Preconditioning calves

[tex452]

We are in the process of buying calves to resell later. We have done our own before but never bought many to straighten out and put weight on.
We are transitioning from cow calf to buying calves and young slim younger type cows to put weight on and resell
We have been doing cows for the last year and so far have done ok.
I have lots of grass and a good cowboy to keep an eye on everything.
With the price of feed we are going to have to limit feeding because of making or not making money.
How much feed would calves need a day on a good supply of grass.

 

[Dave]

With "good" grass, none. But how good is the grass? Well how big are the calves? From 450-500 and up just grass. Below 450 pounds about 2 pounds with fairly digestible protein in the feed.

 

[bird dog]

Questions on calves
How long are you going to keep them?
Are you content with them just gaining 1 lb to 1.25 lbs per day?
Are they going to be sold where they have grain to eat while the wait?
What is the weight coming in as Dave asked?
Will they be sold as a group or one at a time?

 

[tex452]

We are buying 3-400 lb calves.
How long we keep them we will see how much weight they put on.
Planning on selling groups.
My son and cowboy will be taking care of everything from buy them to marketing them. I have the working pens and the land.
Cowboy said he has buyers when their ready.
I told them as long as we make money we will keep it going.
They are confident we will make money We will see.
We will have to run a lot of numbers to really make money.
Right now they have about 85 calves but will need lots more.

 

[KAstocker]

If you have lots of grass, you probably don't need to grain them much, 2-5 lbs per day. Like bird dog said, your grass alone will probably get them 1.2 adg or so if they are on grass for a while. Grain is high but I think it will still pay for the current value on my calves. Money wise, it helps to put the pounds on to dilute the fixed costs, so that takes either grain or time.

All regions are so different so it's hard to say with certainty.

 

[kenny thomas]

We are buying 3-400 lb calves.
How long we keep them we will see how much weight they put on.
Planning on selling groups.
My son and cowboy will be taking care of everything from buy them to marketing them. I have the working pens and the land.
Cowboy said he has buyers when their ready.
I told them as long as we make money we will keep it going.
They are confident we will make money We will see.
We will have to run a lot of numbers to really make money.
Right now they have about 85 calves but will need lots more.

If you can sell 48000-50000lb loads you can add a lot of profit to them.