Day Old Jersey/Limousin feeder Calves.

[gaurus]

I wonder how do the "Breeding To Feeding" Jersey/Limousin feeder calves obtain such good performance if they buy the Calves as Day Old? They get it directly from the Dairy farms that will not wean them, Is one day of colostrum enough to keep them healthy?

What do they feed them so they get such good performance and make a profit when they buy them at day old for about $300?

http://www.agweb.com/article/beef-genet ... t-bechtel/

 

[Son of Butch]

Jersey x limo bull calves are 10 times more profitable in comparison to day old straight jersey bull calves.
That tells you more about how worthless newborn baby jersey bull calves are than anything else.
It's a sales pitch to Jersey dairy farmers to buy Wulff's limo semen and your $10 jersey calves will now be $100 calves.

It's a very profitable program....especially for Wulff's semen sales.

No such thing as a Day Old feeder calf.
A calf has to be weaned before it can be called a feeder....unless you are feeding it out on milk only as a veal calf.

 

[cow pollinater]

Just because they're sold as day olds doesn't mean they only get one day of colostrum. They go to calf ranches that buy colostrum from the same dairies that they buy the calves from.
There are a couple of dairy/beef programs out there. The lim over jersey is great in concept but genetics don't average so the real world results are all over the place. I would expect that the real profitability comes from feeding them as both breeds eat cheap but Wulfs have kept a monopoly on that.
I doubt it matter much right now. With beef prices like they are dairymen will go back to trying to produce all the dairy heifers they can which means no beef semen.

 

[gaurus]

No such thing as a Day Old feeder calf.
A calf has to be weaned before it can be called a feeder....unless you are feeding it out on milk only as a veal calf.

That is true, I got mixed up there.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Some pretty big dairies that are not selling these calves and they are not all jersey cross. They retain the calves and raise them there until they are placed in feedlots.

 

[brownvet]

Daily gain in that cattle is far from 3.48, profit comes from skilled and cheap labor, they produce quantities no quality, I know from a cattle buyer this meat is too lean, marbeling is no the best so I doubt it about those 78% choice.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

I will take what the Wulf folks say over your cattle buyer. They feed them and they get the kill data back on them so I bet they know.

 

[frieghttrain]

I will take what the Wulf folks say over your cattle buyer. They feed them and they get the kill data back on them so I bet they know.

+1

 

[milkmaid]

They feed out really well... I know of several big dairies that do that cross or similar (Hol x Angus, Jersey x Gelbvieh, etc). They seem to do well enough on the grid to justify retaining ownership all the way to slaughter.

 

[Bigfoot]

I just sold a jersey steer. I bought it to tie off a post. He gained exactly 25 pounds in 7 weeks. He had feed out free choice the whole time, and belly deep grass. He brought 10 less dollars, than I gave for him, plus I worked him. Definatly not a very efficient animal. Almost anything crossed on that, would be a huge improvement.

 

[cow pollinater]

They feed out really well... I know of several big dairies that do that cross or similar (Hol x Angus, Jersey x Gelbvieh, etc). They seem to do well enough on the grid to justify retaining ownership all the way to slaughter.

It's not that they do well on the grid so much as it is that if the calves are enrolled in a program from the before they are conceived the dairymen are usually locked in at a certain price so why risk selling and taking a hit from a buyer for half dairy calves when you already know what you're going to get if you keep it? I've satin on a few meetings from various programs with customers and when you wade through the sales pitch the under laying message is they want the owner to own at least half the calf to keep their costs and the associated risk low.