holsteins

[Anonymous]

The new issue of Hoard's Dairyman has the U. S. dairy industry statistics for 1998-2003. It list Nebraska as having 492 dairies with an average of 130 cows. These are commercial dairies which ship milk. The single cow in the backyard type places. At the 64,000 milk cows this report lists there is about 32,000 dairy steers started each year in Nebraska. That is enough to fill a fair sized feedlot. That is a lot of black and white beef.

Dave

 

[sillco]

Hi Ellie

It's just one of those things that a lot of people just don't think about, unless they're right there in the middle of the area where it's done!
I can drive 200 miles and be in an area where raising dairy beef is considered a joke - and a milk cow is a real novelty.
But here where we have so many diaries (2 within 4 miles of me, 10 within 15 miles), raising those steers is a very viable business.
At the salebarn here a newborn Holstein bull calf will bring a lot more than a newborn beef calf! I can buy newborn beef calves for $50-$150, while those Holstein bulls start at $200.
Personally though, I'm not equipped to raise the numbers that are necessary to turn a reasonable profit on them, so I leave the Holsteins alone.

Ann B

Oh ok. Well I'm not saying I'm against dairy, cause I do my share of eating ice cream. I was just wondering. Thanx Mrs. Bledsoe, your always so informative.
Thanx,
Ellie May

Around here, south Wisconsin, Holstein bull calves are going for $120-150 and heifers for $350 -600. Beef calves $120 - 240. In Wisconsin we feed out mostely dairy calves generaly Holstein. The feeding period is just longer than for beef animals. Of course that means more dollars in feed to get a Holstein to finish. Holstein are very meaty and tender and are very good teasting when finished. All farmers grow corn, soy beans and alfalfa. The animals are mostly kept in confinment, even beef. Pasturing is beginning to get more popular but only 25% of farmers are doing it in Wisconsin.

 

[Anonymous]

i need as much info as posible on raising dairy steers. my plan is to buy at 350lbs and sell around 800lbs is a good idea or would you have a diffrent weight in mind. i only have 20 acres. what % feed would you feed and how much feed would you feed to get the best result. would you feed grain once or twice a day if any has a good feed mix that would put the weight on i would be very greatful. what would be the best kind of hay. get real good hay or just average hay as far as budget is conserned. all input is needed. thank you

 

[la4angus]

i need as much info as posible on raising dairy steers. my plan is to buy at 350lbs and sell around 800lbs is a good idea or would you have a diffrent weight in mind. i only have 20 acres. what % feed would you feed and how much feed would you feed to get the best result. would you feed grain once or twice a day if any has a good feed mix that would put the weight on i would be very greatful. what would be the best kind of hay. get real good hay or just average hay as far as budget is conserned. all input is needed. thank you

It would help if you were registered, so that the ones that you are asking for advice and information could have an idea of where in the world you are. We have no Idea of what kind of grass or hay is available, and in what amts. We have no Idea if you are buying grain in 50lb sacks or if you have tons of feed available in bulk. We have no idea of the quality of your grass, hay, silage or haylage. Fill us in.
Help us to help you.

 

[Anonymous]

i need as much info as posible on raising dairy steers. my plan is to buy at 350lbs and sell around 800lbs is a good idea or would you have a diffrent weight in mind. i only have 20 acres. what % feed would you feed and how much feed would you feed to get the best result. would you feed grain once or twice a day if any has a good feed mix that would put the weight on i would be very greatful. what would be the best kind of hay. get real good hay or just average hay as far as budget is conserned. all input is needed. thank you

It would help if you were registered, so that the ones that you are asking for advice and information could have an idea of where in the world you are. We have no Idea of what kind of grass or hay is available, and in what amts. We have no Idea if you are buying grain in 50lb sacks or if you have tons of feed available in bulk. We have no idea of the quality of your grass, hay, silage or haylage. Fill us in. {i live in ky the grass i have avaliable is clover alfalfa, fescue ,wheat ect . as much as i would like to buy feed in bulk i really do not have a way to store tons of feed. i store all my feed in 55 gal drums so i guess i will be buying feed in 50lbs sacks. i will just be feeding hay and grain. i do not raise corn plus do not have the equipment to cut haylage or sialage. even though i bet that sialage and hailage really would put the weight on those steers. i hope this can help you help me.
Help us to help you.

 

[la4angus]

Cleav88
If you would post your last messafe again, I bet that LarrySasson or ollie could give you some good advice and help on your poarticuliar situation. I am not really familiar with fescue.

 

[Anonymous]

i need as much info as posible on raising dairy steers. my plan is to buy at 350lbs and sell around 800lbs is a good idea or would you have a diffrent weight in mind. i only have 20 acres. what % feed would you feed and how much feed would you feed to get the best result. would you feed grain once or twice a day if any has a good feed mix that would put the weight on i would be very greatful. what would be the best kind of hay. get real good hay or just average hay as far as budget is conserned. all input is needed. thank you

It would help if you were registered, so that the ones that you are asking for advice and information could have an idea of where in the world you are. We have no Idea of what kind of grass or hay is available, and in what amts. We have no Idea if you are buying grain in 50lb sacks or if you have tons of feed available in bulk. We have no idea of the quality of your grass, hay, silage or haylage. Fill us in. {i live in ky the grass i have avaliable is clover alfalfa, fescue ,wheat ect . as much as i would like to buy feed in bulk i really do not have a way to store tons of feed. i store all my feed in 55 gal drums so i guess i will be buying feed in 50lbs sacks. i will just be feeding hay and grain. i do not raise corn plus do not have the equipment to cut haylage or sialage. even though i bet that sialage and hailage really would put the weight on those steers. i hope this can help you help me.
Help us to help you.

this the message you want me to resumit.

 

[ollie]

cleave are you going to put the steers on full feed or some grass and feed? How many are you going to feed? Are you an fescue?

 

[Anonymous]

i would like to get at least 20 to 25 steers

 

[Anonymous]

We buy 3 day old holstein calves and feed them until slaughter. If I were you, I would finish them out, because there is more money in finishing them out than there is in selling them as feeders. When you buy calves, you can never be sure they have had grain before and holsteins are more apt to bloat than beef cattle are. Build them up until they are not cleaning all the grain you give them up, or better yet, get a self feeder. Give the poor quality hay or even straw. This will keep their rumens going and won't cause a problem with bloat. Also it's better not to put them on grass because with holsteins, you want to keep frame down as little as possible, and putting them on grass instead of grain builds the frame up and delays them finishing out sooner. Longer ago we had some on pasture and some in the feedlot. Those in the feedlot were much more fleshy and finished out quicker. Another thing is that holsteins aren't effecient grazers and therefore with walking around grazing, they won't gain as quickly. Last, be carefull when putting them on grass that has clover in it. If they over eat, clover is real bad about causing bloat.

 

[Anonymous]

what is a good feed to feed these steers at 350lbs and what percentage feed do i feed them. and when you say finesh is that when they reach 1000lbs. can i feed them the same thing the whole time if not when do i change feeds. last is it best to sell these fineshed steers at the local stockyard. thank for all your help!

 

[Larry Sansom]

what is a good feed to feed these steers at 350lbs and what percentage feed do i feed them. and when you say finesh is that when they reach 1000lbs. can i feed them the same thing the whole time if not when do i change feeds. last is it best to sell these fineshed steers at the local stockyard. thank for all your help!

The best thing you can do is get soybean hulls from one of the soybean processing plants. Cheaper than feeding corn, better nutrition for feeding on grass because of the starch issue with corn on grass. You can work the steers up to a full feed on soyhulls on grass and they will really grow. Limit the Soyhulls now that grass is good and the clover is growing well. By mid summer - you will want to start pushing up the soy hull feeding rate. this by-product feed is 13% + /- so it will work for a long time. If you pull them in off grass - you can start mixing more corn - also as they get older you can benefit from more corn in a dry lot feeding situation. Growing Holsteins takes time - use your grass to the max, but supplement with soyhulls and you can finish them pretty easy.

 

[Anonymous]

• I raise holstiens, jerseys, longhorns, corrientes, shorthorns, and any cross that looks OK. Best money I ever made was on $5.00 sale barn jerseys nobody wanted.Holstiens are great on grass but you need grain to finish them.

 

[Anonymous]

Best money I ever made was when I bought a bunch of Jersey bull calves at a salesbarn for $12.00 each. They grow like weeds on pasture.

 

[C & C Land & Catt]

I do not like dairy cattle in the least little bit. But in the mid 90s Braums dairy in Tuttle, OK would give you all of the little bull calves you wanted if you picked up at least 35. This went on for 3 months and I made enough to pay cash for another 350 angus mamas. All we were doing was loading up a pot load and hauling to a different sale barn 4 or 5 days a week. Nowadays though, with these great prices (thanx canada and Dr. Atkins), the cost of buying one here in OK is outrageous. But if you can pick them up for cheap go for it and make a killing.

 

[hillbilly]

I'm callin B.S. on the above post!
There maybe a few true words in it [and, the, if etc...]

Hillbilly

 

[la4angus]

I'm callin B.S. on the above post!
There maybe a few true words in it [and, the, if etc...]

Hillbilly

Which post.

 

[Anonymous]

The one right above my BS post.
I'm bad about BS. so its easy for me to spot it.
Hillbilly

 

[C & C Land & Catt]

Hillbilly if you were in the business then you might have an idea about how the market was. Also if you want to check call Braums in Tuttle OK and check with the Bristow, Pawnee, Perkins, Woodward, Newkirk, and OKC National Stockyards all in Oklahoma. Get the sale bills and see what we made off of them. It is upstarts like you that enable guys like me to make a killing.

 

[hillbilly]

I do not like dairy cattle in the least little bit. But in the mid 90s Braums dairy in Tuttle, OK would give you all of the little bull calves you wanted if you picked up at least 35. This went on for 3 months and I made enough to pay cash for another 350 angus mamas. All we were doing was loading up a pot load and hauling to a different sale barn 4 or 5 days a week. Nowadays though, with these great prices (thanx canada and Dr. Atkins), the cost of buying one here in OK is outrageous. But if you can pick them up
Hillbilly if you were in the business then you might have an idea about how the market was. Also if you want to check call Braums in Tuttle OK and check with the Bristow, Pawnee, Perkins, Woodward, Newkirk, and OKC National Stockyards all in Oklahoma. Get the sale bills and see what we made off of them. It is upstarts like you that enable guys like me to make a killing.

Most big companys don't give away there by-product unless it has no value.
If it has no value, how did you get $200,000 for it??[350 mama's @$575?]
How many calves of no value would it take to make $200,000,
I'm guessing alot since you hauled them directly to the sale barn.
Maybe 14,000 head? Maybe you could get $15 per head = 210,000 [cows+ fuel+labor]
Thats 234 calves per day, 5 days per week for three months.
Does that dairy calve out 234 per day? aprox 85,000 head per year?
For a man that don't like dairy let me tell you something, milking 85,000 head of cattle would be tough. That's over 7,000 head per hour 24 hours a day, for two milkings.
Whats he got a double 1500 head harringbone milk parlor????
It would be 2.4 miles long!!!
I'm sure you can explain all this to a hillbilly like me....just be sure to type real slow.

Hillbilly