Low birth weight calves

[whitewing]

I'm sure this topic has been covered here before, but I'll bring it back to the top.

Are there any direct links between low birth weight calves and how they later perform....ie, perform poorly?

I recently swapped a young bull for a couple of heifers that had been bred by the owner. One recently dropped a male calf and he's about half the size of what I'm accustomed to seeing in my Charolais and Charolais crosses.

Just wondering what the future holds for him.

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[dun]

It's in the genes. There is no 100% correlation between BW and WW or YW. Some small calves at birth will grow steady and well stright through slaughter or maturity. Some will grow like crazy to weaning then slow down, others will wean light then grow like weeds. Our old bull (with the exception of one cow) had a BW avg around 55-60 pounds but his calves weaned in the middle to the top of all of the calves, they slaughter at about the same weight as others but a month or 2 earlier. But the cow also has influence on that, both from the milk standpoint and the genetics.
If you look at EPD for proven bulls you will see the trend of what to expect.

 

[whitewing]

It's in the genes. There is no 100% correlation between BW and WW or YW. Some small calves at birth will grow steady and well stright through slaughter or maturity. Some will grow like crazy to weaning then slow down, others will wean light then grow like weeds. Our old bull (with the exception of one cow) had a BW avg around 55-60 pounds but his calves weaned in the middle to the top of all of the calves, they slaughter at about the same weight as others but a month or 2 earlier. But the cow also has influence on that, both from the milk standpoint and the genetics.
If you look at EPD for proven bulls you will see the trend of what to expect.

55 - 60 pounds is about the average of my Charolais and Charolais crosses as well. And your comments bring up an interesting point, one that I'm going to address in another thread.

 

[BRAFORDMAN]

I agree there is not a certain relationship between birth weight and weaning and maturing weight.

My braford cross bull throws small calves. The baldies he bred weaned maybe 500 pound calves.
The heifers I kept from these cows matured to 1500lb cows on grass alone/b].
It just depends on the genetics of the cow and bull.