Menu
Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
New profile posts
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles and first posts only
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Forums
Cattle Boards
Beginners Board
Q about creep feeding
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Help Support CattleToday:
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Keren" data-source="post: 617502" data-attributes="member: 3195"><p>I appreciate the comments Caustic and I understand your viewpoint. </p><p></p><p>However, I asked quite a specific question about creep feeding in regards to teaching the calf to be a fence crawler, not whether it was 'right' or economical to creep feed. </p><p></p><p>2008 was our 10th year of below average rainfall. We are not overstocked; in fact, we are down to 1/4 of the mature cows that we used to have. We have been through every drought management method: sold off old cows, anything slightly inferior, plus all the young stock. We have held the cows empty at some points because there's not enough nutrition for lactating/pregnant cows, but we want to keep the genetics we have developed. We have pushed heifers back to calve at 2.5 yrs instead of 2. </p><p></p><p>We do wean early - the calves are being weaned at 6 to 7 weeks (some are as young as 4 wks) - there are two creep gates in the paddock, one leads to the set of yards so that I can drive there, dump the pellets into the yard every day and the calves come in to eat without the cows pinching it. The other creep gate leads to the crop paddock (which we just cut for hay so thats kindof unimportant at the moment). The cows dont get any supplement, they get oaten hay though, the calves yes they get the creep feed and it helps us to be able to wean so early. </p><p></p><p>We are just hanging on by the skin of our teeth. </p><p></p><p>But we have some of the best MG genetics in our part, and I'll be dammed if I let them go through the saleyards and off to the abbatoir.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Keren, post: 617502, member: 3195"] I appreciate the comments Caustic and I understand your viewpoint. However, I asked quite a specific question about creep feeding in regards to teaching the calf to be a fence crawler, not whether it was 'right' or economical to creep feed. 2008 was our 10th year of below average rainfall. We are not overstocked; in fact, we are down to 1/4 of the mature cows that we used to have. We have been through every drought management method: sold off old cows, anything slightly inferior, plus all the young stock. We have held the cows empty at some points because there's not enough nutrition for lactating/pregnant cows, but we want to keep the genetics we have developed. We have pushed heifers back to calve at 2.5 yrs instead of 2. We do wean early - the calves are being weaned at 6 to 7 weeks (some are as young as 4 wks) - there are two creep gates in the paddock, one leads to the set of yards so that I can drive there, dump the pellets into the yard every day and the calves come in to eat without the cows pinching it. The other creep gate leads to the crop paddock (which we just cut for hay so thats kindof unimportant at the moment). The cows dont get any supplement, they get oaten hay though, the calves yes they get the creep feed and it helps us to be able to wean so early. We are just hanging on by the skin of our teeth. But we have some of the best MG genetics in our part, and I'll be dammed if I let them go through the saleyards and off to the abbatoir. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Cattle Boards
Beginners Board
Q about creep feeding
Top