corn fed

[redsimangus]

just thinking about switching our Holsteins over to an all grain diet. I'm wondering how much percent of body weight does an average calf eat a day in grain?

 

[TexasBred]

just thinking about switching our Holsteins over to an all grain diet. I'm wondering how much percent of body weight does an average calf eat a day in grain?

Red I've seen calves that would hardly touch straight corn and others inhale it. Keep in mind that corn is only around 8% protein so you may need to add some protein to it in some form.

 

[redsimangus]

ya figured I would add a protein mineral source I think its called ruff mate 52. it has 52% protein and has all the minerals in it. how much would mix that in with the corn? or is it to much protein or what?

 

[charangusman08]

I feed my Holsteins all the corn they can eat and has always worked good for me. They will eat it better if you give them a corn stalk bale or a few pounds of dry hay a day with it. As for the protein percent. I mix 300 pounds of Grower(37% protein) with 4700 pounds of corn. I beleive its around 11 or 12% protein. Hope this helps, good luck.

 

[redsimangus]

charangus roughly how much corn would a 400 weight calf eat a day?

 

[charangusman08]

Mine at that weight usually eat around 10-12 pounds of corn a day. So around 2.5% of body weight.

 

[redsimangus]

I've also heard that u can put beef calves on a all corn diet of course u would have to have a little roughage but does that work for beef calves?

 

[charangusman08]

Feeding beef calves all corn diet at a young age could make them finish at lighter weights and be shorter depending on the breed of course. I feed my red angus beef feeder cattle about half hay and half corn until they hit 800 pounds area, then all the corn they can eat with little roughage. They finish around 1400 pounds at around 15-16 months old. I know a guy that will wean his black angus beef calves and get them on full corn diet right away and they finish at 1100 pounds at around a year old. He usually get around 10 cents a pound less then we do but maybe he is the smart one, Im not sure.

 

[redsimangus]

thanks char