Sim/Char Steer

Help Support CattleToday:

Hereford2

Well-known member
Joined
May 7, 2016
Messages
927
Reaction score
711
Location
Missouri
Hi, I have a steer that is Half Sim Half Char, he will be 2 years old first part of July, and I don't need another beef for 6 months, he's on grass, but I do grain finish the last 90 days. He's probably around 750/800 right now, I'm wondering how big he would be in 6 months and if anyone has ever fed out this cross? I'm trying to decide if I should sell him and keep a calf that weighs about 600 to butcher? I'm not sure if the smaller calf will be 1,000 pounds in 6 months. ?He's a Angus/ Hereford, .
 
Sounds like he has been starved. A Sim/Char (or ANY breed) should be a LOT heavier, even if just on grass at 2 years old. Had he been real sick as a calf? Maybe you are way off on your guess of his weight??
At the rate of gain he has performed, he won't be much heavier. I would guess he is stunted and won't have much gain even with grain.
Giving him the benefit of the doubt, if he weighs 900#, weighed 50# at birth and is 700 days old, that is 1.2#/day gain so far.
Is the Angus/Hfd 2 years old also? In all reality, he should easily weigh 1000# at the age of 18 months.
I must be missing something??
 
Hi, I have a steer that is Half Sim Half Char, he will be 2 years old first part of July, he's on grass, but I do grain finish the last 90 days. He's probably around 750/800 right now, I'm wondering how big he would be in 6 months
180 days x 2 lbs day = 360 lbs + 750/800 = 1110/1160 lbs
2.5 lbs day = 1200 to 1250 lbs

800 lbs at 23 months, sounds like his winter ration was only enough to grow his frame and maintain his weight. Hopefully the grass he is on now is a lot better than what he ate this winter.

Corn is expensive, but I'd grain finish him for 123 days by starting him on 5-6 lbs of grain August 1st double it to 10 lbs day with 92 days to go, on September 1st and on October 1st I'd start dumping him all the grain he'll cleanup for the final 62 days to his butcher date on Thursday December 2nd and I'll bet he is going to be delicious and everyone will have a Merry Christmas. :)
 
Last edited:
Sorry I just now saw all you all's other post's, I can generally guess a black animals weight within 50 pounds, but a light colored one I'm lost lol. He (the SimChar) weighed 100 pounds at 3 weeks old, he was fed milk for 5 months,then I put him out on pasture, the hay we fed his last 2 winter's looked good, fescue, clover mix,. He grew good, but when I put him out to pasture it set him back a bit.
 
The Angus Hereford is 10 months old,. I'm trying to figure out if the Angus Hereford would be able to get up to 1,000 pounds in 6 months? Then I would sell the Sim/Char.
 
Well I sold the Sim/char he weighed 960. The Angus/herf is only a couple hundred pounds lighter, so I'm going to fatten him up. I got $.75 a pound on the Sim/Char but he was spotted white and tan, I only gave $150 for him as a month old calf. So I'm happy!
 
The comments about your Sim/Char are interesting to me. I have a similar situation. This is a Hereford heifer I bought back in February( on the left in the picture). It looked to weight about 350 lbs. At the same time I bought a hereford/brahma cross heifer (on the right in the picture) 20210402_093530.jpgthat looks to be the same age and size. Other than being treated for respiratory they have been fine.

Now, six months later, the hereford /brahma cross looks to be 750 lbs and has nearly caught up with a Charolais heifer that is a couple of months older. The straight hereford may be 500 lbs at the most( that's like 1.1 lb/day gain) . They are all on the same feed, minerals and have been wormed twice now. I don't think any amount of feed for any length of time is going to make that hereford to grow or gain any marbling.

Any thoughts? Should I just cut my losses on the hereford? I was planning to sell the hereford/brahma cross in September and probably send the other one off at the same time.
 
Last edited:
Funny - looking just at the picture, I would have said the heifer on the left was the better of the two!! If she is not growing, nothing you do is going to change that. Unknown genetics can kill you. Yes, I would dump her. But, I don't run commercial cattle or buy & sell cattle. So, you should listen to others that move cattle.
I run PB cattle. They are all for sale - but at my price - and they are all good (bragging yes - but true!!). So, I have a totally different perspective on cattle.
 
The comments about your Sim/Char are interesting to me. I have a similar situation. This is a Hereford heifer I bought back in February( on the left in the picture). It looked to weight about 350 lbs. At the same time I bought a hereford/brahma cross heifer (on the right in the picture) View attachment 6826
Any thoughts? Should I just cut my losses on the hereford? I was planning to sell the hereford/brahma cross in September and probably send the other one off at the same time.
I don't know how many cattle you have or what your plan was when you bought them. Eye balling weights is tough and from a photo much harder.

But I'm with Jeanne and think the one on the left with its head down is the better of the 2 for freezer beef. The Hereford/Brahma is taller with more frame, so will weigh more, but appears to lack muscling in the rear and sharper across the top line.
I would go ahead and sell her in September.

With the other one I'm thinking she's short in stature and finer boned and won't finish as heavy. If your plan was you wanted one of them for the freezer and have feed for the winter. I wouldn't be the least bit afraid to feed her out for freezer beef. Otherwise you might as well sell her at the same time as the other, rather than making two trips.

edited to add: I'd schedule her to be butchered in May, so you'll have plenty of beef for summer grilling. :)
 
Last edited:
One big reason I sold my steer was because he was big boned and framey, and the amount of bone to meat ratio, wasn't worth it to me. Do you have new pictures of the Heifers side by side? The Hereford one if she is purebred, she would naturally grow slower because the purebred's don't grow as fast as crossbreds, but that doesn't mean they're inferior, it just takes longer to finish them.
 
If it takes longer - it IS inferior. Our goal is to get the best gain. If they are being fed side by side with same management - she is inferior if she is not growing as well as the other animal. He is looking at results, not pampering a breed preference. Of course a crossbred is SUPPOSED to outperform a straight bred. But, depending on the breeds and genetics involved in the cross, many PB can and will outperform inferior crosses.
But, without weighing on a set of scales, ??, OP may not have an "eye" for weight.
 
My experience with purebred's/registered black Angus compared to Angus Hereford cross is that the cross cattle grow faster than the purebred's. But I have raised both for meat, and I personally don't like raising the purebred's for meat, because it takes them (in my experience) using the same feed, longer to get to the same weight. But it doesn't make me look at the purebred's as being inferior. Everyone has a different view of things. This is mine.
 

Latest posts

Top