Average gain to weaning weight

[Dusty Britches]

I've often wondered about my cows and how well their calves gain.

Let me describe my herd - we have about 25 cows, 10 bred heifers and one bull. Currently, we don't have the facilities to seperate the bull, but we are "working" on that (along with about a dozen other projects). So, needless to say, we have calves year round. The bulk of calves were born in February.

Our bull is a registered Angus. He is about 2200 pounds. He had the lowest birth weight, highest birth to weaning weight gain, and highest weaning to yearing weight gains at the Texas Beef Development Center annual bull sale last year. His birth weight was 62 pounds, his weaning weight was 775, his yearling weight was 1450(+/-).

Our cows are primarily Brangus. Most are first calf, with calves out of the Angus bull. The calves are averaging 375-400 pounds now, average age is 4 months.

Here's my question - what should I expect (or set my goal at) for their 6 - 7 month weights so I can monitor for potential cull cows? BTW- I posted this in the feedyard forum - hoping to get more responses that way.

 

[jerry27150]

i figure my cows should wean a calf at least 5-600, heifers a little lighter. unless of course i provided some poor feed, then i would factor that in. also a fall calving cow will raise a little lighter calf around here. most any live calf is worth lots of money right now though

 

[flaboy]

I've often wondered about my cows and how well their calves gain.
Stuff deleted
Our cows are primarily Brangus. Most are first calf, with calves out of the Angus bull. The calves are averaging 375-400 pounds now, average age is 4 months.

Here's my question - what should I expect (or set my goal at) for their 6 - 7 month weights so I can monitor for potential cull cows? BTW- I posted this in the feedyard forum - hoping to get more responses that way.

I have a couple of questions. Are you supplementing the cows forage with feed? Are you feeding the calves? In my neck of the woods way down south a 4 month old on mom and grass alone will be about 50-100 pounds lighter on average to the 375-400 you are seeing at 4 months. So I would say in MY honest opinion you are doing pretty well but then again there are a lot of variables such as feeding, forage type, cows per acre, type of cows, and other things.

As far as culling, I wouldn't pay too much attention to first calf cows. Again my opinion is I would wait to see the second calf before I did any culling unless the calf noticeably pulled down one or two and the others maintained their body condition well. Then I might cull a first calf cow but not only based on the calf itself.

 

[Frankie]

Do you have any information on previous calves from these cows? If not, you really don't have anything to compare them to at this point. ADG will vary greatly based on management, even with similar genetics. If someone in East Texas, with plenty of rain and grass, runs the same cows and bull, they'll probably get higher ADG than someone running the same cattle in West Texas. Cattle in moderate climates will probably gain better than those in hot (or extremely cold) climates. So there's really no way to project what your calves will gain. My suggestion is to weigh everything at a certain age (205 days is the standard) this year and compare the weights produced by each cow. Then next year do the same thing. You should be able by then to pick out the cows that aren't working for you. You might go to the Angus web site ( http://www.angus.org ) and check into the Beef Record Service (BRS) program. Even if you don't want to enroll your herd, there might be info there to help you out. Also check out the AngusSource tag program.

Here's a link to the BRS program: http://www.angus.org/performance/docume ... r_brs.html

I'd be interested in knowing the breeding of the bull. You can send me a Private Message (PM) if you'd rather not post it online. Good luck....

 

[flaboy]

Do you have any information on previous calves from these cows? If not, you really don't have anything to compare them to at this point.

dang Frankie, don't wanna be mean here but he/she said they were first calves. How many first calves can a cow have before she has a first calf? I just kill myself sometimes. :lol: :lol:

 

[El_Putzo]

I don't know if this is exactly what you are looking for, but on our last batch of weaned calves, we weighed them the day we brought them in off the cows. The weight gain per day of age ranged from 1.6 lbs up to 2.45 lbs. The average for the group of 35 calves was 1.9 lbs per day of age. So I guess using that you could take your BW and age of calves and figure out if they are doing similar. I don't really think the 1.9 is stellar at all. Hopefully some others can chime and we can see what we should be shooting for.

 

[Frankie]

Do you have any information on previous calves from these cows? If not, you really don't have anything to compare them to at this point.

dang Frankie, don't wanna be mean here but he/she said they were first calves. How many first calves can a cow have before she has a first calf? I just kill myself sometimes. :lol: :lol:

Apparently I should read more carefully.

 

[cherokeeruby]

Sounds like they are doing fine, will probably wean in the 550-600+ range. First calvers are usually allowed to wean a lighter calf than a mature cow, there are table that adjust for dam's age. Unless the calf is obviously not keeping up with it's age group I wouldn't worry so much about each calf's weight.

Instead of culling on weaning weight I would cull on breeding status this fall. Unless the cow had a really late cow they should all be palpated and open cows culled. But if Brangus are like Brahmans they are harder to detect pregnancy in the early stages, and the vet is always off by two months in the later stages.

 

[Dusty Britches]

Thanks, y'all!

We do not supplement - we figure it is the cow's job to raise that calf. And, a cow should be able to convert grass to energy efficiently. We put out frre choice 12-12 loose mineral. Most of the pastures are bahia. The cows seem to maintain condition fairly well, with some weight loss when the calves are about 5-6 months old (at least for the seasoned cows). Over 1/2 the herd are first calf cows.

I'd like to see 650-700 pound weaning weights at 7 months, but that may be too aggressive.