lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
It's pretty simmilar to the discussion "the best breed". I think what is the right size for one, for another it might be too big or too small. Everybody chooses the best option depending from the breeds they have, feed, climate, their market, how much space they have for cattle, farming system and etc.
Our cows weight range is ~1400-1800lbs. Have one smaller ~1100lbs, but she calved at 15months age and hasn't grown much. She's calving on her own, has plenty of milk and her calves looks really well, but are abit smaller than other calves from bigger cows at the weaning and growing too. Her 1st daughter will calve next year, so will see if she'll be and easy calving one.
We've enought of land and grass for grazing and making feed, use bulls with no info about them (BW, WW, dam's milk or others), have a marker which requires not less than 706lbs dead weight from all cattle you sell (cows, heifers until 36months, bulls until 24months age) if you want to get better price, also needs that they were muscular (so naturaly needs abit more extreme cows and bulls with usually bigger BW), another market, where we sell heifers, needs younger than 25months, deadweight ~600-800lbs, not less not more. From all this we need to have bigger animals for easier calvings (it's easier to pull a big calf from big cow, than from a small; had this spring one cow, ~1800lbs or more, delivered pretty easily an alive 160lbs calf, when another cow, ~1320lbs, had a hard pull for 145,5lbs calf, which died during calving) and bigger weights at younger age, than we could sell bulls and heifers faster. When need to cull a cow also need over 706lbs deadweight and more muscles for better price.
We are going to make our cows abit bigger during time. Would love that all were not smaller than 1500lbs.
Oh, and forgot to mention about outwintering. Our cows spent the whole year out. We can have pretty harsh winters often, temperature is lower -20C, usually every winter have some days with temperature lower than -30C. Sometimes have alot of snow, sometimes winters are pretty wet. Calving starts in December- January, usually then have the coldest weather. However calves with bigger BW are doing better than smaller calves. Cows go out on grass in April-May. They are only hay fed, ~40 cows, one bull and small calves get ~10-12 hay bales (around 550lbs weight) every three days. What wasn't eaten use for bedding, that the small ones would have where to sleep. Use not just that year hay, but usually have the last year's hay. Had no sick calves or cows, all nursing cows keeping pretty good condition until turning them out on grass.
Our cows weight range is ~1400-1800lbs. Have one smaller ~1100lbs, but she calved at 15months age and hasn't grown much. She's calving on her own, has plenty of milk and her calves looks really well, but are abit smaller than other calves from bigger cows at the weaning and growing too. Her 1st daughter will calve next year, so will see if she'll be and easy calving one.
We've enought of land and grass for grazing and making feed, use bulls with no info about them (BW, WW, dam's milk or others), have a marker which requires not less than 706lbs dead weight from all cattle you sell (cows, heifers until 36months, bulls until 24months age) if you want to get better price, also needs that they were muscular (so naturaly needs abit more extreme cows and bulls with usually bigger BW), another market, where we sell heifers, needs younger than 25months, deadweight ~600-800lbs, not less not more. From all this we need to have bigger animals for easier calvings (it's easier to pull a big calf from big cow, than from a small; had this spring one cow, ~1800lbs or more, delivered pretty easily an alive 160lbs calf, when another cow, ~1320lbs, had a hard pull for 145,5lbs calf, which died during calving) and bigger weights at younger age, than we could sell bulls and heifers faster. When need to cull a cow also need over 706lbs deadweight and more muscles for better price.
We are going to make our cows abit bigger during time. Would love that all were not smaller than 1500lbs.
Oh, and forgot to mention about outwintering. Our cows spent the whole year out. We can have pretty harsh winters often, temperature is lower -20C, usually every winter have some days with temperature lower than -30C. Sometimes have alot of snow, sometimes winters are pretty wet. Calving starts in December- January, usually then have the coldest weather. However calves with bigger BW are doing better than smaller calves. Cows go out on grass in April-May. They are only hay fed, ~40 cows, one bull and small calves get ~10-12 hay bales (around 550lbs weight) every three days. What wasn't eaten use for bedding, that the small ones would have where to sleep. Use not just that year hay, but usually have the last year's hay. Had no sick calves or cows, all nursing cows keeping pretty good condition until turning them out on grass.
