KNERSIE":2nmgbmk6 said:
I've always liked them from your pics, never seen on in person, what sort of weaning weights do you get?
Thanks. We think they're attractive cattle and enjoy looking at them in our pastures, too!
As you well know, weaning weights are a function of age at weaning, forage quality, stocking rates, genetics, management, cow size, etc. So comparing one farm's weaning weights to another is always fraught with risk...so...with that said:
This pair (Xenia and Cosette) were taken to Trans Ova to make embryos when Cosette was 10-16 weeks of age. During that time, she had access to feed as Trans Ova always feeds it's donors and there's no reason to think that the heifer didn't help herself to whatever they had out for mama. Other than that window of time, all she has had is Mama's milk and forage from our very poor pastures (approximately 50% grass, and 50% tall woody weeds and bare dirt) we're in the process of rehabilitating from the former owners' years of mismanagement and overgrazing with horses (we've been at this farm for a little less than 2yrs; we've applied zero fertilizer and have done zero seeding; we're trying to see what we can do to improve the pastures with nothing but hoof action (so far, we're pleased with the progress). And, on top of having poor pastures and no creep (other than what they may have had up at Trans Ova), we run all our group as one herd and average right around 0.8 head (all classes) per acre with rotational grazing. Non-selective grazing will stunt growth rates. Higher stocking densities will also stunt growth rates. The trade-off in slower growth is more numbers. We'll take that trade-off.
So, all that to say, we're different than the typical operation in that we do not manage to maximize individual performance, but to maximize the performance of the whole herd on the land we have access to use. With these same genetics and different management and/or better pastures, I'm sure the individual results would be better.
In the photos above, Cosette is 5.75 months old and weighs right at 425lbs (I know this because she had been weighed a couple of days earlier). We're planning on leaving her on mama until around the first of December. The pictures do not do justice to her wide rump...
We had a bull calf born two weeks later than Cosette ... my niece named him Cookie ... and Cookie and his dam (Zeta) were also taken to Trans Ova for aspirations at the same time as Xenia and Cosette. Cookie probably also snitched some feed while he was up there during his weeks 8-14 ... but, just like Cosette, other than that six week window, all he's had is mama's milk and our crappy pastures. He weighed in at 415 when he was 5.25 months old.
Both calves were in the low /mid 70s when born ... so ... Cosette has averaged a shade over 2.0lbs / day ... and Cookie has averaged about 2.2lbs / day. Oh, and for what it's worth, all four animals are pretty well unrelated in the first four or five generations ... so ... consider that a proxy for the breed on our fescue-and-weed dominated pastures while under our higher-density, lower-input, and non-selective grazing approach to management. I'm suspecting that when we wean at 7-8mo of age, both will be in the low-to-mid 500s. I expect that each year this will improve as our pastures improve.
Regarding what other people are getting on their weaned Aubrac calves, I asked a couple of friends of mine and here's what they told me:
* A breeder of fullblood Aubracs raised with a bit of creep, and who also weans late (10mo) ... he's getting high 600s / low 700s at that age.
* A breeder who raises Limousin, LimFlex, Aubrac x. Limousin and Aubrac x. LimFlex and said that the average of all of his heifers averaged 555 and bulls 646 at 7mo ... noting that heifers are usually 50lbs off of the bulls (vs. the 90lbs they were this year -- he said he has a large group of outstanding bull calves this year). He said his Aubrac influenced calves were a bit heavier than his non-Aubrac calves. Calves get nothing but grass and mama until weaned.
