Replacement Heifer winter feeding

[bvf]

at 69 years old, I'm still learning,
good information, about grain sorghum
also
2 schools of heifer thoughts,
1) treat them better than rest of cows, make princesses out of them, anoint the best with a membership.
2) treat them as hard as the old females, "make them earn their position in the herd, a completion, a competition that is tilted away from a heifer preforming well.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Heifers get the same grass hay all winter, no supplements for anybody. The ones who can't hack it grow wheels. The ones that remain typically do great. After a few years of this not many will grow wheels anymore.

 

[GoWyo]

at 69 years old, I'm still learning,
good information, about grain sorghum
also
2 schools of heifer thoughts,
1) treat them better than rest of cows, make princesses out of them, anoint the best with a membership.
2) treat them as hard as the old females, "make them earn their position in the herd, a completion, a competition that is tilted away from a heifer preforming well.

Here we calve them in March and April, which is 60 days earlier than the local deer and pronghorn antelope. This means the breeding season is 60 days earlier than what is "natural". Asking the heifers to do something not exactly in line with nature means they get some feed (grass or alfalfa hay) around here to help them do it, but no grain. I don't want them to get fat if they are replacements.

 

[Dave]

In about a month in the 5 miles from here to the post office there will be around2,500-3,000 cows in the fields. The only thing that gets grain of any sort is the very few steers being fattened to butcher or any 4H steers. The rest get fed hay. Heifers get the better end of the hay but it is a hay diet.

 

[Silver]

The biggest benefit of feeding replacement heifers some grain is it gets you on the ground with them every day for the winter. This pays dividends for the rest of their time on the ranch.
We don’t live to close to a post office like Dave, but do neighbour a lot of cows. The closest BTO feeds a silage ration to his cows with TMRs. He loads pit silage, bales of some description (often times straw) and usually a loader bucket of grain. Two TMRs stay busy all day feeding into bunks.
The next BTO feeds just feeds dry round bales. Lots of the bales and lots of feed rings.
I’m small time and feed a lot of wrapped oat and hay bales as well as dry oat and hay bales. Lots of ways to successfully feed a cow.
Big old world with lots of differences.

 

[gcreekrch]

The biggest benefit of feeding replacement heifers some grain is it gets you on the ground with them every day for the winter. This pays dividends for the rest of their time on the ranch.
We don’t live to close to a post office like Dave, but do neighbour a lot of cows. The closest BTO feeds a silage ration to his cows with TMRs. He loads pit silage, bales of some description (often times straw) and usually a loader bucket of grain. Two TMRs stay busy all day feeding into bunks.
The next BTO feeds just feeds dry round bales. Lots of the bales and lots of feed rings.
I’m small time and feed a lot of wrapped oat and hay bales as well as dry oat and hay bales. Lots of ways to successfully feed a cow.
Big old world with lots of differences.

We feed pea screenings pellets to bump up protein and make our substandard hay more digestible. We also feed a little barley to calves to keep them growing. We don’t spend money on things like fertilizer and irrigation pumps and according to our friends that do still raise a better calf cheaper than if we weren’t supplementing. I’m old enough to remember the cattle here 45 years ago that were required to live on hay and nothing else. 950 lb cows weaning 300 lb calves don’t pay many bills in today’s world.
It’s 35 km to the post office and only pass by 400 cows that aren’t ours.

 

[Dave]

I think the thing is to feed the required nutrients. What is fed to do that will vary considerably with the variations of feed available. As I have said before there is tens of thousands of irrigated farm land near here that the standard rotation is potatoes, wheat, and alfalfa. So when we just feed hay. It isn't just grass hay. The alfalfa is used to increase the nutrition and compared to various grain feeds it is cheaper here and easier to feed.

 

[SDgrampa]

Not all grass hay is the same. But I know one thing,you can't starve a dollar out of a cow

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Not all grass hay is the same. But I know one thing,you can't starve a dollar out of a cow

Not every cow/heifer is the same either. Some can do well on low quality forage, others are high maintenance and need higher nutrition feed.

The knife cuts both ways.

 

[RDFF]

Chevy's right... there's critters that can look good and raise a good size calf on just "grass", and there's other critters that can't look too good even on grain. If we feed them all grain as a steady part of our plan, we'll never find out which ones can make it work on "just grass".

 

[Brute 23]

Not every one may want to raise their cattle on just grass.

 

[crossbreed]

Not every cow/heifer is the same either. Some can do well on low quality forage, others are high maintenance and need higher nutrition feed.

The knife cuts both ways.

Growing up showing horses we always had what dad called “easy keepers “, those that stayed fat on a coffee can of sweet feed and oats along with a couple blocks of alfalfa twice a day. Cows are the same way except she can look pretty poor and still raise a nice calf. Had to cull those horses that you couldn’t afford the feed to keep looking fit

 

[Silver]

I find I don’t have to cull cows for not doing well on the forage they get. They do that all by themselves. Then there are cows that keep very well, to the detriment of their calf. Gotta watch for those and get them culled.

 

[Brute 23]

I don't keep the ones that don't look good but raise a good calf any more. They don't make it long term. It eventually catches up with them with age and/or a bad year.

 

[mwj]

A feed test on your hay is money well spent. Good looking hay is just that. Looks and feed value are not always the same.

 

[crossbreed]

I don't keep the ones that don't look good but raise a good calf any more. They don't make it long term. It eventually catches up with them with age and/or a bad year.

That’s been my tough decision for several years while improving the herd. I’ve got one tall rangy cow who hasn’t even matched the group I bought her with. 11 brangus type but she stood out. 3rd generation by char bull calved this year by a bra bull and still has that same look. Mom is tall rangy and while calves are nursing stays looking poor

 

[Brute 23]

That’s been my tough decision for several years while improving the herd. I’ve got one tall rangy cow who hasn’t even matched the group I bought her with. 11 brangus type but she stood out. 3rd generation by char bull calved this year by a bra bull and still has that same look. Mom is tall rangy and while calves are nursing stays looking poor

Ya. I went through the same thing. It took me a while to build up the factory to the point where I could cull for looks and performance.

I went through the same thing with dogs.

With both, it's all the same while they are working for you, on your place. When you go to sell them though, you take a big hit on the ugly ones.

 

[crossbreed]

Ya. I went through the same thing. It took me a while to build up the factory to the point where I could cull for looks and performance.

I went through the same thing with dogs.

With both, it's all the same while they are working for you, on your place. When you go to sell them though, you take a big hit on the ugly ones.

Good plan. I plan to cull this cow and her heifer in the spring so I don’t continue building that look into the herd

 

[farmerjan]

Good plan. I plan to cull this cow and her heifer in the spring so I don’t continue building that look into the herd

Just make that cow a terminal producer... no building anything into the herd if you never keep her calves as replacements... If she breeds back and the calves fir in the average look/size, then you are ahead of the game.
Of course, with the way prices are, you will get a good price for her if you sell her...

 

[elkwc]

I think the grain needs to be ''cracked'' or ''ground'' to get the most benefit. I have not personally fed it but some folks say that cattle need to be encouraged to consume it.

I lived in the middle of Milo country for 50 years. Fed my show steers in the 60’s and 70’s on a ration including Milo. Some feedlots used it in their rations. Had a friend who was a top horseman and he fed his horses a Milo based ration. Never had any issue with livestock eating it. They will founder if overfed on it. It was the cheapest option when I lived in that area. Now I have other options that are cheaper. We usually cracked or rolled it. One feedlot popped it.