My heifers are close to calving and I'm trying to figure things out. I plan to take pairs to summer pasture. Should I continue to feed them cubes over the summer or see how they hold up on grass. I plan to pull calves at 5 months to give heifers time to recooperate. I feel like if I provide them with optimal forage and some grain they should breed back and ones that don't should be culled.
The bad news is... it's probably going to be trial and error. With out knowing the quality of your summer pasture no one can really answer that. Even then, pasture conditions can vary year to year.
From my own experience, we have a place that is just hard on cattle. The grass is not good enough to support a heifer trying to breed back and grow herself still. You will end up having to supplement them a lot to the point its not economical no matter what.
10 miles north of there the same exact heifers will be butterball fat and breed right back with out any supplements.
Basically I start the young cattle at the one and only move mature cattle to the other.
With out that ability you have a couple choices.
Basically, sink or swim and let them go and see what they do.
Monitor them and try to apply feed as needed. That can be tricky if you are new to it.
Lastly, shoot for the upper end and apply steady feed as insurance.
In all the cases I would suggest you run the costs of each. Sink or swim will appear cheap on the front end but heavy culling comes at a cost. Applying as you go can be great if you do it right. It can be costly if you get behind the curve. Lastly, just applying feed can be costly but may pay dividends.
In any scenario, no matter what method, if 8 of the 10 breed back and 2 don't, the 2 probably need to go. If 2 out of 10 breed back. You might need to reevaluate the whole deal.