Breeds - Pounds of feed to pounds of gain

[newrancher]

WAguy, again Im no expert, but I would say that those 2 calves weigh pretty much the same. The holsteins have bigger frame, just look at their hind legs/ which is prabably the heaviest part of the animal/carcass. the black calf has almost all the holstein bred out of it with a cross mother and angus sire.It is typical around here to breed the holstein heifers to angus and you get real nice hindquarters out of those calves. I think price is the difference, I know it was for me, I could buy 10 holsteins for approx the same price of 6 beef type calves the same weight. I beleive that the beef type will do better on grass/pasture alone at the smaller size as far as avg. daily gain, but with the price difference you can get pretty aggressive with a supplemental feed program and have pretty good results and still have a good profit margin IF your willing to think outside the box. I am only talking about a small operation as I have NO knowledge of feedlots. Another reason is the fact that bottle calves will die on you quicker than a cat can lick its hind end and if your only raising a few head that can/will make the difference between making money/breaking even/losing money. Therefore in my opinion a good nurse cow is worth her weight in gold/feed/milk replacer. Just a few of my observations, sorry to be so long winded, Im speaking in general on all these subjects as nothing is set in stone. This is a very controversial subject on here [holstein vs beef breeds] so keep that in mind or you will stir up a hornets nest, I probably already have.

 

[somn]

somn, what Ive been doing is [and I know our operations are totally different, just want opinion] I watch these calves and of an evening they make a round in the pasture and they drink. Another round and they drink, that is when I feed them their grain. I feed their hay in the shady spot where they stay during the day, it seems to me and I may be all wet on this, that the calories from the feed are doing the most good that way. They dont eat while they are in the shade unless the hay bunker is full, just my observations. What do you think? Knowing these things is your opinion on the implants still the same? what is your cost/per head/per day for feed? How many days avg till finish? How many to 1100lbs. Dont mean to hijack, its just very interesting to me.

The implants only work if there is enough calories to make them work when your cattle walk away from the feedbunk is it because the feedbunk is empty or is it because they are full and there is feed still in the bunk? If they are walking away because the feed bunk is empty I would say you are not getting max results from the implant. However as implant are cheap it doesn't take much gain to recoup your investment. I'm talking about holstiens on full feed corn.

For the last set we sold feed cost were $.44 per pound of gain. 2.87 ADG I can't tell you how long they were on feed to reach 1100# we only weighed them when we sold them at 1529# shrunk.

 

[somn]

Feel free to hijack, newrancher. I often learn more when others take it in another direction I hadn't thought of.

I just remembered some photos I took in February of a couple calves my brother has. The black calf is from his angus/Holstein cross cow bred to an angus bull. When she calved, he got a new Holstein calf to graft onto her. So, same age, same feed, but the two look quite different. That was another reason I assumed Holsteins couldn't compete. Maybe getting them cheap is the difference. Wonder why they were giving them away not too long ago when they can do well.

Looking at the picture 2 things catch my eye it looks to be less than 100% holstien in the holstien and you are missing something in the feed to help that holstien gain weight properly.

 

[ChrisB]

Somn wrote:

Holstiens need to be fed opposite of colors.

This is what I think a lot of people overlook when feeding holsteins. I hear how holsteins aren't profitable from someone while they are telling someone else to put them out on pasture/hay and feed a few pounds of corn every day. In my experience the sooner you get a holstein calf on full corn the more profitable you will be.