Over wintering broken mouth cows ?

[Stocker Steve]

I purchased some thin ones in late winter. They were obviously underfed. I put them on free choice hay + corn silage for 6 weeks and then turned them out. The original plan was too sell them all. Now about 2/3 are fat on grass and the other third have lost their silage figure and show some rib.

I am building numbers,and considering overwintering the fat BM cows. Any concerns or sorting tips with this ?

 

[Aaron]

Didn't you just have a thread a while back asking this same question?

 

[Shanghai]

I don't have corn silage and have been wondering how it would work on grass and cake
My concern is I wouldn't have the same success without a better quality feed

 

[Texas PaPaw]

I purchased some thin ones in late winter. They were obviously underfed. I put them on free choice hay + corn silage for 6 weeks and then turned them out. The original plan was too sell them all. Now about 2/3 are fat on grass and the other third have lost their silage figure and show some rib.

I am building numbers,and considering overwintering the fat BM cows. Any concerns or sorting tips with this ?

Would think the fat cows will do ok with adequate nutrition. Don't need teeth to eat silage, hay,cubes, ddgs, tall and/or fine grass. Probably be best to sell the ones that didn't maintain their condition as that should be a good culling test. Might have trouble with your winters.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Didn't you just have a thread a while back asking this same question?

A previous thread was on wintering cows on cheap corn. Lots of overpriced brown rained on hay this summer.
This thread is on sorting old cows w/o mouthing them. Related, but not the same question.

 

[Texas PaPaw]

I don't have corn silage and have been wondering how it would work on grass and cake
My concern is I wouldn't have the same success without a better quality feed

Several years ago wintered thin cull cows on dormant grass and 20% cubes. Started feeding 3#/hd/day in fall and as grass quality declined eventually worked up to 5#/day in late winter. IIRC, cows gained between 1 & 1.5#/day. Most did about 1.5 adg. Fed about 1/3 ton of cubes per cow for the winter. Was buying cubes by the bag and still made a decent profit. Could probably use liquid feed but would probably cost a little more as most liquid feed is about 40% water. Possibly could use ddg's with a salt limiter.

Think about 1/3 of cows turned out to be medium to heavy bred when sold 5 months later. Suggest trying to buy only cows that have not been palpated as that will increase odds that some are bred. Would also have a bull with them as even most old short breds are worth more than opens now. The opens will be the singles and doubles and the ones that turn out bred will be your home runs. Buy a thin or young bull that can fatten up also. Would also try to avoid the really thin, shelly cows as they take more time to turn around. Maybe buy bcs 3's and grow to 5-6's

 

[Shanghai]

I don't have corn silage and have been wondering how it would work on grass and cake
My concern is I wouldn't have the same success without a better quality feed

Several years ago wintered thin cull cows on dormant grass and 20% cubes. Started feeding 3#/hd/day in fall and as grass quality declined eventually worked up to 5#/day in late winter. IIRC, cows gained between 1 & 1.5#/day. Most did about 1.5 adg. Fed about 1/3 ton of cubes per cow for the winter. Was buying cubes by the bag and still made a decent profit. Could probably use liquid feed but would probably cost a little more as most liquid feed is about 40% water. Possibly could use ddg's with a salt limiter.

Think about 1/3 of cows turned out to be medium to heavy bred when sold 5 months later. Suggest trying to buy only cows that have not been palpated as that will increase odds that some are bred. Would also have a bull with them as even most old short breds are worth more than opens now. The opens will be the singles and doubles and the ones that turn out bred will be your home runs. Buy a thin or young bull that can fatten up also. Would also try to avoid the really thin, shelly cows as they take more time to turn around. Maybe buy bcs 3's and grow to 5-6's

I had a buddy that had a couple circles of milo stalks and bought 2 pots of weigh cows and turned in a couple bulls with them.
Turned out quite a few were bred and calved out
He had then palpated when he sold them and several were heavy bred and most of the other were bred from his bulls, but made money on the weight gain on the open cows.
Thanks for the info

Steve I didn't mean to hijack your post and I sure don't know about thin cows in your country but I'd think with corn silage you could get away with just about anything

 

[Jake]

If they are holding condition on grass they should make it through the winter without having to be fed too hard. If they are in good physical condition as far as feet and legs and raised decent calves even the thinner cows can be held through the winter. Put some weight on and if nothing else you have some bottle babies to sell or graft on something of your own that loses a calf. Broken mouth cows are easy to keep around as long as they aren't completely over the hill

 

[bigbull338]

send them to the sale and make your money while you can.because they will most likely loose alot of weight in your hard winter.

 

[skeeter swatter]

If they are holding condition on grass they should make it through the winter without having to be fed too hard. If they are in good physical condition as far as feet and legs and raised decent calves even the thinner cows can be held through the winter. Put some weight on and if nothing else you have some bottle babies to sell or graft on something of your own that loses a calf. Broken mouth cows are easy to keep around as long as they aren't completely over the hill

+1

 

[Stocker Steve]

I spoke to a local jockey this weekend. He buys broken mouth cows, swamp hay, beet tailings, and black bulls. Tailing are a problem for me due to the trucking cost.
He claims they can gum beet tails and last an average of 3 to 4 years on this winter feed mix. He only culls them if they are a man eater, or open in the fall.
He is obviously a low cost producer. The only issue I have seen with this ugly cow system is that 30+ % test open after a dry summer.

 

[cross_7]

In 2012 I bought the open cows from a ranch down the road
They had come from droughted out country and most were old and poor
They all bred back and calved within 30 days of each other
They did well on spring and summer grass and calved in Nov
They started going down hill with dried grass and nursing calves
I had to buy hay and cotton seed
If a guy had a source of good feed like corn silage I'd have no worries

 

[Stocker Steve]

If a guy had a source of good feed like corn silage I'd have no worries

Latest "expert" forecast calls for corn averaging $3 through 2020.
Desk jockeys wonder why folks don't dry lot cows on $3 corn to produce $3 calves?
Bedding here could cost almost as much as the feed...

 

[cowgirl8]

Its going to be a bad winter. We have one herd of old cows and its hard to hang on to them when people are paying so much for them. We'll probably sell them in a month or so before it gets bad..

 

[Jake]

If a guy had a source of good feed like corn silage I'd have no worries

Latest "expert" forcast calls for "volitial" corn averaging $3 through 2020.

Desk jockeys wonder why folks don't dry lot cows on $3 corn to produce $3 calves?

You will see a lot more than of this than ever before. Going to see more crop ground planted to forage next year around us.

 

[Stocker Steve]

"SS" Desk jockeys wonder why folks don't dry lot cows on $3 corn to produce $3 calves?

You will see a lot more than of this than ever before. Going to see more crop ground planted to forage next year around us.[/quote]

I seeded down 5 fields this spring. Had a fair to good catch in 4 of them. Two others were too wet to seed...

 

[Jake]

I seeded down 5 fields this spring. Had a fair to good catch in 4 of them. Two others were too wet to seed...

Being able to adapt and be creative are big keys to profitability for us. My problem is living 3 hours from the farm hinders my ability to execute on a lot of these ideas.

 

[cloud9cattle]

Its going to be a bad winter. We have one herd of old cows and its hard to hang on to them when people are paying so much for them. We'll probably sell them in a month or so before it gets bad..

What makes you think your going to have a bad winter? I cant imagine getting more ice than last year.

 

[bigbull338]

yall must be forgetting the winter of 2009 and 2010.a 2wd drive tractor was useless in 2009.we was sticking our tractor haying cows and had to have friends with 4x4 tractors pull us out.so in the fall of 2010 we bought the 1st of 3 4x4 tractors.

 

[cloud9cattle]

Not in the hill country.