DCA farm
Well-known member
What kind of feed ration are y'all putting your light weight calves on I see people buying the 150-200 pound calves. I'd like see y'all pencil it must be super sharp
I watched a man buy every calf he could yesterday they called them 45-50 day olds he just kept saying he's buying money makers he probably bought 20 calves they were all just around 100-120 poundsSon of Butch said:Nearly all calves sold under 200 lbs are dairy or dairy crossed calves. Properly managed they
can be very feed efficient. They would go on a textured calf starter for 1-2 weeks.
Then if a guy was running a decent number of them, they would use their own corn to make their
own complete calf feed containing both concentrate and roughage to control the forage intake.
When they reach 350-375 lbs then on to a grower ration containing either higher levels of
forage or they might continue on a high concentrate program depending on their end goal and
available home grown feedstuffs. Like hogs, it's a volume based program.
In effect they are adding value to their corn by selling it through the calves/steers.
DCA farm said:I watched a man buy every calf he could yesterday they called them 45-50 day olds he just kept saying he's buying money makers he probably bought 20 calves they were all just around 100-120 poundsSon of Butch said:Nearly all calves sold under 200 lbs are dairy or dairy crossed calves. Properly managed they
can be very feed efficient. They would go on a textured calf starter for 1-2 weeks.
Then if a guy was running a decent number of them, they would use their own corn to make their
own complete calf feed containing both concentrate and roughage to control the forage intake.
When they reach 350-375 lbs then on to a grower ration containing either higher levels of
forage or they might continue on a high concentrate program depending on their end goal and
available home grown feedstuffs. Like hogs, it's a volume based program.
In effect they are adding value to their corn by selling it through the calves/steers.
Allenw said:DCA farm said:I watched a man buy every calf he could yesterday they called them 45-50 day olds he just kept saying he's buying money makers he probably bought 20 calves they were all just around 100-120 poundsSon of Butch said:Nearly all calves sold under 200 lbs are dairy or dairy crossed calves. Properly managed they
can be very feed efficient. They would go on a textured calf starter for 1-2 weeks.
Then if a guy was running a decent number of them, they would use their own corn to make their
own complete calf feed containing both concentrate and roughage to control the forage intake.
When they reach 350-375 lbs then on to a grower ration containing either higher levels of
forage or they might continue on a high concentrate program depending on their end goal and
available home grown feedstuffs. Like hogs, it's a volume based program.
In effect they are adding value to their corn by selling it through the calves/steers.
180 was about as light as I was satisfied with performance when starting them, a little heavier was better. The lighter calves just don't take off as fast.
To me it seems more related to age than weight but I still try not to buy less than 275lb. But even then I buy the rough calves not the good young ones. The rough ones seem to respond to good care better.Allenw said:DCA farm said:I watched a man buy every calf he could yesterday they called them 45-50 day olds he just kept saying he's buying money makers he probably bought 20 calves they were all just around 100-120 poundsSon of Butch said:Nearly all calves sold under 200 lbs are dairy or dairy crossed calves. Properly managed they
can be very feed efficient. They would go on a textured calf starter for 1-2 weeks.
Then if a guy was running a decent number of them, they would use their own corn to make their
own complete calf feed containing both concentrate and roughage to control the forage intake.
When they reach 350-375 lbs then on to a grower ration containing either higher levels of
forage or they might continue on a high concentrate program depending on their end goal and
available home grown feedstuffs. Like hogs, it's a volume based program.
In effect they are adding value to their corn by selling it through the calves/steers.
180 was about as light as I was satisfied with performance when starting them, a little heavier was better. The lighter calves just don't take off as fast.
DCA farm said:Allenw said:DCA farm said:I watched a man buy every calf he could yesterday they called them 45-50 day olds he just kept saying he's buying money makers he probably bought 20 calves they were all just around 100-120 pounds
180 was about as light as I was satisfied with performance when starting them, a little heavier was better. The lighter calves just don't take off as fast.
What kind of feed do you put yours on
AndersonAg said:Newbie here and I would love some input on what I'm doing and how I might be able to do it better. I'm also showing how dull my pencil is for the original poster. I'm pretty new to raising stockers and recently moved onto a 20 acre place (ranchette or hobby farm if you want to call it that) in central Texas that I divided into 6 paddocks using a hot wire. Cows didn't make any sense because there'd be a lot of expense feeding all year to only sell a small handful of calves a year. That said, I started buying smaller calves, averaging 225# which seems like the sweet spot, 10-15 at a time that are mainly angus or charolais cross. The first two weeks I have them, they're in a pen to make sure they stay healthy. They eat around 15 bags of either a 10 or 12% protein and go through around 4 square bales of hay along with some mineral containing bovatec while i'm getting them started. All said, purchase price plus input in the first 3 weeks I have around $400-$450 in each one. After the first 2 weeks, I turn them out into a coastal pasture (winter months I overseed with ryegrass) but still supplement feed them while they transition. I usually have 20-30 at a time and rotate them every 5-7 days allowing each paddock to rest nearly a month. Thus far, I have been selling them anywhere from 425# to 500# after 4 months so they've been averaging 2# or more of daily gain on mainly just grass (without overgrazing because we are grass farmers after all), netting me $150 - $225 per head on a buy/sell model (I base income on sell/buy because you have to replace your stock at some point). Following all this, I am buying and selling around 75 calves per year when there's normal rainfall and haven't had any die yet (fingers crossed).
I guess my question is this: on small acreage, do the small calves like this make sense because I can stock more of them or is there something I could do differently to net more in the end (and still not overgraze)?
AndersonAg said:Newbie here and I would love some input on what I'm doing and how I might be able to do it better. I'm also showing how dull my pencil is for the original poster. I'm pretty new to raising stockers and recently moved onto a 20 acre place (ranchette or hobby farm if you want to call it that) in central Texas that I divided into 6 paddocks using a hot wire. Cows didn't make any sense because there'd be a lot of expense feeding all year to only sell a small handful of calves a year. That said, I started buying smaller calves, averaging 225# which seems like the sweet spot, 10-15 at a time that are mainly angus or charolais cross. The first two weeks I have them, they're in a pen to make sure they stay healthy. They eat around 15 bags of either a 10 or 12% protein and go through around 4 square bales of hay along with some mineral containing bovatec while i'm getting them started. All said, purchase price plus input in the first 3 weeks I have around $400-$450 in each one. After the first 2 weeks, I turn them out into a coastal pasture (winter months I overseed with ryegrass) but still supplement feed them while they transition. I usually have 20-30 at a time and rotate them every 5-7 days allowing each paddock to rest nearly a month. Thus far, I have been selling them anywhere from 425# to 500# after 4 months so they've been averaging 2# or more of daily gain on mainly just grass (without overgrazing because we are grass farmers after all), netting me $150 - $225 per head on a buy/sell model (I base income on sell/buy because you have to replace your stock at some point). Following all this, I am buying and selling around 75 calves per year when there's normal rainfall and haven't had any die yet (fingers crossed).
I guess my question is this: on small acreage, do the small calves like this make sense because I can stock more of them or is there something I could do differently to net more in the end (and still not overgraze)?
5S Cattle said:Ya, I asked because it seems to be working. I recently started buying the same size calves. I implanted everything with ralgro. You think the synovex implants are good too?