Unweaned bull calves

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MurraysMutts

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Watched a small group sell yesterday.
358lbs brought 2.18
Incredible!!

Several others in that weight brought nearly the same. Even heifers were up there, tho, not that high.

I guess grass is coming and folks are still grazing wheat.
Hope I'm that blessed come sale day this week.
 
Watched a small group sell yesterday.
358lbs brought 2.18
Incredible!!

Several others in that weight brought nearly the same. Even heifers were up there, tho, not that high.

I guess grass is coming and folks are still grazing wheat.
Hope I'm that blessed come sale day this week.
Then you will be able to buy a whole wheel of 🧀. ;)

Just joking, I hope they bring that and more!
 
When did you wean them and when are you selling? If the mommas are not happy, and you mentioned that you are selling them this week.... why on earth would you take them away from the cows a week or 2 ahead? 2 weeks is not weaned by any definition that we follow.... and they are fretting for the week or 2 before you sell so are losing some weight that you cannot gain back in that amount of time.... Not sure that I understand but I may have misread what you wrote.
 
That is a lot for bull calves that size. $780 a head. Not a lot of room for any profit in them. Bull calves that size here would be more like $1.60.
 
Okay, I get that you are just pulling them and shipping. We have done that many times, and we wean and hold 30-60 days othertimes. We leave the cows with the calves in the barn lot and sort at 4-5 a.m. and run the calves on the trailer and off they go. Don't usually pull them real small, mostly it is time to wean anyway and so sometimes we wean and hold, sometimes trailer wean and sell. But we don't take them away from the cows until the "minute" they get on the trailer so they are not overly upset, and the mommas aren't either. Yep, the cows will holler at the barn later, but they seem to get over it much faster when the calves are no where in the area. We will leave the cows in the small field next to the barn for about 2-3 days, just too make sure no one is going crazy looking for their calf.... then move them out to pasture where they will calve again.
About the same or a little less than @Dave , they would be worth 1.50's + here. But who knows with the weather warming up and spring/grass fever... they might go up. That is why it is not profitable for us to keep calves past the 450-500 wt range... when they are bringing 1.60-2.00 lb.... if you pull them off, the cows get a longer break and back into better shape and we can run a couple more cows in the group, so ultimately a little more income overall. I wish they would pay good for 5-7 wts.... be alot easier to just leave calves until they are heavier, pull, sell, and the cow calves again in 2 months.... harder on her though. We just don't get that kind of growth here either, due to heat and humidity, and flies.... even the red poll cattle that graze in the hotter part of the day will go find some relief from the flies.... and we don't have near the flies that I have seen some places. But I attribute that to the DE in the mineral.
 
My 650lb June born steer did very good total dollars!

The unweaned calves sale result is below.
Averaged 1.69 on bulls (big steer included)
Averaged 1.46 on heifers.
Average of bulls was 479lbs
Average of heifers was 426lbs

I didnt include the two, 300 dollar calves. They were not born and raised here.

They didnt bring 2.18 but I'm satisfied I think.Screenshot_20210405-172245_Gallery.jpg

Happy to have em off the place. And I didnt have to wean em or feed em while weaning!!

Ope! Cull cow brought .58
Nearly what I gave for her 2 years ago
 
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I have not yet..
Need to dig up last years sale reciept. Heck it may be on the weaning for dollars thread.
I know I spent way more money and time.
I'm almost certain this was better.

I better do some looking huh?
I'm just not thinking my return on investment was great last time
 
I am guessing you kept a bit in your pocket this time round. I don't understand why you folks down south can't raise heavier calves though.
 
I am guessing you kept a bit in your pocket this time round. I don't understand why you folks down south can't raise heavier calves though.
These calves were mostly 6 month except a couple summer born calves. 1 heifer, 1 steer. O! And the lil turd that went under my panel and bent it all to hell! He brought like 600 plus tho. If he hadn't done that, he would've stayed here a bit longer. He was October born.
No creep, they just started eating feed good with they mamas. Hay and milk over winter.

Your are not similar at that age??

And yes! This is apparently the time to sell weaner calves! They did much better than the ones I sold for wheat calves. AND, like I said, I had no inputs. No feed. No labor. No pen space taken. And just 1 time loading and hauling. They weren't even vaccinated! Or steered! All natural cept the 1 steer. That makes a HUGE difference on dollars out vs dollars still in pocket.
 
These calves were mostly 6 month except a couple summer born calves. 1 heifer, 1 steer. O! And the lil turd that went under my panel and bent it all to hell! He brought like 600 plus tho. If he hadn't done that, he would've stayed here a bit longer. He was October born.
No creep, they just started eating feed good with they mamas. Hay and milk over winter.

Your are not similar at that age??

And yes! This is apparently the time to sell weaner calves! They did much better than the ones I sold for wheat calves. AND, like I said, I had no inputs. No feed. No labor. No pen space taken. And just 1 time loading and hauling. They weren't even vaccinated! Or steered! All natural cept the 1 steer. That makes a HUGE difference on dollars out vs dollars still in pocket.

I'm not speaking for @gcreekrch but by 7 months we will have the majority in the 600's - no creep, some over 700. @Silver gets into the 800's.

Imo you're on the right track with not weaning. In many cases it's easier to save money than it is to make it.
 
Mostly black and red Angus cross cows (usually a bit of Simmental) bred Charolais.
I think he hit the reason for their weaning weights being do good. They haven't chased the Angus and the tremendously low birth weights as bad as we have here. And cows that milk.
 
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That's an interesting thought. Both my char calves have done notably better, thinking about that.

Most of my cows are are 1100lbs. No real emphasis on birthweight right now. No heifers to worry about. This last group, a bunch were out of first calve heifers! Same bull I used on my cows tho.
Are they bigger mamas up north?
 

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