Bull Vs. Steer

[jerry27150]

your saying you didn't get paid for your bull calf or got paid for some one else's heifer. either way i would have been on the phone. around here most folks go to the auction & when their cattle come into the ring they tell everything about them. at least you know what they go for & get your check right then

 

[Farminlund]

Again I might say the beauty of the system is that when you leave the sale barn (post weighing & grading), you know what to expect. You have a record of the calf's grade & thus know what to expect without going to the sale (honestly have never been). I have brought my calves to non-graded sales on occasion but always come back to the local graded sales - it just seems to be the way to conduct calf sales.

 

[flaboy]

your saying you didn't get paid for your bull calf or got paid for some one else's heifer. either way i would have been on the phone. around here most folks go to the auction & when their cattle come into the ring they tell everything about them. at least you know what they go for & get your check right then

What I think happened is they mixed up the calves somehow. I "think" my bull somehow got changed for a heifer. The total count was right as far as the number of head I took but the bull was at least 400 pounds and I had nothing listed on my receipt near that weight.

I could have and probably should have stuck around but I had hay on the ground. I thought about calling but figured they would just say," we don't know what happened".

 

[flaboy]

This is what I do:

I bring my cattle in the pens to work them anyway - it only takes us a couple of minutes to throw - cut - implant the bulls. I wean the calves @ 6 mts. If a intact bull calf is born @ 90lbs with 6 mts growth at 2 1/2 lbs per day it will weigh 547.50 lbs. An implanted steer should (and according to my records, does) weight in at the same weight.

547.50 lb bull @ $1.05 = $574.88
547.50 lb steer @ $1.10 = $602.25

Very rarely do I get paid $26.37 for a few minutes work.
(The implant cost about a $1)

I just got my check for the bulls I took over. All were in the 250-300 pound range. The low was 1.75/lb and high was 1.95/lb. Now I don't mean to sound like I am bragging, just wanted to share our prices. My receipt shows all as being steers.

 

[brokenmouth]

I just got my check for the bulls I took over. All were in the 250-300 pound range. The low was 1.75/lb and high was 1.95/lb. Now I don't mean to sound like I am bragging, just wanted to share our prices. My receipt shows all as being steers.

you did fair on the prices. the ticket might show them as steers but you can be sure the buyers knew better. still dont get why your selling them so young please explain

 

[Campground Cattle]

I just got my check for the bulls I took over. All were in the 250-300 pound range. The low was 1.75/lb and high was 1.95/lb. Now I don't mean to sound like I am bragging, just wanted to share our prices. My receipt shows all as being steers.

you did fair on the prices. the ticket might show them as steers but you can be sure the buyers knew better. still dont get why your selling them so young please explain

Check out the website brokenmouth says a lot.

 

[flaboy]

Check out the website brokenmouth says a lot.[/quote]

Ya lost me there CC but then again that is pretty easy to do. Which web site?

 

[flaboy]

I just got my check for the bulls I took over. All were in the 250-300 pound range. The low was 1.75/lb and high was 1.95/lb. Now I don't mean to sound like I am bragging, just wanted to share our prices. My receipt shows all as being steers.

you did fair on the prices. the ticket might show them as steers but you can be sure the buyers knew better. still dont get why your selling them so young please explain

Well my logic as flawed as it might be is that since I am unable to get my partner (also spelled as DAD) to get onto a normal breeding season (he wants to run the bulls year round) I have to do forage management. By that I mean I have to get the calves off as quickly as possible before they start to eat as much grass as the cows. We do not have a very big operation so we have get the calves gone in order to let a few fields recover enough to get in hay for the winter off of those fields.

I was finally able to get him to agree to let me separate my stock from his and get mine on a regular breeding season rotation just this year. I will run mine in a few pastures and his in the others and we will see how the condition of the forage differs between the pastures as all are divided equally.

Does that make sense?

 

[brokenmouth]

Well my logic as flawed as it might be is that ... I have to do forage management. By that I mean I have to get the calves off as quickly as possible before they start to eat as much grass as the cows. We do not have a very big operation so we have get the calves gone in order to let a few fields recover enough to get in hay for the winter off of those fields. Does that make sense?

well i see what your trying to do but i dont see how your coming out ahead. sounds like you would do yourself a favor to run a few less mother cows and let em grow their calves up. if grass is your limiting factor and in most situations it is then you would get the most out your grass by putting it into more product for sale and less factory overhead. each one of those mother cows will eat a full ration of grass or hay 365 days a year and not make you any direct money. their calves will eat your grass only till the day you sell them and they are the ones bringing you a paycheck. in other words the calves are converting grass into product much better than the cows.

of course if your a producer you have to have cows to have calves but you want to get the mix right where you make the most from your grass. your letting somebody else pick up your young calves without taking on the overhead of their mothers. thats why they they will pay you more per pound than for older calves but they will still make money on those calves and you are still making less per head. you might want to run your numbers based on a smaller calf crop but more pounds of calf and see what you get.

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

flaboy, do you have your pastures divided into smaller sized paddocks for rotational grazing? I believe that it is pretty well documented that doing so allows you to get more production out of the available forage.

 

[Campground Cattle]

I just got my check for the bulls I took over. All were in the 250-300 pound range. The low was 1.75/lb and high was 1.95/lb. Now I don't mean to sound like I am bragging, just wanted to share our prices. My receipt shows all as being steers.

you did fair on the prices. the ticket might show them as steers but you can be sure the buyers knew better. still dont get why your selling them so young please explain

Well my logic as flawed as it might be is that since I am unable to get my partner (also spelled as DAD) to get onto a normal breeding season (he wants to run the bulls year round) I have to do forage management. By that I mean I have to get the calves off as quickly as possible before they start to eat as much grass as the cows. We do not have a very big operation so we have get the calves gone in order to let a few fields recover enough to get in hay for the winter off of those fields.

I was finally able to get him to agree to let me separate my stock from his and get mine on a regular breeding season rotation just this year. I will run mine in a few pastures and his in the others and we will see how the condition of the forage differs between the pastures as all are divided equally.

Does that make sense?

Thats what I meant when I said look at the web site you are hurting for grass by the pictures.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I am also confused - WHAT WEB SITE??

Flaboy, about how old are these calves weighing 200-300#?

 

[flaboy]

flaboy, do you have your pastures divided into smaller sized paddocks for rotational grazing? I believe that it is pretty well documented that doing so allows you to get more production out of the available forage.

Yeah, they are divided and we rotate quite often. I just had the guy next to me (sod farmer) ask if I wanted to run my cows on one of his sod fields. So I now have about another twenty acres. He also said I could bale one of his back fields because he is getting ready to sod it and needs the tall stuff off of it. This will help out a lot. I am also culling some of the weak cows who are not raising GOOD calves. I don't think I have too many cows out there. I am going to overseed pretty soon. That should help some also.

 

[txag]

I am also confused - WHAT WEB SITE??

Flaboy, about how old are these calves weighing 200-300#?

i think Camp's talking about flaboy's personal website. i just checked it out and i must say that "purebred hereford bull" on the "Cattle For Sale" page is NOT a purebred hereford!

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

OK, just checked out the site. Didn't wait for the Hfd bull pic to load. Pics have too high pixels for slow hardline connection.
I understand why AZ questioned rotational grazing.
I am not trying to be mean or insulting, but the cattle are deffinately thin. Calves are thin & potbellied.
Previously posted, number of cows don't make money - pounds of calves weaned PER COW makes money. Less cows = more grass per cow = more milk produced and more grass for calves to grow.
Equally important for the calves to have good nourishment to grow. Two cows raising 250# calves makes you less money than 1 cow raising 500# calf.
Now this is easy for us to have our opinion of how someone else should do something, but this is pretty basic to me.
I debated about saying anything, but it is not good for "newbies" reading these posts to think this is acceptable/normal growth.

 

[flaboy]

I am also confused - WHAT WEB SITE??

Flaboy, about how old are these calves weighing 200-300#?

3-4 months on grass only. No creep feeding. I took a couple early as I was culling their mothers also.

 

[flaboy]

I am also confused - WHAT WEB SITE??

Flaboy, about how old are these calves weighing 200-300#?

i think Camp's talking about flaboy's personal website. i just checked it out and i must say that "purebred hereford bull" on the "Cattle For Sale" page is NOT a purebred hereford!

Well all I can say is his dad is registered Hereford and his mom was 3/4 Hereford. You do the math.

 

[txag]

Well all I can say is his dad is registered Hereford and his mom was 3/4 Hereford. You do the math.

ok, i'll do the math. that makes him 7/8 hereford. herefords do not allow breeding up and there is no distinction between purebreds and fullbloods. they're either herefords or they're not and he is NOT! he's a hereford cross.

 

[flaboy]

OK, just checked out the site. Didn't wait for the Hfd bull pic to load. Pics have too high pixels for slow hardline connection.
I understand why AZ questioned rotational grazing.
I am not trying to be mean or insulting, but the cattle are deffinately thin. Calves are thin & potbellied.
Previously posted, number of cows don't make money - pounds of calves weaned PER COW makes money. Less cows = more grass per cow = more milk produced and more grass for calves to grow.
Equally important for the calves to have good nourishment to grow. Two cows raising 250# calves makes you less money than 1 cow raising 500# calf.
Now this is easy for us to have our opinion of how someone else should do something, but this is pretty basic to me.
I debated about saying anything, but it is not good for "newbies" reading these posts to think this is acceptable/normal growth.

No problem Jeanne, I can take constructive criticism. On my WEB site the one bony cow you saw was one that I culled about two weeks ago. Bought her at a FCA auction bred and she never had a good calf and she never really recovered from having one. The one pot bellied red bull is her calf. The black Brangus heifers you saw there were 3 1/2 months old, and weighed 290 and 280 when I hauled them off. Again all grass feed no creep feeding. Most of these pictures were also taken in FEB/March and grass hadn't recovered yet. We were still feeding hay and liquid feed in the middle of April.

I will be over seeding some of the fields shortly. We fertilized almost everything we have and it turned very green but has not grown vertically. I talked to the sod farmer down the road and he said he was having the same problems with his sod fields and put out (now get this) 700 pounds per acre. My ag agent told me 180-200 pounds per acre. Don't know what is going on in our neck of the woods but our cattle are in the worse condition than I have ever seen them. Wormed and vaccinated every 6 months. This is why I have started aggressively culling until I get the forage back. We used to cut hay twice a year and now we only cut once. I suspect over seeding will help a lot.

 

[flaboy]

Well all I can say is his dad is registered Hereford and his mom was 3/4 Hereford. You do the math.

ok, i'll do the math. that makes him 7/8 hereford. herefords do not allow breeding up and there is no distinction between purebreds and fullbloods. they're either herefords or they're not and he is NOT! he's a hereford cross.

Ok, my bad. I don't run any registered Herefords. I was not aware the Hereford Ass. did not recognise breeding up. I used the old standby If that 1/2-blood is topcrossed with a purebred, the progeny is 3/4 "pure." A
third topcross results in a 7/8 blood, which is generally the minimum for registry as purebred.
Those Tiger stripes always bothered me on him. I assumed it was in his dams side somewhere back.