Nutrition experts! A couple of ????'s

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Z&J Cattle

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We are feeding a group of heifers this winter. We bought them at 450-500# and are about 90 days into our feeding cycle. We want to feed them for a total of around 180 days. They are grazing on plenty of stockpiled fescue and we put out hay when it gets really cold (which it has not done much this year here in our part of the country) and we have them on a ration of 5# per hd. per day of a rice meal/soy oil based feed that is running right around 15% protein and 12-14% fat. I would estimate that they will weigh an average of somewhere in the neighborhood of 625-650 at this time. Do I need to increase my feed ration or is this about right? When we were first bunk breaking them, we started them out on around 2# and gradually increased to 5#. Also, what kind of ADG should I be looking for given this information? My hope (being conservative I feel) is that we would start with 450-500# calves and end up with 750-800# calves at the end of the 180 day cycle for an ADG of around 1.66#. Does this sound reasonable? Any input greatly appreciated as always.

Zach
 
Zach, I'm in E.AR between Marianna and Forrest City. I'm running heifers on wheat and cotton stalks and feeding 2 lbs. of corn and on the days they aren't in the cotton stalks some whole cottonseed and also free choice hay and gin trash. I'm hopping for two lbs. gain a day
 
Z&J Cattle":3i4xb5f3 said:
We are feeding a group of heifers this winter. We bought them at 450-500# and are about 90 days into our feeding cycle. We want to feed them for a total of around 180 days. They are grazing on plenty of stockpiled fescue and we put out hay when it gets really cold (which it has not done much this year here in our part of the country) and we have them on a ration of 5# per hd. per day of a rice meal/soy oil based feed that is running right around 15% protein and 12-14% fat. I would estimate that they will weigh an average of somewhere in the neighborhood of 625-650 at this time. Do I need to increase my feed ration or is this about right? When we were first bunk breaking them, we started them out on around 2# and gradually increased to 5#. Also, what kind of ADG should I be looking for given this information? My hope (being conservative I feel) is that we would start with 450-500# calves and end up with 750-800# calves at the end of the 180 day cycle for an ADG of around 1.66#. Does this sound reasonable? Any input greatly appreciated as always.

Zach

Not an expert at anything but with the fescue, the hay and the feed seems they could gain that much but you might want to increase the feed up to around 8 lbs. per head per day. Just wondering what kind of feed you're buying that is "rice meal/soy oil based ". Rice Bran alone should be around 12% protein and 12% fat and in your area should be very reasonable. Mind if I ask what you're paying for the feed??
 
Most of ours started out a little heavier then yours but after the grain during a 45 day wenaing peiod they;ve been on nothing but stockpiled fescue and fescue hay without any grain. The lowest ADG from 9/25 to 1/11 was 1.63 pounds a day the highest was 2.06. So, with the grain you're feeding they sure should be able to gain what you want
 
dun":3utdkzih said:
Most of ours started out a little heavier then yours but after the grain during a 45 day wenaing peiod they;ve been on nothing but stockpiled fescue and fescue hay without any grain. The lowest ADG from 9/25 to 1/11 was 1.63 pounds a day the highest was 2.06. So, with the grain you're feeding they sure should be able to gain what you want

This seems like a high ADG for grass hay. Does fescue have that much energy or are the winters that easy?
 
Stocker Steve":3dmk7gew said:
dun":3dmk7gew said:
Most of ours started out a little heavier then yours but after the grain during a 45 day wenaing peiod they;ve been on nothing but stockpiled fescue and fescue hay without any grain. The lowest ADG from 9/25 to 1/11 was 1.63 pounds a day the highest was 2.06. So, with the grain you're feeding they sure should be able to gain what you want

This seems like a high ADG for grass hay. Does fescue have that much energy or are the winters that easy?
It has mostly to do with genetics. We've selected for animals that will "do" on our crappy pasture and select heifers the same way.
 

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