Too small or just right ?

[Cross breeder #1]

Ill try and explain what I told our extension agent when they were preaching these smaller cattle. They said cows have a certain number per hundred weight DMI it was around 1.8lbs. so a smaller cow has less intake than a big cow which means everybody has to have 1100lb cows and everybody there thinks its the gospel. When it was over I explained to him if you have 100 eleven hundred pound cows it gives you 110,000 ponds of cow, to make that same amount of pounds in 1400 lbs cows it takes 79 it will be 110,600. Assuming each cow weans a calf at 50% the 1100lbs cows will have 55,000 lbs of calf the 1400lb cows will have 55,300 lbs of calf just about the same, but 21% less cattle to vaccinate and handle, maybe 1 less bull so whats all this worth. Just the way I see it the 1400lb cow is way more efficient. I weighed mine last spring they had around 6 month old calves bred back around 4 months average weight was 1430. Whatever weight they are if there not performing its time to go.

That is the problem, both cows probably won't wean at 50%, more like 48% for 11-1200 cows (Ours do this spring or fall) and a 1400 pound cow more like 44%. I would think a 5.5 frame cow @ 1250-1350 would be ideal, proper management, genetics and hybrid vigor could get you to a 46% WW and when you breed to a 6-7 frame bull your calves will bring a premium

 

[Chuckie]

polledbull, The same situation here. When calves go through the sale barn, the taller calves bring more money and I make sure they aren't mixed with the short ones. When people come looking for cows or bulls, they always go to the tallest animals I have for sale.
It was really difficult finding a large framed bull with a disposition, numbers and phenotype to replace another bull, as the frames run to the very short side more often. There were many that looked nice with good numbers, but the frames were so small that I would have lost money on the calves.

 

[Tim/South]

I do not know if the region of the country makes a difference. This is a study done here in the south by Auburn University.http://www.pharocattle.com/extrastuff/P ... owSize.pdf

 

[Chuckie]

They are using some light weight animals on this study if they show the heaviest calf to be 521 lbs. With 1500 lb cows and above, coming off of clover, they should be seeing calves with much higher weaning weights in the area of over 6- 700lbs. 800 is not out of the question.
Clover pastures do a lot for easy keeping cattle at any frame. Durana clover stayed up until the temps hits single digits here. It went dormant in December, and when we get a few warm days, it starts putting back out again.
It throws protein to them off and on all year long. It is greening up again now after a few warm days, and thick as ever.

 

[runningr]

They are using some light weight animals on this study if they show the heaviest calf to be 521 lbs. With 1500 lb cows and above, coming off of clover, they should be seeing calves with much higher weaning weights in the area of over 6- 700lbs. 800 is not out of the question.
Clover pastures do a lot for easy keeping cattle at any frame. Durana clover stayed up until the temps hits single digits here. It went dormant in December, and when we get a few warm days, it starts putting back out again.
It throws protein to them off and on all year long. It is greening up again now after a few warm days, and thick as ever.

Chuckie, are you saying that you wean 650 lb calves with no creep or supplements to calves/cows at 205 day adj weights? What do your cows wean as % body weight and what is your cow costs per year? My thoughts where the same as yours and bse till i bought scales and started finding out that my heavier cows avg less % body weight than the smaller ones, the cost of the smaller ones were less per cow per year based on winter feed costs.

 

[glacierridge]

I like them tall, big and juicy...
This sampling of girlies probably averages 1500+
The herd might be around 1400 average.
But them big girls are very easy doers.
And certainly no complaints on their babies.

 

[glacierridge]

^
That big one with the fluffy ears and white blaze is the biggest...
Taped her once before calving, ran out of tape.

She was 9 1/2 feet around just behind the shoulders before she dropped her calf.

And yet, in the winter in her tie stall, she gets a couple slabs of hay, couple scoops of corn silage, mineral but no grain and doesn't lose a pound.

 

[shortybreeder]

I like them tall, big and juicy...
This sampling of girlies probably averages 1500+
The herd might be around 1400 average.
But them big girls are very easy doers.
And certainly no complaints on their babies.

I'm not good with weights, but if those girls average 1500+ then I am terrified of what my black baldy cow weighs... I agree though, my biggest girls are very easy keepers, I don't have to worry about them struggling through winter, and their calves are impressive! My biggest cow weaned off a 400+ lb bull calf in 4 months with 1 quarter, my 2nd biggest cow weaned off 2-500 lb heifers in 6 months, and my third biggest cow gave me a 650 lb steer in 6.5 months... Can't really complain about that!

 

[u4411clb]

One thing that would be interesting to know in a system where a cow has to breed back within 60 days or she grows wheels on the trailer. What happens when like here in North Alabama you have a dry year at least once every 5 years. And I am not even talking about what the guys in Texas had a couple years back or what the people in California have now no cow can survive that I mean just a dry year. How do those 1500 lb cows keep condition and how do they breed back compared to the 1250 lb ones. Because they will go through at least 2 of those dry years in their lifetime I wonder if there is any difference in breeding back and how much of a feed bill they make. I am sure plenty of the Texas guys can answer that and which ones they had to sell 1st and which ones they held on to or sold last.

 

[Cross breeder #1]

One thing that would be interesting to know in a system where a cow has to breed back within 60 days or she grows wheels on the trailer. What happens when like here in North Alabama you have a dry year at least once every 5 years. And I am not even talking about what the guys in Texas had a couple years back or what the people in California have now no cow can survive that I mean just a dry year. How do those 1500 lb cows keep condition and how do they breed back compared to the 1250 lb ones. Because they will go through at least 2 of those dry years in their lifetime I wonder if there is any difference in breeding back and how much of a feed bill they make. I am sure plenty of the Texas guys can answer that and which ones they had to sell 1st and which ones they held on to or sold last.

A lot of truth to this statement, due to the drought many of our neighbors and family have sold cattle but we kept all of ours and have just fed hay as is necessary. We have 3 herds of about 20 cows: Home, Grandmas, and Roach Farm. Best 25 mature cows (March Calving) go to Roach after calving. About 22-25 young cows (Feb. Calving heifers) calve and stay at home all summer and the rest of the cows that are stragglers stay at Gma's. They really are cull cows that were too young to sell so we kept them back and they calve on a year round schedule ha - but I will say this, the average of all of the cows that are at grandmas are at least 1 frame score larger and probably 100 pounds heavier.