creekdrive
Well-known member
Spent last week (Tuesday-Thursday) gathering & weaning all of our bull calves. Wouldn't be near as much of a project if they weren't scattered in multiple places. Weaned a total of 59 bulls, Red & Black Angus and also includes 3 crossbred bulls we left as bulls. Thought I'd share some of the stats:
Avg. weight was 561 lbs at an average age of 180 days.
Adj. 205 day weight average 654 lbs.
Calves get milk & grass and that's it. I know they aren't spectacular weaning weights or anything, but it's right in the range that we hope for out of our purebreds. Usually we wean about a week later, but had other stuff going on this week so weaned while we could.
Some of the individual highlights that made me pretty happy:
28D - 192 days old, 76lb bw, 600lb actual weaning weight out of a first calf heifer. We weighed the heifer - 910lbs. I'd say that's a dang good job!
30D - 192 days old, 77lb bw, 690lb actual ww out of a 4 yr old cow.
86D - 185 days old, 92lb bw, 715lb actual ww out of a 7 yr old cow.
215D - 153 days old, 80lb bw, 575lb actual ww out of a 6 yr old cow.
19 out of 59 with actual ww of over 600lbs. 46 out of 59 with adj. ww over 600lbs.
Just as the calves were just about finished bawling it snowed. Wet, heavy snow and a cold wind. So far everything (knock on wood) looks good & healthy and we haven't had to treat anything yet. Actually the calves didn't bawl too much at all. A week in and they are already running to the trough to be fed and getting pushy while we are dumping pails. The cows on the other hand bawled like crazy for their calves...worse than they've ever been I think.
Hard to see in this crappy cell phone picture, but there was a group of black calves laying in the close straw & a group of reds laying down in the far straw. Sorting themselves by color haha.
The snow came Saturday afternoon & it is still here. It's too early for snow!
It did melt quite a bit today, but I think Friday we are supposed to get more. We aren't quite finished with harvest, still have 75 acres of oats to combine. We are a lot better off than a lot of our neighbours though who still have a lot of acres left to go.
Avg. weight was 561 lbs at an average age of 180 days.
Adj. 205 day weight average 654 lbs.
Calves get milk & grass and that's it. I know they aren't spectacular weaning weights or anything, but it's right in the range that we hope for out of our purebreds. Usually we wean about a week later, but had other stuff going on this week so weaned while we could.
Some of the individual highlights that made me pretty happy:
28D - 192 days old, 76lb bw, 600lb actual weaning weight out of a first calf heifer. We weighed the heifer - 910lbs. I'd say that's a dang good job!
30D - 192 days old, 77lb bw, 690lb actual ww out of a 4 yr old cow.
86D - 185 days old, 92lb bw, 715lb actual ww out of a 7 yr old cow.
215D - 153 days old, 80lb bw, 575lb actual ww out of a 6 yr old cow.
19 out of 59 with actual ww of over 600lbs. 46 out of 59 with adj. ww over 600lbs.
Just as the calves were just about finished bawling it snowed. Wet, heavy snow and a cold wind. So far everything (knock on wood) looks good & healthy and we haven't had to treat anything yet. Actually the calves didn't bawl too much at all. A week in and they are already running to the trough to be fed and getting pushy while we are dumping pails. The cows on the other hand bawled like crazy for their calves...worse than they've ever been I think.
Hard to see in this crappy cell phone picture, but there was a group of black calves laying in the close straw & a group of reds laying down in the far straw. Sorting themselves by color haha.
The snow came Saturday afternoon & it is still here. It's too early for snow!
It did melt quite a bit today, but I think Friday we are supposed to get more. We aren't quite finished with harvest, still have 75 acres of oats to combine. We are a lot better off than a lot of our neighbours though who still have a lot of acres left to go.
