lb/day - on the cow

[Supa Dexta]

Does anyone track their calf gains, while on the cow until weaning? And if so, do you have a cut off that if something is under performing their mother gets cut? I avg'd 2.53 this season, with some over 3 (wish they were all that awesome!) But the few that were under 2 are of course the ones you can look at in the yard and know they are poor performers. Avg'd 206 day weights were used. (Just the day that worked out to weigh, but basically 205)

 

[dun]

We track it, but can usually tell the poor performers. Depending on the bull that sired the calf and the age of the cow would be how we determine which cows are on the cull list.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Yes.
No.
I use the two strike rule -- so attitude or udder or age or size are usually the other factor.

 

[kenny thomas]

I keep track of mine by weight per day of age. I aim for 3lb but some dont make that. I will be ok with 2 3/4.

 

[Bigfoot]

I have question about how you guys figure daily gains on a weaned calf. Say for instance you wean a 680 pound calf at 8 months old. Would you take his birth weight in to consideration ? Would it be figured 680/240? Or would you subtract a birth weight then figure 595/240? I see the 205 day weaning weights. I always figured they took adg multiplied by 205 to get that number. I always figure adg on calves I buy. I've never figured it on my own calves, from birth to weaning.

 

[dun]

I have question about how you guys figure daily gains on a weaned calf. Say for instance you wean a 680 pound calf at 8 months old. Would you take his birth weight in to consideration ? Would it be figured 680/240? Or would you subtract a birth weight then figure 595/240? I see the 205 day weaning weights. I always figured they took adg multiplied by 205 to get that number. I always figure adg on calves I buy. I've never figured it on my own calves, from birth to weaning.

I do it the simple way. I enter the numbers, BW at birth and WW at weaning into Cattlemax and it calculates it for me.
But for the match inclined, I would bet that BIF has a deal on their website that calculates it, for that matter OSU probably has something you can plug the numbers into to get the same data.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Yes, For me its weight on scale day minus birth weight, divided by age in days. I don't avg the age, I use each calfs age since I know them all.
Example: (560lb - 94lb BW) / 161 days age at weaning = 2.89 lb day

The ones that hit 3+ lbs are weaning off at 800 lbs, the avg was 2.53 for an avg weight around 600 lbs. The ones at 2lb a day had trouble cracking 500 lbs but there were only a few, and some twins in there lowering it. I keep a spread sheet with this all in it. I don't bother avg everything to 205 days, since that would just be a made up number, some are 220 and other late ones at 160 days old.

If I didn't take birth weight into consideration, then many would hit the 3lbs, but thats not accurate, since they were starting with near 100 lbs to begin with. Kenny must have some powerful calves.

One first time heifer weaned off a set of twins with a combined weight of 1080, which works out to be around 100% of her weight raised.

 

[bball]

I track lb/day for each calf, but the number most important to me is dollars per day. I divide the calfs total sale price by the number of days until sold. Makes it very easy to figure out your best producers. Once I have these numbers, I can compare all the cows and I factor this into the cull criteria. Most important to me is being bred back in timely fashion. Open cow moves right to front of trailer. What I consistently find is my larger framed cattle typically do not raise the heavier or highest $/day calfs. I have one scrubby cow that I got for a steal a few years ago. Been looking for any reason to cull her cause she looks like crap. She is sweet as sugar, great udder, breeds back on time, calfs easy and raises one of the top calfs numbers wise. Dollars don't lie. So as much as I would like to send her, the math won't let me.

 

[Supa Dexta]

So do you sell all singles, or do you divide group price amongst number of head sold and assign it to those calves? Because the latter doesn't seem accurate enough.

 

[bball]

So do you sell all singles, or do you divide group price amongst number of head sold and assign it to those calves? Because the latter doesn't seem accurate enough.

Everyone goes individually. Your correct, group averages do not let you pinpoint your best moneymakers.

 

[randiliana]

I keep track of ADG as well. But if you don't keep track of BW then you can use WPD (Weight Per Day of age). We cull pretty hard here, not just conformation issues (udders, feet etc), but also temperament and performance. Culling goes on Temperament, then Performance and then (unless they are really bad) conformation. Plus anything that didn't get bred back.


I have a cut off performance wise... 2 year old heifers have to at least raise a calf that is better than 1.80 lbs/day. That works out to a 430 lb calf @ 205 days with a 70 lb BW. Past experience has shown me that anything that can't at least do that will never be a decent producer. Anything under 2.00 lbs/day will get another chance. Cows are expected to be 2.20 lbs/day or better.

All I know now is that we have around 140 head of cows that weigh around 1400 lbs, and this year our average ADG was 2.71lbs/day for a 205 day weight of 648 lbs. Our lowest gainers were 1.98 and 1.99 and both were 2 year olds. Our highest was 3.41.

 

[Till-Hill]

Lowest in pasture was 1.34 very thin first calf heifer and highest was 3.51 on a SimAngus bull on first calf heifer and a 3.36 on a PB Angus bull calf. Average this year was 2.59. Springs did get creep. Right around $100 head in them. Just for about 6-8 weeks.

Ones that make me want to put a confinement building for beef cows are our falls. 90% out of herd bulls vs 90% out of AI bulls for springs. The calves eat with their mothers a TMR for our 1000# dairy heifers. Best one last year was 4.27 lowest was 2.82 and average 3.46. They just grow like weeds when there is always feed in front of them.

 

[Nesikep]

I do keep track of it, and it does play a part in my selection, but it's not the be-all-and-end-all... no single factor is. I had 2 smaller cows this year (4 year olds) have the 2 biggest calves, both steers, with ADG's of 3 and 3.125 lbs respectively... ADG's only really matter if you're buying them live... cow calf guys it's the raw weaning weight that matters, and as long as the cow can handle the bigger birthweight, she's putting money in the pocket.
The cow with the bigger steer had a pretty dinky heifer for the first attempt, but she was nicely put together, second calf was average weight and looked really nice, and hit a home run this time (115 lb bw, 625lb @ 172 days.. Her full brother is my homegrown bull.
The other did really well on the first calf and got a little thin doing it, second calf was smaller, and this years was my 4H hopeful, one of the nicest all-around steers I think we've ever had... he was 100 lb bw, 600@160 days

My worst performers were 2 of the first timers with heifer calves, both were around 1.5 lb/day, but both cows were very small cows as well (900 lb?) that come from good lines, I think they'll do better once they get their place settled in the pecking order and can actually eat their fill, the two other first timers were bigger and had steers, they were both around 2.1lb/day and "tougher" cows, bigger too by at least a frame score or two though as well

Overall, I think my average is about 2.5-2.75 lb/day.. no creep feed, no grain, no ralgrow, just grass, hay and milk (OK, salt and mineral)