developing young females -- and -- keeping old girls going

[WalnutCrest]

I read something recently (don't remember where) that indicated that if you had a grouped your cows as follows and fed as follows, you could really get a lot more life out of your cow herd:

Group 1 --- youngest cows in this group are confirmed bred with 2nd calf and all other cows that are not SS or BM

Group 2 --- youngest cows in this group are weaned heifers to cows with their first calf at their side ... oldest cows are BM ... this group will need about 20-25% more input / energy / feed than cows in Group 1 (meaning, if you fed (say) 2lbs / day of DDG to your cows in Group 1, this group would get 2.4 to 2.5 lbs / day).

Group 3 --- SS cows only; cows will stay in this group for only 6-12 months ... need about 10-15% more feed than cows in Group 1 (meaning, if you fed (say) 2lbs / day of DDG to your cows in Group 1, this group would get 2.2 to 2.3 lbs / day).

Just curious if any of you run your younger cows with your old girls?

 

[Nesikep]

I don't have any really old cows that need extra attention right now, but when Rosie was around, from about 15 years old and older she lived with the calves and younger stock so she didn't need to push and shove for food, and everyone got their fair share.. I don't necessarily believe in feeding them 25% more, but I do think it's good if they don't need to fight to get a morsel among the bossy ones..
Rosie got fed about 10 lbs of grain a WEEK, and it made a big difference for her

 

[dun]

From post weaning till the die, they all run together. If we winter the bull with cows the heifers are kept separate but not really fed much different.

 

[Backbone Ranch]

We have a 13 year old cow that we just retired. In the past, she has ALWAYS produced the best calf of the calf crop and a lot of our herd are her descendants. We are very attached to her. She was looking skinnier than usual when we had her with the cows; we were even talking about processing her if she didn't improve her condition. We decided then keep her as a "nursemaid" to the weaned and yearling heifers. She is with the heifers in a different pasture than the rest of the herd. Since we have made that decision, she is looking so much better. It kind of makes us want to breed her again after seeing how good she looks now. All that the cows and heifers get is grass, so the diet hasn't changed for her.
And on a side note, our young heifers are known for wandering fences and looking for spots where the fence is down. They will take a game trail down the bluff just to explore. Since we put this old girl in with them, we have not had any issues with that and they are so much easier to get into the lot for vaccinations.

 

[Jessica06]

We keep our heifers separate from the cows until the bull is taken off after their second breeding season. So any given year we have open/bred heifers, heifer pairs, and cows. We don't have a set in stone protocol that we use with any particular group, but generally we like to take better care of our heifers, and keeping them separate is the only way to do that. Once they are bred for their second calf we figure they're far enough along development-wise to fend for themselves and work for a living.

 

[TCRanch]

We also keep our heifers separate from the cows but only until a month or so before they calve. We then move them back to the central pasture with the main herd but we bring them down/keep them at the barn about a week prior to calving. After they calve we keep the pairs at the barn a couple days then kick them out to join the main herd. The heifers generally get a little more cubes while they're in the other pasture and they almost always separate themselves from the main herd by hanging out at the barn (prior to being confined) so they still end up getting a little more.

That said, this year we do have an older cow & her calf with the heifers in the east 80. Definitely not because she's losing condition (her name is Steamroller) but she has a wonky foot & it's just easier for her to get around.

 

[creekdrive]

Here's how we do it:

Heifers are weaned in the fall, usually November. They are kept separate over the winter in the corral. Pail fed a bit of grain with free choice grass hay. Once they go out to pasture in the spring they get no special treatment. Come fall all the pastures will be brought together. Bred Heifers/cows/old cows (have lots that are 10+ yrs) all mixed together. They will usually do some stubble grazing first while there's still no snow on the ground, then they will move to swath grazing. Once that runs out (February-ish) they will get fed bales of hay & greenfeed. The whole works may or may not be supplemented with grain once we start feeding bales depending on the year. Some of the 1st & 2nd calvers do get a bit skinny, especially after they have calved and are competing with the rest of the herd for hay. They just aren't aggressive enough to push their way in and get the best feed. Once pasture starts to green up they get hauled out to their various pastures and any skinnies usually quickly put back on any weight they lost. If they can't make it on that they will most likely come up open in the fall and cull themselves.

If we have to separate an animal off over the winter because she can't keep decent condition we will put them in the corral and try to get weight back on them. Chances are it will be the last winter they spend here. Let them calve, raise it and then sell both in the fall. If they are young they might get a second chance depending on individual circumstances. But it would be a mark against her... Also if something has a limp we will put them in the corral for a couple of weeks till they are healed so they don't have to walk far for water or feed.

We have a cow that turned 17 this spring. This past January the herd made a 3 mile walk one day, then a 6 mile walk the following day the rest of the way home. It was a bit much for her old body and she got a bit of a limp in a back leg after that. There wasn't much snow for cows to lick last winter and it was a 1/2 mile + walk for them to water depending where they were in the pasture. Even though she hadn't lost any condition we decided to give her special treatment and put her in the corral with a few other cows that were in for various reasons. She did not appreciate the special treatment and went on a hunger strike for 4 or 5 days. She got over it eventually and it did help her not having to walk so far for feed/water. She has no noticeable limp this summer, but this winter I think we will skip making her walk home and just haul her.