Backgrounding Holstein Steers

[skip7879]

All right I am hoping there is someone who can give me some advice on this. I bought about 25 just weaned holstein steers about a month ago. I had them green tagged and poured and implanted with compudose. They are healthy but I don't think they are gaining like I had hoped and I am thinking I need to make some changes. Currently I have been feeding them a 50/50 mix of corn gluten feed and soyhulls and top dressing with a 38% protein with monensen supplement, also free choice loose salt and minerals. They are also eating off of a round bale of decent (not the best) grass hay I am guessing they are eating about 8lbs of this a day given the weight of the bales .I have been slowly working them up to about 3lbs of feed a day. I would like to keep them green but I think I am on the side of being too green right now. My goal is for them to gain at least 3lbs a day. Is this wishful thinking the way I am feeding them or do I need to make some changes. Any opinon is welcome thanks

Skip

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

Skip, it takes a l-o-n-g time to fill out holsteins -- that's just the nature of the beasts, because they are big, rangey-limbed cattle. Is your goal to finish them out, or just get them started good and sell? Someone smarter than me on the Board can talk about all that. And I can't counsel you on your feed program; but they are pretty young for a huge grain load. So, I guess I just told you a whole bunch of "don't know," but someone on here will kick in that does know. Good luck with that bunch!

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I feed fifty holstien steers all the time and once weaned i would be feeding them 4 pounds a day if they where around 200lbs and work up to 7 by the time there at 500. I personaly would not expect over 3lbs a day gain. what i try to do is get them from weaning to 500 in 4 months and that is about as good as i can get a stien to gain. I also am bottle feeding them but i can make prety good money at this. hope this helps some

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Skip
I background lightweight (mostly 200# to 450#) beef calves using the cg/sh pellet blend. My experience is they will only gain 2-2 1/2 lb/day when fed the cg/sh feed free choice along with hay. When smaller only about 2# adg. The adg will increase as they get bigger and their feed consumption increases. On the beef calves, have not had a problem getting them fleshy under 450 lb especially when implanted. Would think the steins could be pushed hard even longer without getting too fat. Maybe forever on the cg/sh ration. Also, it has been more profitable to full feed the pellets as opposed to limit feeding them. If they have free choice hay, you can increase the daily feed amounts say 1/2#/hd/day with no digestive upsets/bloat as there is little starch in this feed. It is very forgiving. When eating free choice it is my experience they will eat about 2% bw of cg/sh pellets and about .5% bw of hay.

Hope this is helpful.

 

[skip7879]

I was looking them over like I always do when I do chores this morning. They are definetly growing but I think I will add another pound aday to there feed. I just don't want people to think they are sick when they come and buy them. Has anybody fed ddgs and soyhulls with any luck? Denver what are you feeding your calves when they are weaned?

 

[bigbull338]

oh boy them holsteins will eat you out of house an home.but to get them to growing good you need to up their feed to 8 or 10lbs of feed a day.ive got a 3 month old beef calf thats eating 6lbs a day plus grass.an if i wasnt going to sale him he would already be eating 10lbs of feed a day plus grass a day.

 

[TexasBred]

I was looking them over like I always do when I do chores this morning. They are definetly growing but I think I will add another pound aday to there feed. I just don't want people to think they are sick when they come and buy them. Has anybody fed ddgs and soyhulls with any luck? Denver what are you feeding your calves when they are weaned?

I didn't do the calculations as you didn't say how much of the 38% pellet each calf gets but I'd probably cut back on the CGF/Soyhull pellet, add a pound of the protein pellet and add two pounds of chopped corn. They need more energy and probably a bit more protein.

 

[inbredredneck]

Skip the buyers of those calves will want flesh not frame, you're feeding for frame, they need more protein and energy.

 

[Massey135]

Calf fed finishing ration. Free choice whole corn take away the hay quick!

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Skip
I am feeding a feed that is choped corn a12 % pellet oats and molasses and a 20% protien salt mix and they are on all the grass they can eat. how long are you going to keep these calves and what do they weigh?To gain the best I find it very important to keep them dewormed if you are going to use pour on i would do it again in 60 to 75 days since this has been there first time if just weaned. I dont know about your brand but with ralgro impants we implant at weaning and every 90 days after and and think we are 25 pounds ahead at 500 that seems well worth it to me.with what i am doing now i feel like i see a diference in them every day. it also can make a big diference in what a calf will gain by how good each one is it is a lot easier buying them weaned than at 3 days old like i do to tell what they can do for you. hope this helps in some way.

 

[TexasBred]

Calf fed finishing ration. Free choice whole corn take away the hay quick!

ONLY if they have all the free choice high quality grazing they want. Without roughage you create an environment for numerous problems ALL of which will hinder growth and weight gain.

 

[Massey135]

Calf fed finishing ration. Free choice whole corn take away the hay quick!

ONLY if they have all the free choice high quality grazing they want. Without roughage you create an environment for numerous problems ALL of which will hinder growth and weight gain.

No, there is no roughage in a calf fed ration. That is the purpose of using the WHOLE corn it acts as a scratch. ADM, Mooremans, and several others make a high protein supplement with rumensen and moneson formulated SPECIFICALLY for the ration im suggesting.
Funny thing Is TB, you and an old cat, LONGTIMELURKER, are the ones that introduced me to the calf fed finishing rations, now you dispute it??

 

[TexasBred]

Noone is talking about finishing rations but you. We're talking about starter/grower rations. "Just weaned holstein steers" as the original poster stated. Even if they weighed a thousand pounds and were on a finisher ration you still feed some roughage to create and maintain the rumen mat. Corn doesn't scratch, especially whole corn.

 

[inbredredneck]

No, there is no roughage in a calf fed ration. That is the purpose of using the WHOLE corn it acts as a scratch. ADM, Mooremans, and several others make a high protein supplement with rumensen and moneson formulated SPECIFICALLY for the ration im suggesting.
Funny thing Is TB, you and an old cat, LONGTIMELURKER, are the ones that introduced me to the calf fed finishing rations, now you dispute it??

I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment for teaching you something or if you are being sarcastic.

 

[Massey135]

No, there is no roughage in a calf fed ration. That is the purpose of using the WHOLE corn it acts as a scratch. ADM, Mooremans, and several others make a high protein supplement with rumensen and moneson formulated SPECIFICALLY for the ration im suggesting.
Funny thing Is TB, you and an old cat, LONGTIMELURKER, are the ones that introduced me to the calf fed finishing rations, now you dispute it??

I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment for teaching you something or if you are being sarcastic.

You should take it as a compliment. As a matter of fact that topic dated March or April of 2010 is what really got me back into ag and made me move back to the farm instead of going to the CME. Search my old name, MF135, and the title is "feeding holsteins" or something like that. At the risk of exposing my prior ignorance, I would invite anyone to go back and read it. I argued till my fingers hurt about the inferiority of holsteins on feed. It wasn't until the hard headedness of longtimelurker and LarryShoats, 2 men I don't know, that I was able to actually learn how to feed holsteins. I spent HOURS on the phone with feed reps confirming what these men had taught me about the calf fed method. Two days after graduation I found myself at the Allrounder Dairy buying 25 holsteins calves. When some say I should have been studying for the level 1 CFA, I was instead mixing buckets of milk replacer. I had done this 20 times before when younger but could never figure out why I couldn't put flesh on them. It wasn't until implementing the calf fed ration with NO ROUGHAGE that I saw first hand what a Stein could do on full feed. Granted, a lot of the profit I ended up making were do to the shift in cattle prices between 2010 and 2011, but I over doubled my initial investment. This was with 10.99 corn.

I want to personally thank you for re igniting my passion for cattle with that 1 topic. It sparked my thirst for knowledge and I haven't been able to quinch that thirst since. As silly as it sounds, I can honestly say you changed the course of my life...and hopefully for the better... It it weren't for that one topic, I don't know that I would have ever made it back. No amount of cash could make me leave now.


There is a pleasure in the pathless woods; There is a rapture on the lonely shore; There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not man the less, but Nature more..

 

[Stocker Steve]

All right I am hoping there is someone who can give me some advice on this. I bought about 25 just weaned holstein steers about a month ago. I had them green tagged and poured and implanted with compudose.
Skip

Sounds like they are juiced up light weight calves and not getting a lot of energy. I have seen backgrounders struggle with 200 to 300 pound calves using cheap byproducts and free choice grassy hay. About 50 to 75% of the calves do 1.5#/day and the others do poorly. I think their rumens are just not developed enough. Your byproduct blend is better than DDG but I would still check on the energy needed for a stein.

 

[Mid South Guy]

My experience with Holstiens is not to "background" them at all. I've had best results by putting them on full feed of a high energy finishing ration right after weaning. If they are allowed to grow out to 700-800# in a traditional backgrounding operation then put on a finishing ration, they will weigh 1600# plus before they begin to get any fat cover at all. However, by starting them on finishing at 300#, when they are very young and their feed efficiency is at its highest, they will have enough fat cover on them at 1100-1200# to MAYBE grade select and have a much more marketable carcass. Remember, these are very big dairy animals bred for milk production only. Not moderately framed animals bred for meat.

 

[inbredredneck]

I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment for teaching you something or if you are being sarcastic.

You should take it as a compliment. As a matter of fact that topic dated March or April of 2010 is what really got me back into ag and made me move back to the farm instead of going to the CME. Search my old name, MF135, and the title is "feeding holsteins" or something like that. At the risk of exposing my prior ignorance, I would invite anyone to go back and read it. I argued till my fingers hurt about the inferiority of holsteins on feed. It wasn't until the hard headedness of longtimelurker and LarryShoats, 2 men I don't know, that I was able to actually learn how to feed holsteins. I spent HOURS on the phone with feed reps confirming what these men had taught me about the calf fed method. Two days after graduation I found myself at the Allrounder Dairy buying 25 holsteins calves. When some say I should have been studying for the level 1 CFA, I was instead mixing buckets of milk replacer. I had done this 20 times before when younger but could never figure out why I couldn't put flesh on them. It wasn't until implementing the calf fed ration with NO ROUGHAGE that I saw first hand what a Stein could do on full feed. Granted, a lot of the profit I ended up making were do to the shift in cattle prices between 2010 and 2011, but I over doubled my initial investment. This was with 10.99 corn.

I want to personally thank you for re igniting my passion for cattle with that 1 topic. It sparked my thirst for knowledge and I haven't been able to quinch that thirst since. As silly as it sounds, I can honestly say you changed the course of my life...and hopefully for the better... It it weren't for that one topic, I don't know that I would have ever made it back. No amount of cash could make me leave now.


There is a pleasure in the pathless woods; There is a rapture on the lonely shore; There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not man the less, but Nature more..

You are welcome. I wish I could somehow say things in a way that more people could look past the way I say them and see what it is I'm trying to say. Instead I look like a asshole, and nobody saw the point.

 

[inbredredneck]

My experience with Holstiens is not to "background" them at all. I've had best results by putting them on full feed of a high energy finishing ration right after weaning. If they are allowed to grow out to 700-800# in a traditional backgrounding operation then put on a finishing ration, they will weigh 1600# plus before they begin to get any fat cover at all. However, by starting them on finishing at 300#, when they are very young and their feed efficiency is at its highest, they will have enough fat cover on them at 1100-1200# to MAYBE grade select and have a much more marketable carcass. Remember, these are very big dairy animals bred for milk production only. Not moderately framed animals bred for meat.

Maybe is right, because if fed properly most will grade choice. that breed still has consistentcy in the carcass.

 

[TexasBred]

My experience with Holstiens is not to "background" them at all. I've had best results by putting them on full feed of a high energy finishing ration right after weaning. If they are allowed to grow out to 700-800# in a traditional backgrounding operation then put on a finishing ration, they will weigh 1600# plus before they begin to get any fat cover at all. However, by starting them on finishing at 300#, when they are very young and their feed efficiency is at its highest, they will have enough fat cover on them at 1100-1200# to MAYBE grade select and have a much more marketable carcass. Remember, these are very big dairy animals bred for milk production only. Not moderately framed animals bred for meat.

I understand the grain ration but what about the total ration. Addition of roughage to the diet can increase intake and reduce the chance of metabolic disorders such as acidosis. Feeding zero or extremely low roughage diets increases risk, as does any means to increase the energy density of the diet. Don't know for certain but betcha IBR uses corn silage or some other "high quality" source of roughage in his operation.