get the calf on the ground. Some of those cows turned out to be good enough to add to his regular commercial herd. Not a bad way to make a buck in the business if you have the right skills --- I don't reckon I'll ever be skilled enough to try it.