Broken Mouth Stock Cows

[Stocker Steve]

I just rented another pasture. I am now looking into buying a pot belly load of "terminal cows" next spring to keep the pasture under control without a lot of hay feeding this winter. The current plan is to early wean the calves and ship the cows to slaughter.

Any experience or suggestions on the benifits and pitfalls of this idea? Thanks for the help!

 

[Bama]

You may have to early wean the calves and also keep the cows on grass to get back in shape to make this work. Most of the time when I do this the calves pull those types of cows down pretty fast.

 

[bigbull338]

also if your going to do that.get them all bred within 1 to 3 months of eachother.an dont go overboard on what you pay for the cows.b/c you want to make a profit in the end.scott

 

[Stocker Steve]

You may have to early wean the calves and also keep the cows on grass to get back in shape to make this work. Most of the time when I do this the calves pull those types of cows down pretty fast.

How much would it help broken mouth cow condition to have access to hay in the pasture? I know my stockers will eat very little hay as long as they access to grass.

 

[Bama]

I have some really good bermuda hay that I normally use on the types of cows in winter. They won't touch it if there is grass in the pastures.

 

[stocky]

It will work if you buy them cheap enough. You have to be able to buy them for about slaughter price. You have to remember that they are going to weigh a couple hundred pounds less in August with a big calf than they did as heavy springers in march. Also, typically the slaughter market will be at it's cheapest in September, so you need to get them sold by mid August at the latest and sometimes mid July. If you can buy them cheap enough they will make alot of money. The problem is that when there is a good demand for cattle, the broken mouth cows cost way too much. You shouldnt have to feed hay as long as they have plenty of green grass.