Feeding Calves

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mnmtranching

mnmtranching

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I'm working on cutting down the cowherd.
And feeding the calves, all the way to slaughter. My plan is to have fewer cows and finish the calves.
Cutting feed costs, I'm feeding corn silage, grass hay, couple pounds of 15% custom feed mix and 37% blocks with salt. What do think will be the daily gain average?
 
mnmtranching":3b2z7r4a said:
I'm working on cutting down the cowherd.
And feeding the calves, all the way to slaughter. My plan is to have fewer cows and finish the calves.
Cutting feed costs, I'm feeding corn silage, grass hay, couple pounds of 15% custom feed mix and 37% blocks with salt. What do think will be the daily gain average?
Click to expand...


MM..I figure the hay and the blocks are free choice...how much corn silage per head per day??
 
I always thought beef cows were good for utilizing roughage and unimproved pasture.
To background calves today it seems like you have to have a semi and a TMR to handle all the by products being fed.
Do you have a lot of high energy feed like corn, and some calculations, to justify feeding out calves all the way to slaughter?
 
mnmtranching":2w4xs7it said:
I'm working on cutting down the cowherd.
And feeding the calves, all the way to slaughter. My plan is to have fewer cows and finish the calves.
Cutting feed costs, I'm feeding corn silage, grass hay, couple pounds of 15% custom feed mix and 37% blocks with salt. What do think will be the daily gain average?
Click to expand...

Without some hard data it is all a crap shoot - so I will not put any daily gain number to you.

Depends on genetics as well.

********Run some over the scale every 10 days and do the math

It will also help you with your feed efficiency / utilization = your costs

Then compare them with their parents - you want to go from start to finish you need to be an expert right from the semen tank / bull / cow selection right through to who you will market the steers to.

Then you WILL know if you are in the black or the red.

You have a whole new - and very steep learning curve to master.

You have entered a completely new world - wish you the best.

Good luck - make it pay - but remember it is a business now - not a life style. You can lose your shirt if you lose control of the the business aspect.

Bez+
 
Not the same but will serve to illstrate the possible variations. The last pen of steers that we had killed ran as an average around 3.76 ADG, high of 4.39 low of 2.9. That's why it's hard to make an accurate prediction of what kind of gain to expect.
 
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About the first of Nov the calves will have ground ear corn. Right now they have full hay and corn silage. I bunk feed the silage in the morning, then after they eat a while on it and seem to be content, I pail feed the grain mix over the top. They clean the silage right up, then I fill the bunks again with the silage.
The calves so far look like their doing good.
 

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