Early weaning weights and sale results

[HOSS]

I weighed my commercial heifer and bull calves today since I had to get them all up to take some of the bull calves to the sale. They are all shy of 6 months old by 3 to 15 days so I am weaning a bit early. Bulls averaged 687 and heifers averaged 630. I did not weigh the biggest heifer since she started showing signs of heat this weekend and I moved her and her momma over to another pasture out of reach of the bull calves. When I get her weighed and throw her weight in the mix the average will tick up a bit. It looks like my heifer weights will be up a bit this year. My bull weights will probably be down 20 lbs off of last years average but than again I don't have an 830 lb behemoth bull calf to throw in the mix this year. The bull calves that I took to the sale really did well for their weight range. I left the sale a bit early since mine sold just over halfway through but it is possible they topped or nearly topped the sale. Prices were up still and I got 149 cwt for the group at 650 average weight. Allot of cows at the sale since they were off last weekend. I think they had better than 1,400 head going through. Bull calves were selling better than steers in some instances and really pushed close to steer prices most of the time that I sat there. Overall it was a good day and I have the rest of my commercial bulls, steers and heifers spoken for so I am out of the selling bizness until next year.

 

[SRBeef]

Thanks for the information. Are those 6 month weights with creep feed? Why not castrate the bull calves to be sold?

 

[HOSS]

Thanks for the information. Are those 6 month weights with creep feed? Why not castrate the bull calves to be sold?

No creep. I keep a couple commercial bull calves around as I have some customers that buy them for their commercial herd. They are usually A.I. sired from quality bulls on very good commercial cows. This year I let time and medical issues slip up on me and wound up with a few more that I didn't get around to cutting. As I watched the market I kept seeing bulls holding their own with steer so I let them go.

No these 6 month weights are only grass and milk and minerals. I do not own a creep feeder or even a feed trough. We have had great grass this year with constant rains and the heat has been less intense than our normal summer which has helped.

 

[Ohrmundt Simmentals]

Nice numbers Hoss. A good reward for the work and great animals. :tiphat:

 

[machslammer]

So your steers/bulls gained 3.81# per day not counting their birthweights on grass, milk, and mineral? I'm doing something wrong on mine looks like. Mine are at the 180 day mark and I do good if they average 2.85# per day not counting birth weight. That's 515# at 6 months.
I look for 500# at 175 days and 600# at 210 days.

What kind of breeds you have in your commerical program Hoss? Also what does your birthweights look like? Hopefully next year with my Char bull and cross calves I will get more carcass and weights. I go have one red/white faced calf(was bred when bought her) that will be 164 days old on Monday when I sell my calves and a few older cows and he will prob go 625-650 which would match your 3.81# day. Not saying it can't be done.. I just needed a better bull on my previous calves. Mommas milk em. Now I do keep creep feed out for mine year round. 14% if they want it.

 

[HOSS]

So your steers/bulls gained 3.81# per day not counting their birthweights on grass, milk, and mineral? I'm doing something wrong on mine looks like. Mine are at the 180 day mark and I do good if they average 2.85# per day not counting birth weight. That's 515# at 6 months.
I look for 500# at 175 days and 600# at 210 days.

What kind of breeds you have in your commerical program Hoss? Also what does your birthweights look like? Hopefully next year with my Char bull and cross calves I will get more carcass and weights. I go have one red/white faced calf(was bred when bought her) that will be 164 days old on Monday when I sell my calves and a few older cows and he will prob go 625-650 which would match your 3.81# day. Not saying it can't be done.. I just needed a better bull on my previous calves. Mommas milk em. Now I do keep creep feed out for mine year round. 14% if they want it.

I have mostly angus and balancer cattle with a sprinkling of shorthorn or Limo in a couple. Some of my best performers are red angus x Limi cows. I use Gelbvieh or Balancer bulls. I utilize A.I. with a high quality clean-up bull. BW's have been moderate with heifers running mid 70's and bulls low to mid 80's. Part of my program has meant biting the bullet and culling aggressively....which I find difficult because I get attached to certain cows. Once I hardened my heart and started cutting deep the performance went up. I have also improved my pastures with more clover than most, rotating frequently and of course this unbelievable rain has really helped. I also spend allot of time on genetics. Not only do I A.I. my registered cows I have been doing it on my commercial herd. I think that has really paid off.

I have yet to really take the creep feeding plunge. I am not sure if I will really gain enough over my grass performance to make it pay. Feed sure is high compared to grass.

 

[highgrit]

If it aint broke don't fix it. Hoss, your results are great. What's the average weight of your cows, and what kind of clover do you have this time of year?? I can't come close to your weights here.

 

[SPH]

Those are darn good weights Hoss. We just weaned this past weekend which would put the bulk of our calves (we usally calve March & April but has 1 late Feb and 2 late May calvers) at or just shy of 6 months and with just a few weeks of creep and our top bull calves barely weighed near 500 with most of the calves somewhere in the high 300's to mid 400's. We're also going through a 2nd straight summer of severe drought - we weigh the cows at weaning every year too and while some of them were just slightly lighter than this time last year we had several that probably were around 100 lbs lighter so you can tell it's been a rough summer on them. Hoping the early weaning will allow the cows to put some condition back on now they aren't nursing.

Good news though is our calves usually gain pretty well once we get them on full feed so will be interesting to see how they weigh later this fall when we run them through the scales again.

 

[3waycross]

I weighed my commercial heifer and bull calves today since I had to get them all up to take some of the bull calves to the sale. They are all shy of 6 months old by 3 to 15 days so I am weaning a bit early. Bulls averaged 687 and heifers averaged 630. I did not weigh the biggest heifer since she started showing signs of heat this weekend and I moved her and her momma over to another pasture out of reach of the bull calves. When I get her weighed and throw her weight in the mix the average will tick up a bit. It looks like my heifer weights will be up a bit this year. My bull weights will probably be down 20 lbs off of last years average but than again I don't have an 830 lb behemoth bull calf to throw in the mix this year. The bull calves that I took to the sale really did well for their weight range. I left the sale a bit early since mine sold just over halfway through but it is possible they topped or nearly topped the sale. Prices were up still and I got 149 cwt for the group at 650 average weight. Allot of cows at the sale since they were off last weekend. I think they had better than 1,400 head going through. Bull calves were selling better than steers in some instances and really pushed close to steer prices most of the time that I sat there. Overall it was a good day and I have the rest of my commercial bulls, steers and heifers spoken for so I am out of the selling bizness until next year.

Great weights Hoss.

Now if you really want those calves to pop for you on the weaning weights all you need to do is get rid of those sorry Gelbvieh and Balancer bulls and get yourself an

AOB.............. and all your problems will be solved

 

[JWBrahman]

Congratulations, Hoss. The white dutch clover is still holding up down here and keeping everyone fat and happy.

 

[Limomike]

So your steers/bulls gained 3.81# per day not counting their birthweights on grass, milk, and mineral? I'm doing something wrong on mine looks like. Mine are at the 180 day mark and I do good if they average 2.85# per day not counting birth weight. That's 515# at 6 months.
I look for 500# at 175 days and 600# at 210 days.

What kind of breeds you have in your commerical program Hoss? Also what does your birthweights look like? Hopefully next year with my Char bull and cross calves I will get more carcass and weights. I go have one red/white faced calf(was bred when bought her) that will be 164 days old on Monday when I sell my calves and a few older cows and he will prob go 625-650 which would match your 3.81# day. Not saying it can't be done.. I just needed a better bull on my previous calves. Mommas milk em. Now I do keep creep feed out for mine year round. 14% if they want it.

I have mostly angus and balancer cattle with a sprinkling of shorthorn or Limo in a couple. Some of my best performers are red angus x Limi cows. I use Gelbvieh or Balancer bulls. I utilize A.I. with a high quality clean-up bull. BW's have been moderate with heifers running mid 70's and bulls low to mid 80's. Part of my program has meant biting the bullet and culling aggressively....which I find difficult because I get attached to certain cows. Once I hardened my heart and started cutting deep the performance went up. I have also improved my pastures with more clover than most, rotating frequently and of course this unbelievable rain has really helped. I also spend allot of time on genetics. Not only do I A.I. my registered cows I have been doing it on my commercial herd. I think that has really paid off.

I have yet to really take the creep feeding plunge. I am not sure if I will really gain enough over my grass performance to make it pay. Feed sure is high compared to grass.

Theres a big part of it right there...

 

[Stocker Steve]

Part of my program has meant biting the bullet and culling aggressively....which I find difficult because I get attached to certain cows. Once I hardened my heart and started cutting deep the performance went up.

I have yet to really take the creep feeding plunge. I am not sure if I will really gain enough over my grass performance to make it pay. Feed sure is high compared to grass.

The junk is gone, but half my cows are still below average. :shock: Hard hearted cull'in does work and work quickly.

Creep returns are like fertilizer returns - - you need to supply the factor what is limiting production. I think feeding good hay on short pasture does pencil out, and I have seem numbers where creeping energy on washy pasture pencils out, and I have see numbers were creeping protein on mature native pasture pencils out...

 

[bigbull338]

you got some real good weaning weights.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I dug out some old oats based creep data. They showed #/# by year ranging from 6.8 to 23, with and average of 10.2 #/#.
Oats is $0.10 /lb here so an additional lb of beef costs 10.2 X 10 = $1.02. So not much left to pay for time and equipment and waste.
They recommended creep feeding calves from heifers, and hard cull'in after that.