yes I am a as you call Average Joe Blow, as fas a conditioning goes my calves were 150 pounds at 3 months old when I bought them, body score 3, they are now almost 6 months old 460 pounds and body score of 7, I feed commercial dairy mix, top quality hay( have left over from horses) the ADG is 3.4 pounds each, I feed 18 pounds grain ration between the 2 thats around 2% BW in grain and they really dont eat alot of hay but they eat it,cattle farmers out here said I am doing a fine job not to change a thing they are growing just as good as others..so I guess being an avererage joe isnt so bad..
> I ate a lot of farm raised &
> fed-out Jersey meat (as well as
> Holstein, Hereford and Brahma
> crossed cattle also) growing up in
> a blue collar family of rather
> humble means. But I think the key
> issue here is essentially
> something you wrote, to wit:
> "when properly
> conditioned" or when properly
> fed-out, etc., etc. I love
> Jerseys, especially for nurse
> cows, but IMHO generally speaking
> Jerseys (or Holsteins) don't
> finish out nearly as soon or as
> well in the "hands" of a
> person lacking the requisite
> experience or base of knowledge to
> get consistently satisfactory
> results from Jerseys. One of my
> retired uncles usually has 5 or 6
> steers on feed all during the year
> and it's usually several Jerseys
> and/or Holsteins, a Hereford or
> two and 1 or 2 other
> "beef" breeds. In his
> simplified system they all get the
> same ration and the dairy calves
> ALWAYS finish slower and more
> poorly. Granted, if he were to
> "fine tune" the feeding
> of the dairy breed calves his
> results might be different. Over
> the years he has determined that
> grinding into hamburger is the way
> to go with his dairy calves. I'm
> not saying that's the way it
> always has to turn out, but I do
> believe that in the hands of the
> AVERAGE Joe Blow (or Arnold or
> Yvette) it's simply easier &
> quicker to get good results if you
> start with a good British beef
> breed. To each his own.
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