Turning Out Light Calves

[Stocker Steve]

I have continued in my old habit of buying stock no one else wants. I passed on a herd of Highlander heifers but I did buy a bunch of 250# beef cross calves. I now have penned up in a barn. They are doing well on mostly ground cob corn but they will still only be about 350# at grass turn out time. I have had mixed success trying to graze calves that light in the past. Any tips on improving their grazing performance other than continuing to drylot them until they reach 450#?

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[mitchwi]

Steve, I've had those same dilemmas... I've had the best success by keeping the lighter ones in a smaller pasture for the grass, but supplementing with grain. I don't like to keep them in the lot when the grass is available, but to me I think they benefit from the extra boost.

 

[1848]

I have continued in my old habit of buying stock no one else wants. I passed on a herd of Highlander heifers but I did buy a bunch of 250# beef cross calves. I now have penned up in a barn. They are doing well on mostly ground cob corn but they will still only be about 350# at grass turn out time. I have had mixed success trying to graze calves that light in the past. Any tips on improving their grazing performance other than continuing to drylot them until they reach 450#?

Thanks for the suggestions.

Ship the lighter ones before your feed cost outweigh profit.

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Steve

Feeding .5-1.0 % of body weight corn gluten or dried distillers grains while grazing should help your gain considerably. The extra protein & energy from highly digestible fiber compliment the digestion of forage. You can also feed .3-.5 % bw whole corn to increase gain. If grain is fed at more than .5% bw, it will depress forage intake & digestion. Have friends who feed corn gluten on coastal bermudagrass & get 1.5 to 2lb adg. On coastal, without feed, about 1 lb adg is all you can get. Will be feeding gluten myself this summer.

Good luck & happy trails.

Brock

 

[Howdyjabo]

I agree that supplementing is a must and I like CGF too(might need to add limestone to minerals).
We used to clip the pasture they were on too to keep the grass even and short. We thought it made a big difference.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Steve

Feeding .5-1.0 % of body weight corn gluten or dried distillers grains while grazing should help your gain considerably. The extra protein & energy from highly digestible fiber compliment the digestion of forage. You can also feed .3-.5 % bw whole corn to increase gain. If grain is fed at more than .5% bw, it will depress forage intake & digestion.

I used dried distillers last summer. I am trying ground ear corn this spring, but I am a little concerned about controlling intake. Any advantage of corn gluten vs. distillers?

Steve

 

[somn]

I have continued in my old habit of buying stock no one else wants. I passed on a herd of Highlander heifers but I did buy a bunch of 250# beef cross calves. I now have penned up in a barn. They are doing well on mostly ground cob corn but they will still only be about 350# at grass turn out time. I have had mixed success trying to graze calves that light in the past. Any tips on improving their grazing performance other than continuing to drylot them until they reach 450#?

Thanks for the suggestions.

Ship the lighter ones before your feed cost outweigh profit.

Feed costs will never outweigh profit. If this was the truth we as farmers and ranchers would need to cull calves the day they are born.

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Steve

Feeding .5-1.0 % of body weight corn gluten or dried distillers grains while grazing should help your gain considerably. The extra protein & energy from highly digestible fiber compliment the digestion of forage. You can also feed .3-.5 % bw whole corn to increase gain. If grain is fed at more than .5% bw, it will depress forage intake & digestion.

I used dried distillers last summer. I am trying ground ear corn this spring, but I am a little concerned about controlling intake. Any advantage of corn gluten vs. distillers?

Steve

Steve

Have only used corn gluten here. Attached link has lots of good info on byproduct feeds. IMO-cost & availablity in your area will probably be the deciding factor. Also think CG/DDG/GEC would need to be limit fed to keep calves from getting too fat. Instead of daily feeding, 2-3 times per week would probably work OK.

http://agebb.missouri.edu/dairy/byprod/energygain.asp

Just my 2 cents worth.

Good luck & happy trails.

Brock

 

[Bullbuyer]

Used that corn gluten on some 4 weights last year and will not repeat that mistake again. Calves just did not grow - they ate it fine, just never seemed to grow out right.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Used that corn gluten on some 4 weights last year and will not repeat that mistake again. Calves just did not grow - they ate it fine, just never seemed to grow out right.

My feed guy will not use corn byproducts for creep feeding light calves. He believes the quality of the protein (I can not spell all the amino acid names) is not good enough and so he recommends soy products instead. I have not seen any data on this. Most of the studies seem to be satified with showing corn supplementation increases rate of gain over grass only rations.

 

[Howdyjabo]

I have seen a big difference between pelleted and non pelleted CGF. The pelleted looses something.........

I wouldn't feed pelleted to young animals.

 

[rk]

Used that corn gluten on some 4 weights last year and will not repeat that mistake again. Calves just did not grow - they ate it fine, just never seemed to grow out right.

My feed guy will not use corn byproducts for creep feeding light calves. He believes the quality of the protein (I can not spell all the amino acid names) is not good enough and so he recommends soy products instead. I have not seen any data on this. Most of the studies seem to be satified with showing corn supplementation increases rate of gain over grass only rations.

My experience, generally speaking, is that calves much under about 400 lbs. need a higher quality protein, in terms of amino acids and total metabolizable protein, than older calves. They just can't get it from grass enough to support much of an adg.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I moved and weighed my lightest calves today. They range from 350# to 420#. The grasses are really taking off the past week so I plan to turn these calves out into a pasture with a self feeder soon. I know they would do a little better in a dry lot but it is way too nice in the pasture for that!

 

[dun]

I have seen a big difference between pelleted and non pelleted CGF. The pelleted looses something.........

I wouldn't feed pelleted to young animals.

The pelleting process lowers the protein substantially. It runs around 18% protein vs 44% for meal.

dun

 

[rk]

Pelleting may change protein level some, but not that much. Remember, corn gluten feed and corn gluten meal are two totally different byproducts of corn milling process. CGF is about 18% CP, while corn gluten meal is about 60%.

They also have very different characteristics otherwise, pretty high phos and fairly rapidly soluble protein in CGF.

Most byproducts have their place, just have to balance them into total diet and evaluate cost effectiveness.