sim.-ang.king said:
The difference you're seeing is because the calf is getting feed, forage, and milk, without the stress of weaning. It's not a very good indicator of how effective a cow is at feeding her calf, and just inflates WW. Most of the gains are coming from the feed, and forage.
Why not wean at 6 months? That is not early, and it will get a more accurate WW.
A lot of operations do it, and that's why I ignore a lot of what those operation's reports.
As I have said before, I'm preparing a group to send out to Midland when I can get them in. If they have no merit, they will not make the cut and fall on their faces, and I WILL say "I fell on my face, back to the drawing board" Only time will tell if what we are producing are powder puffs or turbo diesels. So far it's been the latter.
What I am doing falls into the fetal programming area and epigenetics. I've read Ph.D. research papers as well as spoken to a guy that has run between 700-1000 head of commercial cattle for close to 30 years, non Angus at that, and has shipped tractor trailer loads of steers to Missouri and scored prime on a rather large percentage of them. He's walked the talk.
He told me a while back, "make sure your animals never suffer a bad day, give them EVERYTHING they need to perform, and you will be surprised by the results". This guy, who has never run registered herd, was dead right!
I'm not disagreeing with you for the sake of disagreeing, because what you are saying makes sense for many people. We weaned off calves for many years at 205-210, no questions asked, they did fine after that too, but with that said, the plan we are on now is producing an even better animal. Once they are weaned, they keep on trucking, and looking good right till the day they leave the farm. They are ready for heavy service, and they hold up very well, from feedback, and what I have seen with my own two eyes.
Not every bull holds up well after they leave the seedstock producer. That's a fact. I think its due to the first 12 months of their development. It's crucial they are cared for well. genes can only take them so far. If George Clooney's kids were raised on a steady diet of Funyuns and Mountain Dew, no amount of genes will help them later in life.
Last night I spoke with a rather successful seedstock producer here in Kentucky. They had lost around 10 calves this winter. Our regional Angus rep, Alex Tolbert was talking on the Angus Report how the losses had been high and birthweights very low, not to mention weaning weights. I attribute all of this to nutrition. Yes, weather played a big role, but how can it be completely weather related when we have not lost a calf, most of our calves born were over 85 pounds, and we are lined up for some of the best weaning weights that we have ever had. It had to be nutrition.
You see the photos of our animals coming out of what was probably one of the worst winters ever in Kentucky from a precipitation standpoint. They weren't suffering, but I can assure you that even if every one in there had been from the finest Angus operations in the country and deprived of what they needed, they would have looked horrible with what we dealt with.
I wean them as late as possible and feed the mommas as well as I can to make sure they hit their full genetic potential, and people buying bulls from me recognize that when the bulls perform well for them.
