Weaning for Dollars

[greggy]

Give him a break, the others could run to you while he had to waddle a bit at a time, he's back though.....

 

[MurraysMutts]

Give him a break, the others could run to you while he had to waddle a bit at a time, he's back though.....

Yeah. The poor lil guy cant run. He tries really hard but falls down. He walks/gets about okay tho. Eats well. Doesnt seem sick/ill.
Seems ok other than hes handicapped. Or had an injury that he just cant get over.

 

[MurraysMutts]

2 heifers. 2 steers.
Sell tmrw.
Over 2000 head in the barn.
Hope the buyers are ready to bid and often!

 

[MurraysMutts]

Ugh..
The gain is since weaning weight.
I think the implant and wheat helped me the most.

Thoughts?

 

[Buck Randall]

Impressive gains considering how light they were when you started. What implant did they get?

 

[MurraysMutts]

I wish I knew. Its whatever the local vet uses.
They were fed good hay and 30% cubes while in the weaning pen for 3 weeks.
The weaning weight was measured at the vets scale.
The sell weight was sale barn scale.
Surely they are accurate enough for a good quality measurement.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Round 2....
Bulls are banded and everyone is worked.
Bull calves are implanted.
The heifers got no implant.
These weaned a bit heavier. I'm undecided on trying to find winter grazing for them. My small lease place has a little winter grass. But I'm afraid if I stock it too heavy that the cows over there will suffer. May just hold em 60 days and sell.

 

[MurraysMutts]

So!
On this group, I'm considering selling them 2 weeks weaned. Calf prices are really good right now.
They still havnt lost their nutz.
And I'll lose any gain I may get from the implants.
But I wont have to gather and haul them twice.
Thoughts....?

 

[BC]

So!
On this group, I'm considering selling them 2 weeks weaned. Calf prices are really good right now.
They still havnt lost their nutz.
And I'll lose any gain I may get from the implants.
But I wont have to gather and haul them twice.
Thoughts....?

Wait until the nut saks have fallen off. Those fresh banded calves get docked severely here in East Texas.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Some cut the sack off after a week. The smell is special.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Some cut the sack off after a week. The smell is special.

If it's anything like the smell of the fluid that goes in a GM 3.8 liter supercharger, I'll just wait a bit....

 

[MurraysMutts]

Yep...
10 calves.
2 weeks weaned.
Going for a ride to grass for at least a month. Maybe 2 months. Gonna try and get some benefit from those implants I put in the steers.
Pray the market holds, they all stay put, and they are easy to catch when the time comes..
I think they will do ok.
They say quality is always in demand. These calves are fairly uniform. And they all know what a hot wire is. Bunk broke. They will be fully pre conditioned. Ready for the lucky buyer in the fall. Unless wheat pasture falls into my lap. It's only 2 more trips in the trailer right? Hey. I can sell em as trailer trained!! That brings extra right?
Happy weanling day ya'll!

 

[MurraysMutts]

What have i done??
Only about half come up for feed.
Hopefully that changes by the time I want em caught for the sale....

So also, I've noticed these calves are losing some condition. The last group went straight from weaning and feed every day to wheat pasture. They never lost condition like this.

Is this normal?
Can I expect them to start putting condition back on soon, on grass?
I guess they've been weaned about 3-4 weeks now.
Not what I was expecting.

 

[BC]

When you say losing some condition, does that mean the calves are losing that milk fat look? If you are going to warm season grass, you will need to supplement with a couple of lbs of distillers grain. You might use distillers grain cubes (34% protein, 6% fat). Cost of cubes is about 22 cents a lb.

 

[MurraysMutts]

When you say losing some condition, does that mean the calves are losing that milk fat look? If you are going to warm season grass, you will need to supplement with a couple of lbs of distillers grain. You might use distillers grain cubes (34% protein, 6% fat). Cost of cubes is about 22 cents a lb.

Yeah. They just look a bit lean...
I was over there this morning, they do seem to be improving. Still ain't dropped their sacks. I've thought about making a creep gate to the pen. Not really wanting to spend money on feed tho. I hope once the rumens get to working good, the grass will do.....

 

[bird dog]

I feed mine two or three times a week while on pasture. Seems to give the protein needed to do better on the grass. It also makes them gentler and I can spray them for flies. Since I sell at OKC where they give them pellet feed, I want them eating good so they have very little if any shrink when they go to Market.

My calves gain an average of about 70 lbs during the 45 day period with this method with most of it in the 20 days. The rate of gain will go up a little more with a 60 day pre-condition.

 

[Lucky]

One thing to keep in mind is that buyers don't want fat calves. They need to be hard weaned and look like they need to gain a little. When you look at market reports "fleshy" calves always bring allot less money. 6-8 #'s of 14% feed is plenty.

 

[BC]

When you look at a fat, bloomy calf you are thinking man he/she sure looks good. When an order buyer sees a fat,bloomy calf he is thinking of a wreck waiting to happen. That fat, bloomy calf needs to harden up and transition from a calf to a yearling.
At the same time, the calf need to get its immune system developed.

Unless you have a hay meadow that has some new regrowth, most warm season grass is not high enough in quality to get the gains you need without supplementation. The secret is to feed just enough to to get you 1.5 to 2 lbs/day gain. The grass by itself may be good enough to get you a 0.5 lb per day gain. By spending $0.50 a day on feed you can make about $2.00 per day on additional gain. The old adage you have to spend money to make money is true with calves.

 

[Lucky]

When you look at a fat, bloomy calf you are thinking man he/she sure looks good. When an order buyer sees a fat,bloomy calf he is thinking of a wreck waiting to happen. That fat, bloomy calf needs to harden up and transition from a calf to a yearling.
At the same time, the calf need to get its immune system developed.

Unless you have a hay meadow that has some new regrowth, most warm season grass is not high enough in quality to get the gains you need without supplementation. The secret is to feed just enough to to get you 1.5 to 2 lbs/day gain. The grass by itself may be good enough to get you a 0.5 lb per day gain. By spending $0.50 a day on feed you can make about $2.00 per day on additional gain. The old adage you have to spend money to make money is true with calves.

It took me a couple years to figure this out but you are correct. The truck load I sold last month were born from 2/19 - 4/19 and weighed 825# when I sold them 8/20. It only cost me about $125 a head to keep them that long and they topped the sale in a down market. Calves need time to grow frame and bone. You can definitely get them to 825# quicker but will normally take a beating on them, I think this is were the weaning doesn't pay mentality comes from.

 

[Dave]

When you look at a fat, bloomy calf you are thinking man he/she sure looks good. When an order buyer sees a fat,bloomy calf he is thinking of a wreck waiting to happen. That fat, bloomy calf needs to harden up and transition from a calf to a yearling.

One of the reasons our calves in this part of the world sell for more. Steep, rugged range land where they walk a mile or two for water does not make fat bloomy calves. When the calves come out of the hills they are hard. The order buyers know they aren't going to lose 50 pounds of baby fat.