Grazing while on grain?

[tcline]

Hello.

I was wondering what problems I might encounter while feeding a grain ration to my (800- 1000 lbs) calves while pasturing them. Is this OK to do, and if so is it worth it?

I have been feeding 3-4 lbs once a day, of a 80% rolled corn/ 20% barley mix and plan on slowly moving up to 6-8 lbs a day. Does this sound acceptable? Meanwhile they are getting all the fresh green grass they could possibly want.

The only differences I have noticed thus far is a REALLY loose stool, and some of them BULGE on the left side intermittently, however not all of them do this, and not all the time.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Todd

 

[Caustic Burno]

First them are yearlings and second why are you grain feeding out of a sack. Thats like a second mortage on your house. If you want to make any money you had better get in the grass only business. And no the grain won't hurt em.

 

[tcline]

Caustic,

So I take it that I'm not going to feed enough grain to make a difference?

The only reason I started with the grain in the first place is that last years finished product was too dry, will this make any difference?

Todd

 

[Bama]

Feeding out of a bag when there is plenty of grass available you will feed up all your profits in about 4 months at 8 pounds a day. If your gonna keep them on grain you need to buy it in bulk.

 

[greenwillowherefords]

What do you mean by "finished product?" Are you feeding these calves to butcher? Whatever the case, some hay will help the loose stool if you intend to continue feeding grain.

 

[Caustic Burno]

What do you mean by "finished product?" Are you feeding these calves to butcher? Whatever the case, some hay will help the loose stool if you intend to continue feeding grain.

Yeah what are you raising the yearlings for salebarn, freezer?

 

[tcline]

I guess I should be more thorough.

I got this mix of grain in a 1500 lb "tote". If this works out ok, I will build a bigger bin for bulk storage. However the feed manager suggested I start with the tote, as I am only feeding 8-12 animals at a time, and spoilage may have then become a problem.

I am feeding these out to butcher and sell to friends and such as whole or halfs. Anyway, thats what we did last year. The burger and roasts were excellent, but the steaks were dry and not marbled at all. I thought that the grain might help with this. Also I now think that we butchered them too small last year (just under 1000 lbs). Could this have an effect on the marbling?

Thanks

Todd

 

[Caustic Burno]

Ok now what breed fine English cattle or tough Cont's.

 

[tcline]

4 hereford mix
2 black angus
2 red angus

and looking to get 4-6 more this week

 

[Caustic Burno]

If I am fixin to put one in the freezer about a month before slaughter I feed about 3 pounds of sweet feed a day. They always come out as tender as a mothers love.

 

[tcline]

OK, now to show you what a rookie I am...

What exactly is sweet feed?

Thanks for all your time

Todd

 

[tcline]

Also, is the bulging side that I described something to be worried about?

Thanks,

Todd

 

[Caustic Burno]

http://www.lonestarfeed.com/pdffiles/1028.pdf

I wouldn't be able to tell you about the bulge unless I could see it, sorry about that one.

 

[greenwillowherefords]

I feed a couple butcher steers per year. My method is certainly more expensive than Caustic's, but should get them to slaughter at a younger age. If I didn't run out of meat so quickly, (two growing boys eat a lot) I wouldn't be in such a hurry to get them ready, and might take them at the slower pace.

It is important to keep your mineral program up to par as well.

I leave mine on the small pasture behind the house, and feed some hay along with the feed and grass. I gradually increase the feed until I am feeding about 15 pounds per day the last month. I usually feed them for at least 80-90 days total. My butcher, my customers, and I are very pleased with the results. I typically butcher Hereford and Hereford cross steers that are out of the bloodlines that I raise. The last one butchered was a commercial son of a bull I traded for last year. The one I am feeding right now was sired by a bull I raised. This way I keep track of the carcass performance of my genetics firsthand.

Not implying that my way is better than Caustics. That's just how I do it, and it works.

 

[bullred]

When I was a kid we would feed a slaughter steer day old bread from the local thrift store bakery (10 cents a loaf) covered with sorgam mollases. Produced some beautifully marbled beef. Sometimes we got end of the day donuts from the town donut shop also. If you want to see steers that'll trample you to get to the feed trough, start feeding them jelly donuts and apple fritters!

CJ

 

[MrBilly]

For what its worth we feed out Angus based steers for customers every year. They live on grass, and it is the grass that gives them the loose stools, not the grain. We select only Angus bulls that have good carcass EPDs, we ultrasound the prospective calves to enter the feeding program, and we use past experience as our guide. The ultrasound gives us an idea of marbeling and ribeye area in the hoof. We attend all the cuttings of the animals and take pictures of the ribeye marbeling and measure the ribeye area - good data for the future.

A few pounds per day of grain probably won't do much for you. We feed a grain mix of corn, oats, soybean meal, cotton seed hulls, molasses and salt. Sort of like sweet feed?

But, we feed at 2.5% of body wt. so a 1000 lb critter gets about 25 lb per day. We feed for 5-6 months , kill on average at 15 months and dry age the carcass for 17-19 days. They are well marbled, tender and juicey.

Boy, talk about melt in your mouth steaks. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of people who love grass-fed, non-grain fed, beef. It is dry to me, has very little marbeling, and just doesn't turn me on at all. Those who like it are willing to pay extra for the meat.

Since our grain-fed takes longer and is more expensive than just feeding grass, we charge accordingly. No sense doing all the work and not making any money at it. We have a waiting list for the beef. Maybe I should charge more? Details at

http://www.sellfarm.com

Bulk is the way to go when buying the grain.




Billy

 

[ctlbaron]

If you've got good pasture I wouldn't be giving them bag feed. I put them out just a little 14% beef ration every day to keep them coming to the barn to check for any problems.

 

[greenwillowherefords]

If you've got good pasture I wouldn't be giving them bag feed. I put them out just a little 14% beef ration every day to keep them coming to the barn to check for any problems.

Do you like grain fed beef or grass fed beef? If a person wants grain fed beef, then they have to feed grain.

 

[jerry27150]

they will grow faster with some grain

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

There are MANY ways to feed out steers to a freezer product.
Depends on the how fast/slow & what quality you want.
Grass fed beef takes a long time to finish, hard to get finished properly, and makes yellow fat - which doesn't make it bad.
Grain fed is faster, marbles better & has white fat.
You can feed anywhere from all grass no grain to heavy grain with hay, to a mix in between (which is what you are doing).
Personnally, I wouldn't raise/buy any meat that wasn't grain fed - no grass. Steaks are dryer on grass because they didn't get finished enough to have proper marbling in the meat.
You can continue feeding grain on grass, increase 1% of their body weight each week till they are eating all they will clean up twice a day - or as little as you want. But, until they appear to look like they "jiggle" (like jelly) they are not ready.
So, it sounds like you did not enjoy your previously harvested cattle. If you plan on harvesting this batch before they are truly finished, I would suggest grinding the steaks - or making them into pot roasts.
I like my steaks rare, tender & juicy - fully grain fed to be finished out at a young age (14-16 months old). Younger is more tender also.
There are GREAT debates on grass vs grain. You can check out previous threads.