Because everyone loves seeing numbers, I thought I'd share ours after weaning and preg checking all of our spring calving commercial cattle the last couple of days.
54 calves avgd 206 days old, 538#, and 2.62 WDA.
54 cows (including 11 first calf heifers) avgd 1086#, and 89% were bred in a 75 day season. In a region of Texas where, historically, average breeding rate is around 75%. Only 2 of the opens were heifers. :banana: So that puts their pounds of calf weaned as a % of their bodyweight right at 50%. No creep, and the cows got no supplement besides mineral.
Last year our calves avgd about 450# at weaning, and were only about a week younger. We had about 10% of our heifers actually breed back, and I think our overall breeding rate was around 70%. I wish calf prices were better, but we are encouraged! It's such a good feeling when things start working out how you want them to. We've been culling a lot of cows the last few years to get our season shorter, but I think it's finally starting to pay off. Most of the calves in this group were born in the first half of the season.
54 calves avgd 206 days old, 538#, and 2.62 WDA.
54 cows (including 11 first calf heifers) avgd 1086#, and 89% were bred in a 75 day season. In a region of Texas where, historically, average breeding rate is around 75%. Only 2 of the opens were heifers. :banana: So that puts their pounds of calf weaned as a % of their bodyweight right at 50%. No creep, and the cows got no supplement besides mineral.
Last year our calves avgd about 450# at weaning, and were only about a week younger. We had about 10% of our heifers actually breed back, and I think our overall breeding rate was around 70%. I wish calf prices were better, but we are encouraged! It's such a good feeling when things start working out how you want them to. We've been culling a lot of cows the last few years to get our season shorter, but I think it's finally starting to pay off. Most of the calves in this group were born in the first half of the season.
