Best Cattle Crosses For Unassisted Calving

[Brute 23]

Liquid feed and/or cubes are generally a stopgap when you have standing grass that is poor grazing. Both have a point of efficiency also that can be surpassed. Both are great at a certain usage because of convenience but if the rates get too high they get really expensive. At that point you have to bring in a feed source like hay, wcs, or ground feed, etc.

A big decider for me is if we are about to drop calves and conditions are bad we will feed wcs. There is a 4 month window there that is crucial to breedback and kick that calf off.

Even that has a breaking point where you are better off early weaning and feeding them separately.

As a comparison, wcs is running around $11 for #50, $220/1000 in a tote. A cheap cube is around $14 a sack, which I wouldn't feed, and a 40% cs cube is like $16 or $18. None of them will have the fat of the wcs which is what I want for a cow to milk a calf and re-beed.

 

[rocfarm]

Liquid feed and/or cubes are generally a stopgap when you have standing grass that is poor grazing. Both have a point of efficiency also that can be surpassed. Both are great at a certain usage because of convenience but if the rates get too high they get really expensive. At that point you have to bring in a feed source like hay, wcs, or ground feed, etc.

A big decider for me is if we are about to drop calves and conditions are bad we will feed wcs. There is a 4 month window there that is crucial to breedback and kick that calf off.

Even that has a breaking point where you are better off early weaning and feeding them separately.

As a comparison, wcs is running around $11 for #50, $220/1000 in a tote. A cheap cube is around $14 a sack, which I wouldn't feed, and a 40% cs cube is like $16 or $18. None of them will have the fat of the wcs which is what I want for a cow to milk a calf and re-beed.

I believe it. I think I read some A&M fact sheets that talked about wcs being the most cost efficient. Definitely give up a bit of profit using tubs. But my goal is BCS 6 or more at calving with a tub out around then. We'll see if it works.

Will preg test mine in July.

I was interested in buying a solar feeder that I could put wcs, cotton seed meal, or even cubes into and refill once a month or so during the winter. But it doesn't pencil out. Tubs are still cheaper out to like 5 years, I think. And that wouldn't include maintenance of the feeder.

Always ask the deer hunters to feed cubes every day that they are there
during deer season, so that is some free labor and extra supplement. That plus tubs is a pretty good method for a part timer, I think.

 

[4hfarms]

I usually dont feed hay until Dec or Jan and start rotation on march1st. . Got away from me last year. Dry fall was not expected for us. Smarter now. Kinda worked out with prices up.

I pretty much follow the same practice and ideas as you. Always a learning process. Use a tub year round. Rotate daily. Try to keep about 35-45 day rotation. Hard to do when the weather doesn't coooperate. Running about 30 days each rotation now. Just need to loose them 2yr olds. Off to the barn....

 

[rocfarm]

Well, I said I'd do one more post and here it is. It seems like you can do ok in the cattle business pursuing the method/methods we've talked about in this thread.

I sold my first farm raised steer on July 24th. He averages over 2 lbs gain/day while on the farm. Other than one protein tub through the winter and some cubes every now-and-then when we'd see the cattle, he was grass-fed. I can't believe prices have come so far. He did well. His older half brother is also now my herd bull (see pics).

Also have a new steer to sell come fall, and he looks like he'll average 2 lbs gain/day as well. We have a chance chance at six calves next fall with my original cows and retained heifers (I might buy some more heifers come fall and make it a chance at eight or ten, but prices sure are high!).

All my breedable cows have been bred by the new bull, so we should have 3 more calves this fall and one next spring. One cow even looks like it might move up a month this year, so looking forward to calves starting to hit the ground in September.

My reduced herd size gave our place the rest it needed. We're fully recovered and it looks like no hay will be needed again for the coming winter. We're even going to rest a few paddocks a full six to seven months (July to January) as our other paddocks have about 8 months of forage for the cattle at current lbs/acre.

The fortuitous developments have encouraged my family's positive perception of cattle as well.

Again, good luck to folks who want to try this. It's worked for us!

 

[kenny thomas]

2 lb a day on grass is very good for my area.

 

[rocfarm]

2 lb a day on grass is very good for my area.

Under stocked on my place. So they get to be picky. Also had great moisture this year. Will be interested to see how the cattle perform using this method during the next drought. My cows did well last year during the drought, though.

 

[kenny thomas]

Im understocked also with a lot of grass. I think it will help the grazing for a few years in the future.