Hi,
This is my first time posting here, I've searched the forum a bit but didn't find anything related to this topic.
We have been breeding cattle for about 5 years now and selling our calves at auction after they have finished weening. We have recently decided to take a group of 12 calves that are about to finish weening and raise them to mature weight as an experiment to see if it will be more profitable.
Our first challenge is to decide how far apart we should separate the calves from their dams.
We have 3 options:
1) We can corral the calves and mothers next to each other in two corrals that are side by side. They will be separated from the rest of the herd but still remain within close proximity to each other.
2) We can keep the dams with the herd and corral the calves nearby, where they can still see and interact with the dams, but not feed from them.
3) We can move either the calves or the dams to a separate part of the ranch, roughly 1.5 miles away.
This is a new process for us and as I said, is being done primarily as a test run. But we would like increase our chances of success as much as possible. Which of these options would be most likely to succeed. If it matters, the breeds of the cows will be different.. some will be Brahman and others will be Simbrah.
Thanks in advance!
This is my first time posting here, I've searched the forum a bit but didn't find anything related to this topic.
We have been breeding cattle for about 5 years now and selling our calves at auction after they have finished weening. We have recently decided to take a group of 12 calves that are about to finish weening and raise them to mature weight as an experiment to see if it will be more profitable.
Our first challenge is to decide how far apart we should separate the calves from their dams.
We have 3 options:
1) We can corral the calves and mothers next to each other in two corrals that are side by side. They will be separated from the rest of the herd but still remain within close proximity to each other.
2) We can keep the dams with the herd and corral the calves nearby, where they can still see and interact with the dams, but not feed from them.
3) We can move either the calves or the dams to a separate part of the ranch, roughly 1.5 miles away.
This is a new process for us and as I said, is being done primarily as a test run. But we would like increase our chances of success as much as possible. Which of these options would be most likely to succeed. If it matters, the breeds of the cows will be different.. some will be Brahman and others will be Simbrah.
Thanks in advance!