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
Breeds Board
SAV Net Worth 4200 (Angus)
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="Brandonm22" data-source="post: 815079" data-attributes="member: 7645"><p>WHERE are the 900 lb weaning weight commercial calves??? Heck for that matter who can routinely fill an order for two pot belly loads of 800 lb 205 day weaning wt commercial calves? We have "seedstock" produces who blow past 8 wt calves all the time. So one would think that somebody who was crossing the highest growth Angus bloodlines with the highest growth rate Charolais lines with the highest growth rate Hereford or Gelbvieh or Brangus or Simmental lines would easily wean off calves in the high 8s since heterosis tells me that the cross calves out of those gynormous growth lines should outweigh any straightbred cattle, but when I go to the sale I don't see pens full of milk faced 850 lb plus weanlings. Doubt me? Look at a market report <a href="http://marketnews.usda.gov/gear/browseby/txt/MG_LS144.TXT" target="_blank">http://marketnews.usda.gov/gear/browseb ... _LS144.TXT</a> Somebody was able to sell all of 15 785 lb Med & LRG 1 steers (whether it was one group or 15 seperate calves I can't tell). There were no 2s or 3 muscle score steers getting that heavy. 5 heifers went to the salebarn avging 729. Three 2s avged 763. 4 bull calves sold in the entire state of Alabama weighed 765. Out of 3600 hd sold in the Alabama barns last week you might be able to scrape together 27 head of "feeder calves" in the mid to high 700s and I bet most of those are more than 205 days old. Granted it is mid winter so a 205 day old calf today would have been born at the tail end of the calving season in july; but if we go back to the big fall runs and look at it on a percentage basis sub 600 lb calves will still vastly outnumber the +700 lb calves. Here we were selling off whole trailer loads of calves in the mid 6s in the early 90s on primarily forage. The industry has made enormous strides in EPD improvements since then. These big growth line herds brag on the 800+ and 900+ lb weaning weights. You can look at cull cow weights and see that 1600++ lb cows are not uncommon. A lot of commercial guys still go to a pen of bulls and buy the biggest bull in the pen (and some of them have been doing that for DECADES) and most of them still don't break the 650 lb mark on their avg weaned steer. Sure I have sold individual calves in the 9 wts; but come close to avging it? no. The industry went from weaning 4 wt calves to 5 wt calves pretty easily. It has taken a whole lot more effort to go from the mid 5s to the low 6 wts than it did to go from the low 5 wts to the mid 5 wts. WHY is the 8 wt calf not the norm???? We know that we have the genetics to achieve that kind of growth in a lot of herds (just look at the size of the mature cow herd!) yet clearly something is holding us back. It is a combination of heat, cold, forage quality, hay quality, forage quantity, rain, minerals, parasites, flies, etc that makes up the environment. Go buy "a bull that is known to produce weaning weight calves higher than 600 lbs....like 700, 800, or 900 lbs." and you are not going to consistently get that kind of commercial production without providing a cost prohibitive level of nutrition like the seedstock producer is doing to get those brag about numbers in the first place.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Brandonm22, post: 815079, member: 7645"] WHERE are the 900 lb weaning weight commercial calves??? Heck for that matter who can routinely fill an order for two pot belly loads of 800 lb 205 day weaning wt commercial calves? We have "seedstock" produces who blow past 8 wt calves all the time. So one would think that somebody who was crossing the highest growth Angus bloodlines with the highest growth rate Charolais lines with the highest growth rate Hereford or Gelbvieh or Brangus or Simmental lines would easily wean off calves in the high 8s since heterosis tells me that the cross calves out of those gynormous growth lines should outweigh any straightbred cattle, but when I go to the sale I don't see pens full of milk faced 850 lb plus weanlings. Doubt me? Look at a market report [url=http://marketnews.usda.gov/gear/browseby/txt/MG_LS144.TXT]http://marketnews.usda.gov/gear/browseb ... _LS144.TXT[/url] Somebody was able to sell all of 15 785 lb Med & LRG 1 steers (whether it was one group or 15 seperate calves I can't tell). There were no 2s or 3 muscle score steers getting that heavy. 5 heifers went to the salebarn avging 729. Three 2s avged 763. 4 bull calves sold in the entire state of Alabama weighed 765. Out of 3600 hd sold in the Alabama barns last week you might be able to scrape together 27 head of "feeder calves" in the mid to high 700s and I bet most of those are more than 205 days old. Granted it is mid winter so a 205 day old calf today would have been born at the tail end of the calving season in july; but if we go back to the big fall runs and look at it on a percentage basis sub 600 lb calves will still vastly outnumber the +700 lb calves. Here we were selling off whole trailer loads of calves in the mid 6s in the early 90s on primarily forage. The industry has made enormous strides in EPD improvements since then. These big growth line herds brag on the 800+ and 900+ lb weaning weights. You can look at cull cow weights and see that 1600++ lb cows are not uncommon. A lot of commercial guys still go to a pen of bulls and buy the biggest bull in the pen (and some of them have been doing that for DECADES) and most of them still don't break the 650 lb mark on their avg weaned steer. Sure I have sold individual calves in the 9 wts; but come close to avging it? no. The industry went from weaning 4 wt calves to 5 wt calves pretty easily. It has taken a whole lot more effort to go from the mid 5s to the low 6 wts than it did to go from the low 5 wts to the mid 5 wts. WHY is the 8 wt calf not the norm???? We know that we have the genetics to achieve that kind of growth in a lot of herds (just look at the size of the mature cow herd!) yet clearly something is holding us back. It is a combination of heat, cold, forage quality, hay quality, forage quantity, rain, minerals, parasites, flies, etc that makes up the environment. Go buy "a bull that is known to produce weaning weight calves higher than 600 lbs....like 700, 800, or 900 lbs." and you are not going to consistently get that kind of commercial production without providing a cost prohibitive level of nutrition like the seedstock producer is doing to get those brag about numbers in the first place. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Cattle Boards
Breeds Board
SAV Net Worth 4200 (Angus)
Top