Pic of a pair

[dcara]

This pic is of a pair of 14 mo olds head for the processing plant the first of Oct.. Comments and observations please.

Side note: Notice the lack of flies on them here in the pen. They were in the pasture 4 hours earlier (10am) and had about 100 flies each on them. Seems strange to have more flies in the pasture than in the pen area.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b249/dcara/423426.jpg

 

[cowspider]

Sure are red!!! :roll: :cboy:

 

[ollie]

They look green to me. How long have they been on full feed?

 

[MikeC]

They look green to me. How long have they been on full feed?

You are right Ollie, they are gonna have to do some serious fattening before they are ripe. Maybe first of Dec.

 

[dcara]

They've been on full feed since the 1st of June. Full feed is 9 lbs of feed each twice a day (18lbs/day each) of 60/40 corn/oats and free choice hay. They're in a 50x50 pen most of the time and all they do is eat and sleep so they're not walking any of it off. Whats your thoughts on current and finish weights.

 

[Aaron]

The are without a doubt, underfinished. Take the oats proportion of the feed down to about 20% or perhaps even eliminate it entirely. 40% oats is way too much at this point. You have the frame on those animals, now pack on the weight! Those animals are not properly finished for an early October slaughter date. If you want protein in the feed, add a little soybean meal, but not oats.

 

[dcara]

Arron - I used a high corn ration last year on a calf and had an assidosis event with him. The vet said no way should I be using over 75% corn ration. Anyway, I appreciate your opinion, but you never offered your thoughts on what the current and finished weights should be.

 

[dcara]

Aaron - I should have also mentioned that the largest ranch in our area (Triple Creek) which produced the 1995 National Red Angus champion and is owned and operated by a vet recommended the 60/40 corn/oats mix to me. Your reply seemed to indicate that you either don't use oats at all and/or or change your mix at different stages of feedout. Unless you feel your revealing a secret family recipe I'd like to know more about your feed out plan.

 

[Aaron]

Well I have limited information. I don't know their frame score, but judging by their pictures, I will guess they are 1000-1080 right now and should finish out around 1200-1250 lbs. Are they purebred Red Angus? They do look good at 14 months, but you need to push them hard now. I am not advising uping the corn ration, but get the bloody protein out of the mix! Either introduce 20-30% beet pulp and maybe a portion of barley or process the corn differently to utiliize it better. Is the corn ground, crushed or whole? They should be eating very little hay starting in the next few weeks, as they should be pretty content with the grain portions. Don't exactly know what the density of your corn is like, but as far as volume wise, you should roughly be working those steers up to 2-2.5 gallons of mixed ration for each feeding by the time they are ready to go. Sounds like alot, but add ~1/2-1 lb per feeding per week until you reach that point. I agree with Mike C's comment on early December slaughter, but also possibly late November. As far as our mix goes, it always changes over approx. 2-3 month periods. But in the last 3 months, oats is always almost nil in the ration. Don't make the feed to acidic, but bulk it up with stuff like beet pulp and get rid of the protein so they quit growing like weeds.

 

[dcara]

Thanks for the input Aaron. I may try that beetpulp thing on one of them Yes, they are pure bred Red Angus. In the past I've targeted a finish weight of 1100 lbs since that was the USDA target (after 180 day feedout). My customers have always been satisfied with the results but I'm always looking to improve and cost reduce. I started using whole shelled corn a couple of years ago after reading a research paper out of OSU which showed better ADG for whole shelled vs. high moisture, cracked, crushed or chopped. The reason is the digestion of whole shell gets shifted to post ruminal where higher energy uptake is better supported. The paper is titled "Corn Processing Method and Phase of Feeding Steers" by D.R. Gill et al. As I previosuly mentioned they are at 9lbs each twice a day. 9lbs of feed is right at 2 gal so I'll start working in the beetpulp to get 2.5 gal then start reducing the oats and see where I end up.

 

[MikeC]

dcara, Think of it this way:

A high protein diet is a "Growing" ration.

A high carbohydrate diet is a "Fattening" ration.

Those calves don't need to grow anymore. They need to Fatten.