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If your going to do it right, dairy cross calves on grass to finish wt is not it. You will create the same product as Wal-Mart, but your going to hide it behind a home raised label.
After much deliberation, I realized I can't win that. Oh, not that I didn't want to try. Just understood it is like every other argument on the internet and it wouldn't go anywhere.

And since your kind words didn't have any useful suggestions, I thought I might expand on my plan. It's just a work in progress over a year away, which is why I am here.

The next crop or two my buddy will have ready to move through the sale barn to a feed lot, will be 100% Holsteins steers. He only usually gets 6-8 at a time but he now has 13 of the Hereford/Holstein crosses. The 30 acres of pasture is bigger than what he uses for everything and he goes through some hay. Under normal conditions he is actually a hog farmer and just utilizing a few unused acres. He grinds his own corn for feed.

I wasn't a big fan of Holstein steers either, but if the price was right and depending on the market I could run them on the pasture and wait for the crosses to mature where I ended up with them. The heifers, anyway. I'm not going to bottle feed anything.

I checked with a client today that runs a herd of unregistered Angus. 30 cows with one bull. He'd let me turn out the cross heifers with his bull for no cost it he wasn't at the top range of what one bull should cover. I have a few other clients I can check with since we are talking over a year away. He did say that after the death of a bull his neighbor rented one, and that was an option. He also said the vet uses a mobile head gate and artificial insemination was probably the way to go.

Ya, I could go buy some combination of anything today if I needed to. Heifers, pregnant, feed lot size, you name it. But to me that's just like buying some used old Ford or Chevy, you just aren't 100% sure what you are getting after someone else put the miles on. (see? I' already trying to fit in) When I go to the dealer and buy a Toyota off the lot with less than 20 miles, I have an idea what I expect and I'm the one responsible for taking care of it.

My buddy takes care of his bobby calves better than I do the Tacoma. If I get his, I'd know exactly what I'm getting. I want him in the supply chain, the prices would be fair on both sides and the quality would be bar none.

So I could end up with 1/4 Holstein, 1/4 Hereford and 1/2 whatever I wanted. While I wouldn't eliminate the access to grass I could supplement feed with anything I wanted to for them to finish out.

I think that might be better than Wal-mart.
 
I think that might be better than Wal-mart.
People can knock Wal-Mart all they want, but the truth is if you read the label, you are getting a quality product at a fair price. ie usda choice steaks are quality no matter where you buy them. Some people act like they think Wal-Mart processes meat off of a rendering truck. :) (elitist attitudes)

As for holsteins perhaps the highest % grading choice in the market.
The problem with them are the inputs and margins to get them there.
 
Any knock on Wal-mart wasn't based on usda choice steaks. It was based on the quality of a side a beef and maybe a better cut from a custom processor.

If you were going to fill your freezer with a side of beef, I really don't think you would buy it all at Wal-mart. And some of their steaks are so thin they might burn before my eggs were done for breakfast. A guy that custom cuts it for you does it like you want.

We won't discuss hamburger.
 
After much deliberation, I realized I can't win that. Oh, not that I didn't want to try. Just understood it is like every other argument on the internet and it wouldn't go anywhere.

And since your kind words didn't have any useful suggestions, I thought I might expand on my plan. It's just a work in progress over a year away, which is why I am here.

The next crop or two my buddy will have ready to move through the sale barn to a feed lot, will be 100% Holsteins steers. He only usually gets 6-8 at a time but he now has 13 of the Hereford/Holstein crosses. The 30 acres of pasture is bigger than what he uses for everything and he goes through some hay. Under normal conditions he is actually a hog farmer and just utilizing a few unused acres. He grinds his own corn for feed.

I wasn't a big fan of Holstein steers either, but if the price was right and depending on the market I could run them on the pasture and wait for the crosses to mature where I ended up with them. The heifers, anyway. I'm not going to bottle feed anything.

I checked with a client today that runs a herd of unregistered Angus. 30 cows with one bull. He'd let me turn out the cross heifers with his bull for no cost it he wasn't at the top range of what one bull should cover. I have a few other clients I can check with since we are talking over a year away. He did say that after the death of a bull his neighbor rented one, and that was an option. He also said the vet uses a mobile head gate and artificial insemination was probably the way to go.

Ya, I could go buy some combination of anything today if I needed to. Heifers, pregnant, feed lot size, you name it. But to me that's just like buying some used old Ford or Chevy, you just aren't 100% sure what you are getting after someone else put the miles on. (see? I' already trying to fit in) When I go to the dealer and buy a Toyota off the lot with less than 20 miles, I have an idea what I expect and I'm the one responsible for taking care of it.

My buddy takes care of his bobby calves better than I do the Tacoma. If I get his, I'd know exactly what I'm getting. I want him in the supply chain, the prices would be fair on both sides and the quality would be bar none.

So I could end up with 1/4 Holstein, 1/4 Hereford and 1/2 whatever I wanted. While I wouldn't eliminate the access to grass I could supplement feed with anything I wanted to for them to finish out.

I think that might be better than Wal-mart.
As for holsteins perhaps the highest % grading choice in the market.
The problem with them are the inputs and margins to get them there.
Son nailed it. Dairy and even dairy cross calves need to go on a self feeder almost as soon as you wipe the milk off their faces. Holsteins will grade if you feed them right, but grass is not the path to choice. A friend of mine used to keep 200 Holstein strs on feed. They'd get them at 200lbs and they were on a self feeder by 300lbs. They would weigh 1,400 @ 14-15 mos. and grade choice or better. But they ate between 75-100 bu of corn.
People don't want 1,800 strs that grade select. Some processors won't even kill them.
If you want to feed out some cheaper calves but a set of straight bred Herefords or Charolais or short horns (the beef type) or red Angus. You can grow any of those breeds on grass for a summer then finish them. They may cost more, but it will take less feed to finish them.
 
Thank you very much, that was informative.

I could end up with 3/4 Hereford and 1/4 Holstein easy enough. This bull is for sale in town.

I won't need it for a long time, but I know where it comes from and they'll have more.

To the best of my knowledge we don't have any short horns around here. Charolais I would probably have to AI. A guy has a herd of Red Angus about 30 miles away., I'm sure I can work something out, even if it was telling him I needed a bull two years in the future.

But if the goal is to utilize 30 acres for individual sale and local processing, that would never be graded, never USDA, and hormone free, taste becomes a little more important than the grade of marbling on beef that is never tasted.


Annnnd, I just opened a different can of worms
 
Sometimes I have trouble comprehending what you are saying Shell.

Ken
Yea me too. Adhd, husband talking to me and 2 kids most the time along with what they have playing on hard to stay focused on one thing.
She can do more with symbols than anybody I ever seen.
Yea I haven't even figured that out yet. 🙌🏾 (Hands up don't shoot. ) 🤣 laughing 🤡 joking clowning. Good luck figuring that out.
 
Yea me too. Adhd, husband talking to me and 2 kids most the time along with what they have playing on hard to stay focused on one thing.

Yea I haven't even figured that out yet. 🙌🏾 (Hands up don't shoot. ) 🤣 laughing 🤡 joking clowning. Good luck figuring that out.
Its good that you can laugh about things Shell.

Ken
 
There's a reason that there are "dairy breeds" and "beef breeds". I've got dairy crossed with Angus cows, and all Angus cows, and then some GOOD Angus cows. Even in the pure beef bred animals, you'll have some easy doers, and some that just won't carry the condition as easily. No sense in starting out with genetics that are made to make milk instead of meat, IMO. The multi-purpose breeds have some potential (Shorthorn for example). Around here, unless it's got an all black hide, you'll get docked too. So it can be a double whammy.

Go black or go home.
 
A dairy cross will take a little longer to flesh out. But the flavor is VERY GOOD. I raise and eat jersey steers and LIKE them over most any other beef. I have several jersey/angus and holstein/angus cows in my herd, and after the next generation; 3/4 angus to 1/4 of the dairy, they raise very good calves, that will grade out with the 100% beef calves. You want the good fat and dairy will give it to you for selling slaughter beef to people. It will be a tight margin this year with inputs going up, but we are having more and more people asking for beef and now cannot get enough kill dates... we will have some of our own raised from calves, but often will buy a 5-700 lb animal then feed it out.... and we buy more of the "odd colored" ones and they often kill out as exceptional beeves. The trick to finishing out a good beef is that it needs to be in a weight gaining phase and not allowed to get stagnant or slow down... and the amount of "finish" or fat will give the meat the flavor. I personally like my jersey beef to be in the 24+ month age... and for them to be really gaining good the last 6 months.... and most of ours is grass beef.....although we do feed silage when our grass gets short and this year with lack of rain we have had pasture for the cow/calf groups but not exceptional grass for good gaining for finishing beef...
 
1. Simple rule of finishing cattle: Corn makes fat, fat makes flavor.

The grading system is just a scale to measure with. Just because they won't be graded, doesn't mean you don't want them at the top of the scale. Your customers sure will.
Yep.
And the only beef that will "never be tasted" (by humans) are those that are dead and buried or drug out to the bone pile for the coyotes and buzzards.
 
Home of the Du Quoin state fair.
Toyota better than a Ford. 😁🤡 I'm just messing. I like to aggravate.
Three kinds of people, people that drive Chevys, Fords, and people that wish they could drive a Chevy. 😆🤡😝
How about an LS powered 49 Ford pickup. Do anything for ya?
 
This seems like the path.

With black Holsteins instead of Red not 100% sure on the color, but the cross has worked before.

Not trying to start a breed, just to find a use for what I can get
 

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