Best weaning decision

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As already mentioned, Great looking calves!
Do you see a big dock in your neck of the woods?
Not really. Char cross calves are often at the top of the market in this part of the world. I lose a little $/lb with the grey calves but I think the extra weight more than makes up for it. The replacements I've bought the last few years have been red but it'll take a while to transition out of black cows a lot of them are still young.
 
These calves were weaned last Sunday when the cows got on a truck to the plant. They got run down the chute for a round of shots. Then kicked out on about 50 acres with short grazing. Turned in here you didn't have to worry about the gate. They trotted out about 200 feet and their heads went down. Took a while for them to move. These calves are hard. They came from steep little water and less grass. They will grow on this hay field regrowth. They are getting and will be getting nothing but grass, salt, and minerals.
 

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These calves were weaned last Sunday when the cows got on a truck to the plant. They got run down the chute for a round of shots. Then kicked out on about 50 acres with short grazing. Turned in here you didn't have to worry about the gate. They trotted out about 200 feet and their heads went down. Took a while for them to move. These calves are hard. They came from steep little water and less grass. They will grow on this hay field regrowth. They are getting and will be getting nothing but grass, salt, and minerals.
How would doing this benefit a typical cow/calf producer who doesn't sell their breeding herd every year?
 
I found it didn't pay for me when I tried it, only way it pays I think is to hold them through winter and get the green grass fever in march/april.. Grain and supplements are expensive out here, so unprofitable right off the bat, the weight loss for a week is hardly recouped in the next couple weeks, cost of vaccines, risk of illness and death, worsening road conditions to ship (for me to the sale barn, and from the sale barn to feedlots) doesn't help anything either if you get into November...

I've found what work for me is wean when the oldest are around 7 months and they come off good pastures, and there's lots of grass left for the cows to put condition on before winter (it's said that a milking cow and a good calf eat like 3, and I've found that to be true), once I've shipped the calves, a pasture that would have been 2 weeks of food is suddenly 4-5 weeks worth, and if I can graze til christmas (if nature doesn't give me too much white crap), my hay sales will more than make up for the difference in the price of calves
 
How would doing this benefit a typical cow/calf producer who doesn't sell their breeding herd every year?
Here the buyers want calves that are weaned 45 day +. We are pretty close to some major feedlots. It pays to sell direct to them. And direct sales to them ..... they just don't buy calves fresh off the cow.
There is 149 calves that came here yesterday. 83 (? +/-) of them came off the old cows. The others came off B's cows. It would take a short novel to explain my relationship with him. But he calves out near 1,000 cows. Which cows those calves came from and why I don't know. Haven't had a chance to talk to him. I do know that he sell all his calves weaned 45+ days. I also know that I have done real well marketing my calves along with his.
 
The calves got an UltraBac *, Bova Sheild Gold, Naselgen 3, and poured on the day they were weaned. I have been going through them twice a day. Not a single snotty nose. They are just busy eating and gaining weight. Yesterday I was told that the extra calves were pulled off his first calf replacements. That does make sense on this dry drought year to give the heifers an early break.
 
The calves got an UltraBac *, Bova Sheild Gold, Naselgen 3, and poured on the day they were weaned. I have been going through them twice a day. Not a single snotty nose. They are just busy eating and gaining weight. Yesterday I was told that the extra calves were pulled off his first calf replacements. That does make sense on this dry drought year to give the heifers an early break.
Did you cut them then also or were they already castrated?
 
At birth they got an ear tag with a number matching the cow. A Multimin and Calvary 8 (? it has tetanus). The ones who didn't get banded were because we couldn't find both nuts or because someone forgot to put more bands in the rig. New calves are worked from an old beater Jeep Cherokee. Calf is grabbed and stuck between the drivers door and the interior. The syringes and ear tagger are loaded and place within easy reach. It is slam bam and turn the calf loose. Some of these old range cows would frighten the weak of heart. At branding they got UltraBac 8, Bova Sheild Gold, and Naselgen 3.
 

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