Backgrounding calves?

[Z&J Cattle]

We have a small cow/calf operation and plan to keep it at around 20 cows for the forseeable future. We have 70 acres. We have asked around to local farmers and they say that we should be able to run one cow per two acres if we take decent care of the grass (which we will of course). We want to wean our calves and background them ourselves. We are going to fence off a small pasture close to the working facilities that will be strictly devoted to this. At any given time, we shouldn't have more than 10-12 calves on it. My question is, given this information, what kind of acerage would you folks recommend setting aside for this? I want to set aside as much as we need, but not more than necessary, because obviously this takes grass away from the momma cows. We just want to keep the calves to 600lbs. or so and ship them. Any advice is greatly appreciated as always.

Zach

 

[Crowderfarms]

I'd say 10 -12 acres at the least.

 

[Z&J Cattle]

That's kind of what we were looking at. I have one particular spot in mind and it would be right at 10-11 acres, so hopefully that will work out well.

 

[Crowderfarms]

That's kind of what we were looking at. I have one particular spot in mind and it would be right at 10-11 acres, so hopefully that will work out well.

It should.Wont leave the Calves with too little pasture, and wont deprive the cows either.Good Luck. Hope it all works out good for you. ;-)

 

[Z&J Cattle]

Thanks for the advice Crowder Farms.

 

[Crowderfarms]

Thanks for the advice Crowder Farms.

Anytime. Sounds like you have a good plan going into effect.

 

[Z&J Cattle]

Sounds good on paper anyway! lol We had originally planned on just pulling the calves straight off the cows and shipping them at 400lbs. or so, but a friend of my dad's (the best cattleman that I know, hands down), said why put all that time, money, and effort into getting that calf out and up and going just to sell him for say $500 when you can put a little more time and money into him and sell him for $700. Makes sense to me. He is doing VERY well with this philosophy. Of course, we will be doing it on a much smaller scale. At any given time, he has around 400 head total on his place!

 

[bullred]

Z&J,

I'm planning on doing much the same with my 25 tigerstripes, bred back to an Angus bull. The biggest question I have right now is were to market my calves to get the premium prices that backgrounding should bring. Have you given any thought to this?

I live in Chambers County (SE Texas) and the nearest preconditioned calf sale that I know about is Jordan's in San Saba, about a 4-5 hour drive. That's not real appealing to me, but I don't think I'm going to get the premium to justify preconditioning at the local (Raywood, TX) sale barn.

CJ

 

[Z&J Cattle]

Bullred, we are still only in the planning stages right now. However, after thinking a little deeper in to it, (and sleeping on it), for our particular situation, it is probably going to be better for us to just sell the calves at weaning. We have one 18 acre pasture, one 20 acre pasture, and one 22 acre pasture, for a total of 60 acres(+-). As I said in my original post, our land should support around one cow per two acres. To do it right, we really need to devote our 18 acre pasture to just the calves. This leaves us 42 acres of open pasture. That is 21 momma cows. But, if we just sell the calves at weaning, we will be able to use the entire 60 acres for the cows (hopefully 30 cows). Now, based on the CURRENT market in our area, say a 450# calf brings $1.25. That is $562.50. Now, say that same calf brings $1.10 at 650#, that is $715. OK, so we can (theoretically) sell 21 calves at $715 for a total of $14,300, OR we can sell 30 calves at $562 for a total of $16,860 and we don't have the extra feed expense and the extra labor. I know these figures will all vary of course, but it is just a ballpark based on the current local market, but any way you slice it (for our situation), I think we will be much better off for the near future to do it this way.

Zach

 

[dun]

Rather then pasturing the calves during backgrounding, you might be money ahead to drylot them in a smaller area. Make up for the quality of the hay with a higher protein content backgrounding ration.

dun

 

[bullred]

Z&J,

Sounds like you and I are in the same boat. I've gone through the same calculations. Couple that with the fact that there are not really any good marketing options close by for preconditioned calves, and I'm having a hard time convincing myself it is the best business decision.

Dun, drylot is an alternative but around here 99% of all cattle are pastured. In fact I can't think of anybody that drylot feeds cattle. As a result there are not really any good resources for bulk feed at good prices. Bag feeds from the local feed stores would eat up all the profits. This might work for Z&J though, depending on his local conditions.

CJ

 

[dun]

The pasturing of weaned calves without much of a grain supplement is usually referred to as stockers. Backgrounding typically is the feeding to weight on supplemnts and hay to get them to the weight that the feedlots are looking for. With the age concern of calves, taking longer then is required to get them to that weight would decrease your marketing avenues.

dun

 

[Stocker Steve]

The pasturing of weaned calves without much of a grain supplement is usually referred to as stockers. Backgrounding typically is the feeding to weight on supplemnts and hay to get them to the weight that the feedlots are looking for. With the age concern of calves, taking longer then is required to get them to that weight would decrease your marketing avenues.

dun

With either stockers or backgrounding - - the average daily gain is a big profit factor. Stockers need a much higher quality pasture than cows to have an acceptable ADG. If the calves are not gaining much the carrying costs and the fixed costs just eat you up. So many "Stocker" operators supplement permanent pasture heavily with a corn based product to get ADG over 2 pounds per day.

 

[Johnny]

I am currently backgrounding my calves from a 300 head herd. It will return a nice profit only if you can work in truck load lots, 48000 lbs or 80, 600 lbs calves. Anything less and you are doing it for free. If you background you calves on pastue and bagged supplement it will only be for around 60 days then the pasture is free to be used by cows again. Why are you weaning 400 lb calves. Good mama cow and bull you should be weaning 600 lb calf at 7-8 months.

Hope this helps, Johnny

 

[rchile]

I currently run a small stocker operation out of south Florida. I run about 200 head of lightweight stocker calves (200-500 lbs.). I currently feed bakery waste (bread and sweets) mix with a very light ration of 12% weaning medicated feed. The calves run on native Bermuda grass and on all the feed they want. They will gain about 1.0 to 1.3 lbs a day. I was wondering if I just putting them on just straight feed what kind of results would I be getting. And would it be feasible to feed just feed.

 

[J. T.]

I've attended meetings where we've been told how to manage our calves for maximum profits. Most of us in attendance aren't selling truckloads of cattle at a time but the extension guys paint a pretty picture about profits that can be obtained from a vaccination program, backgrounding and so on. From what I've been able to ascertain, castrating (plus tetanus), dehorning, implanting, and a blackleg vaccine makes good marketing sense if your a small timer. Even one full timer in my county sells his calves right off the cow and has done it that way for years. The buyers don't seem really interested in your vaccination/backgrounding program and I've seen calves that have gone through a rigid "by the book" backgrounding / vaccination program bring the same price as those pulled right off of the teat and sent to town.

 

[bullred]

I've attended meetings where we've been told how to manage our calves for maximum profits. Most of us in attendance aren't selling truckloads of cattle at a time but the extension guys paint a pretty picture about profits that can be obtained from a vaccination program, backgrounding and so on. From what I've been able to ascertain, castrating (plus tetanus), dehorning, implanting, and a blackleg vaccine makes good marketing sense if your a small timer. Even one full timer in my county sells his calves right off the cow and has done it that way for years. The buyers don't seem really interested in your vaccination/backgrounding program and I've seen calves that have gone through a rigid "by the book" backgrounding / vaccination program bring the same price as those pulled right off of the teat and sent to town.

JT,

As I've said before, I think that the key to preconditioning is having a viable marketing outlet for them. Precondition calf sales, like the one at Jordan's in San Saba or Mason will bring you a good return on your extra investment. But running preconditioned claves through the local auction barn, where nobody else backgrounds their calves, will probably never get you the premium you need to justify the added expense and labor of a backgrounding.

CJ

 

[Beef11]

If i was in your shoes i would find some more grass. You never have enough and either put the calves on it or the cows. Another way to go is to rotate the calves ahead of the cows so that they get the better feed then bring in the old girls to clean it up. I used to run my cows all over the place but i was very constrained due to breeding groups and it works alot better with calves. I like to run them on those 1-5 acre peices or save them for when the ladies get home in the fall.

 

[dph]

I think Dun is on the money. Put those calves in a .25 acre drylot and buy a little hay and feed for them. You probably could get a better gain that way than by on pasture. Here in Iowa, almost all calves that are backgrounded are backgrounded in a drylot. But also, here corn is cheap.

If you can't pencil out spending some money on outside feed for your calves, that it probably isn't worth preconditioning them.

Good Luck.

 

[ronr]

Running then Calves on Grass with light Grain is your most cost-effective gain. I live in a different part of the world..Iowa. Because we have so much cheap Corn guys tend to push them too hard when they are young. They get overly fleshly and won't fininsh out very heavy.

I would check with a Nutritionist to check out your Mcal intake of those calves.