kickinbull
Well-known member
When you market your cattle,what percentage are cull cows, bull/steers or heifers? If you keep replacement females, what percent per year?
Selling cattle question
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Lee VanRoss
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I shall attempt to make my reply as precise as your question
When you market your corn, what percentage of the cob do you shell and what percentage of the kernels do you leave on the cob.
Do you keep some kernels for planting or does it depend on the situation ?
Cattle are not inanimate objects like poker chips. (It's called Animal Husbandry)
MurraysMutts
Well-known member
Some folks even buy everything in the spring and sell em all in the fall.
I don't have a lot of acres to retain replacement heifers. But I try and keep 1 or 2 a year.
Other calves pay the bills.
Any cows that screw up badly go for a ride. With a small herd like mine I guess the percentages are small for selling cows and bulls. The trick is having good and quality animals that do the job given them. I've got mutts, but they (most now) do their job. Recently I've gotten rid of any problems. Even small ones.
High percentage for selling calves.
I don't have a lot of acres to retain replacement heifers. But I try and keep 1 or 2 a year.
Other calves pay the bills.
Any cows that screw up badly go for a ride. With a small herd like mine I guess the percentages are small for selling cows and bulls. The trick is having good and quality animals that do the job given them. I've got mutts, but they (most now) do their job. Recently I've gotten rid of any problems. Even small ones.
High percentage for selling calves.
farmerjan
Well-known member
We mostly sell feeder calves. 4-5 wts. Mostly in the spring... but also usually 1 or 2 groups in the fall...
We try to keep 10-20 heifers for replacements. We run 150 cows in the cow calf operation.....Some years if heifers are fairly high, we might keep 5... if heifer prices are low we will keep 20-40. We were trying to raise up and calve out 20 heifers a year... so say 10% of the cow numbers, as at the time we were running 200 momma cows. But we have cut back about 50 mostly through "attrition".... open cows, old cows, raising crummy calves... things like that because we lost 2 rented places that were sold. Going to lose another as it is going on the market... whether he gets it sold anytime soon, I don't know.... We run 15-20 there and have several fields to rotate them through as it was once fenced with several paddocks for horses.
Due to a bull going bad and shooting blanks after getting a small group all pregnant, we have more fall calving cows now than we did. We also buy and background some bull calves, worked into steers, to make some more uniform groups to sell.... and we buy some "old one and done" breds, or cows with calves to turn over after the grazing season.
Normally we have about 1 or 2 opens out of a group of 10-25... usually always old cows in the group. We don't cull for age... if they have a decent calf and raise it, they can stay as long as they get bred back,.... if they have no teeth and are in good flesh, they get kept with the "grandma cows" in the winter to get a little extra in the way of corn silage and a little feed.... but in summer they go out to grass. If we figure it is their last calf, they go to a pasture where there is no bull and go on the truck when it is time to pull them off grass in the fall... usually calves go with them, but occasionally if there is a nice calf or 2 they will come back to the barn to go in the feeder groups.
We try to keep 10-20 heifers for replacements. We run 150 cows in the cow calf operation.....Some years if heifers are fairly high, we might keep 5... if heifer prices are low we will keep 20-40. We were trying to raise up and calve out 20 heifers a year... so say 10% of the cow numbers, as at the time we were running 200 momma cows. But we have cut back about 50 mostly through "attrition".... open cows, old cows, raising crummy calves... things like that because we lost 2 rented places that were sold. Going to lose another as it is going on the market... whether he gets it sold anytime soon, I don't know.... We run 15-20 there and have several fields to rotate them through as it was once fenced with several paddocks for horses.
Due to a bull going bad and shooting blanks after getting a small group all pregnant, we have more fall calving cows now than we did. We also buy and background some bull calves, worked into steers, to make some more uniform groups to sell.... and we buy some "old one and done" breds, or cows with calves to turn over after the grazing season.
Normally we have about 1 or 2 opens out of a group of 10-25... usually always old cows in the group. We don't cull for age... if they have a decent calf and raise it, they can stay as long as they get bred back,.... if they have no teeth and are in good flesh, they get kept with the "grandma cows" in the winter to get a little extra in the way of corn silage and a little feed.... but in summer they go out to grass. If we figure it is their last calf, they go to a pasture where there is no bull and go on the truck when it is time to pull them off grass in the fall... usually calves go with them, but occasionally if there is a nice calf or 2 they will come back to the barn to go in the feeder groups.
Dave
Well-known member
At the present time I buy old broken mouth cows that are bred in the late winter. So by definition I buy someone else's culls. August 15 two semi loads go direct to the kill plant. The calves are weaned when the cows get on the truck. The calves are held in a good strong corral for about 5 days and then turned out on hay field regrowth for at least 45 days. Calves get shipped sometime in October or November depending on how long the grass holds up and what the market is doing.
I work with B a lot. He runs about 1,000 cows. Around 250 of them are Wagyu which are handled completely different so we will take them out of the equation. The others are out on range all summer. Sometime in mid October they are gathered to a trap on the edge of the range but a long ways from home. Calves are hauled home to wean. The cows kicked back on the range. Calves get shipped mid November to mid December. Cows come out of the hills in that same time frame. Cows are preg checked and opens shipped. In the spring cows who lost a calf or just never did calf are sorted off before cows get turned out into the hills and get shipped then. Replacement heifers? I helped run them through the chute last winter. There was 134 of them. I also bought full mouth bred cows for him this spring. I think I bought around 40 of them. Plus his son bought some for him. And I know of 2 semi loads of cow calf pairs that he bought.
I work with B a lot. He runs about 1,000 cows. Around 250 of them are Wagyu which are handled completely different so we will take them out of the equation. The others are out on range all summer. Sometime in mid October they are gathered to a trap on the edge of the range but a long ways from home. Calves are hauled home to wean. The cows kicked back on the range. Calves get shipped mid November to mid December. Cows come out of the hills in that same time frame. Cows are preg checked and opens shipped. In the spring cows who lost a calf or just never did calf are sorted off before cows get turned out into the hills and get shipped then. Replacement heifers? I helped run them through the chute last winter. There was 134 of them. I also bought full mouth bred cows for him this spring. I think I bought around 40 of them. Plus his son bought some for him. And I know of 2 semi loads of cow calf pairs that he bought.
Stocker Steve
Well-known member
Usually about 30 percent turnover in the cow herd. Over half in a drought year.
I "retain" all my heifers but culling in continuous. So about 60% make it to calving.
I "retain" all my heifers but culling in continuous. So about 60% make it to calving.
sunnyblueskies
Well-known member
You can't really run cow/calf on given numbers in a book. There are so many variables which are out of your control......
What's the thought process behind your question? Curious.
What's the thought process behind your question? Curious.
kickinbull
Well-known member
I dairyed up till recently which we kept all heifers for replacement.kept few cows, put beef bull with them.
