Weaning 2016

[WarEagle73]

Well weaning day came about a month early this year. Where our farm is located is in the heart of the drought area in Northeast Alabama. Fortunately we have had several very timely rains over the last few weeks, but our pastures are still pretty far behind, so we decided to pull the calves off almost a full month earlier than we normally would.

Below are some pictures of the calves. I am pretty happy with them overall. Average WW was low (477 lbs.), but between the poor forage quality due to drought, early weaning, smaller type cows (ave. 1151 lbs.), and the fact that 50% of these calves came off either first or second calf cows, I think we did ok.

Potential Replacement Heifers

1601. This is a heifer off a first calf heifer. The cow weighed 980 lbs. and she weighed 658 lbs. at weaning. I'm a little worried she might be a framier type cow but we will give her a shot. She was AI sired by Connealy ROI 8841 (not the intended sire but it worked out).


1605. AI sired heifer by VPI Limited Edition J921.


1606. My favorite heifer out of the set. Weaned at 510 lbs. out of an 11 year old cow that weighed 1055 lbs. The cow has been exceptional since day one. AI sired by Connealy Consensus 7229.


1607. Another Connealy Consensus 7229 calf.

 

[WarEagle73]

The Rest

1602. 634 lb. steer calf out of a 948 lb. first calf heifer. Another ROI sired steer.


Consensus 7229 steer.




The rest of the calves are sired by the Simangus clean up bull we just sold.

These calves were all weaned onto a 50/50 corn gluten/soyhull feed. Started out hand feeding about 4 lbs./hd/day and worked them up to 8 lbs. before we put them on a self feeder. All of the calves that don't make it as replacement heifers are going into a retained ownership program through Alabama Cooperative Extension called the Pasture-to-Rail program, so it will be pretty neat to get some carcass data back at the end of all this.

 

[Son of Butch]

All of the calves that don't make it as replacement heifers are going into a retained ownership program
through Alabama Cooperative Extension called the Pasture-to-Rail program,
it will be pretty neat to get some carcass data back at the end of all this.

Yes it will be a great opportunity to learn. Will the data have each individual identified?
If so, having photos of who was who will help to keep your memory from fading for comparison later on.

 

[jscunn]

Nice group of calves.. I would like to hear details on how yours do on the pasture to the rail program when they get finished with the program.

 

[gizmom]

Really nice group of calves. I sure hope you start getting more rain. We keep hearing how dry it is in north Al and parts of Georgia. I sure wish we could send some of our moisture your way. We are getting rain daily so much we can't get a cutting of hay and we have plenty to cut. I guess feast or famine comes to mind. Having gone through a pretty rough drought I feel for anyone going through one, it is a real helpless feeling. Keep us posted on the pasture to rail program.

Gizmom

 

[creekdrive]

Very nice! :clap: Those ROI calves sure weaned off big for being out of first timers in the midst of a drought!

 

[Kingfisher]

I like that baldy calf!

 

[WarEagle73]

Very nice! :clap: Those ROI calves sure weaned off big for being out of first timers in the midst of a drought!

I'm not going to lie, I was pretty upset when I figured out that those heifers were AIed to ROI and not the bull I wanted, but seeing them at weaning after they were born unassisted tempered anger a lot! I'm really interested to see how the steer performs from now until slaughter.

And thanks everyone for the comments. When we ship our first set to Kansas through the P2R program I'll make a post and keep it updated as we progress. It'll be a long deal, but we are really excited. We will get individual carcass and performance data back on every calf and they will be sold on the grid at finish. The lot they are headed to can sell to Tyson, Cargill or 2 different National Beef plants.

 

[talltimber]

Good deal. I like those calves. The last pic is my favorite, I like seeing them at the bunk like that. I hope they do real good for you. That is my goal, to one day be able to retain ownership and get some data back.

 

[elkwc]

Very nice! :clap: Those ROI calves sure weaned off big for being out of first timers in the midst of a drought!

I'm not going to lie, I was pretty upset when I figured out that those heifers were AIed to ROI and not the bull I wanted, but seeing them at weaning after they were born unassisted tempered anger a lot! I'm really interested to see how the steer performs from now until slaughter.

And thanks everyone for the comments. When we ship our first set to Kansas through the P2R program I'll make a post and keep it updated as we progress. It'll be a long deal, but we are really excited. We will get individual carcass and performance data back on every calf and they will be sold on the grid at finish. The lot they are headed to can sell to Tyson, Cargill or 2 different National Beef plants.

Is the lot in SW KS? I would assume it was with the plants you mentioned.

 

[WarEagle73]

Is the lot in SW KS? I would assume it was with the plants you mentioned.

I believe so. Hy-Plains in Montezuma. The thing I like most about the program is for small guys like us it works well. We probably never would have had the opportunity to retain ownership because we are small, but to do pasture to rail you only need a minimum of three calves.

 

[elkwc]

Is the lot in SW KS? I would assume it was with the plants you mentioned.

I believe so. Hy-Plains in Montezuma. The thing I like most about the program is for small guys like us it works well. We probably never would have had the opportunity to retain ownership because we are small, but to do pasture to rail you only need a minimum of three calves.

I know where it is. It is about 80 miles from where I live. There are many good lots in this region. I know some of the employees at a lot of them. Will be watching for updates.

 

[Lucky_P]

Did I miss a story? How'd those heifers get AI'ed to the ROI bull and you not know about it until after the fact?

 

[WarEagle73]

Just to update everyone that was interested in the retained ownership deal, I started a new thread in the feedyard board:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=106439

And I never got back around to answering your question Lucky_P, but in a nutshell, my semen supplier gave me the wrong cane of semen (cane code was one number different). I bred the heifers myself. It was my first time breeding and I was breeding in a Fixed TAI protocol. The weather was terrible on breeding day so I rushed and didn't look at the empty straws until a week or so later. I took a chance and didn't abort the pregnancies. I got lucky haha

 

[Ky hills]

Very nice calves, I like the idea of retained ownership from the standpoint of it being an educational selection tool.