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Cow/Calf Weaning Weight Ratios
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<blockquote data-quote="J+ Cattle" data-source="post: 1700857" data-attributes="member: 4063"><p>I recently added scales in the alleyway right before the squeeze chute so my plan is to weigh everything as it goes through for shots, deworming, etc. so not really any extra work. I'm not taking weights anytime they aren't already headed through the chute. For me the thing that I'm looking for isn't if the cow weans a certain percentage like 50% of her weight, rather I'm looking to see which cows are the poorest performers. Which ones weans the lowest percentage of her weight? It isn't uncommon to have cows in the same herd that vary in weight by 250 lbs, if the smallest and the largest cows wean a calf that weighs the same I would say that the larger cow isn't working as hard as the smaller cow. I would expect the larger cow to have a calf that is about 100 lbs. heavier than the smaller cow.</p><p></p><p>GoWyo uses the Maternal Plus program to track 205 day adjusted weaning weights but you can do it yourselves if you have a place to weigh the calves. I use an Excel spreadsheet program called Cowboss that was put out as a free download by the Manitoba Agriculture and Food. This will show adjusted weaning and yearling weights for each calf and show the ratios of how the calves compare to each other in the contemporary grouping. I'm wanting to take it a step further and look also at the cows weight because I would expect a large cow to wean a heavier calf but is she giving enough to make up for her increased feed intake?</p><p></p><p>Bottom line is there are many cattle raisers in drought stricken areas that are having to get rid of cows they would normally keep, does anybody look at these type of evaluations to determine which cows go to the sale and which ones stay for another year?</p><p></p><p>J+ Cattle</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="J+ Cattle, post: 1700857, member: 4063"] I recently added scales in the alleyway right before the squeeze chute so my plan is to weigh everything as it goes through for shots, deworming, etc. so not really any extra work. I'm not taking weights anytime they aren't already headed through the chute. For me the thing that I'm looking for isn't if the cow weans a certain percentage like 50% of her weight, rather I'm looking to see which cows are the poorest performers. Which ones weans the lowest percentage of her weight? It isn't uncommon to have cows in the same herd that vary in weight by 250 lbs, if the smallest and the largest cows wean a calf that weighs the same I would say that the larger cow isn't working as hard as the smaller cow. I would expect the larger cow to have a calf that is about 100 lbs. heavier than the smaller cow. GoWyo uses the Maternal Plus program to track 205 day adjusted weaning weights but you can do it yourselves if you have a place to weigh the calves. I use an Excel spreadsheet program called Cowboss that was put out as a free download by the Manitoba Agriculture and Food. This will show adjusted weaning and yearling weights for each calf and show the ratios of how the calves compare to each other in the contemporary grouping. I'm wanting to take it a step further and look also at the cows weight because I would expect a large cow to wean a heavier calf but is she giving enough to make up for her increased feed intake? Bottom line is there are many cattle raisers in drought stricken areas that are having to get rid of cows they would normally keep, does anybody look at these type of evaluations to determine which cows go to the sale and which ones stay for another year? J+ Cattle [/QUOTE]
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