Weaning Recommendation

[MOFarmer2013]

I need help with a weaning scenario. We have just bought a farm with cattle. The majority of the calves range from 400# to 600#. To my knowledge the calves have not had any vaccinations. Last Saturday we worked the calves and gave them all their shots. We have are going to band the bull calves next week so the tetanus toxiod will have time to work.

My question is would you recommend to wean the calves and then sell them right afterward? Would you just sell after they have their shots and are banded and not wean them? Or would you wean them and let them eat pasture until I have to start feeding them and then sell them? (we have more than enough pasture right now.)

I was thinking that we should wean them and then let them eat the free pasture to gain weight, and then sell them when you have to start feeding them. The problem with that is, then you will be selling closer to winter when the prices normally decline.

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[J&D Cattle]

I prefer to wean my calves 45 days so I can advertise them that way. Buyers will pay a premium for pre-conditioned calves. I usually only pen mine for 5-7 days and then kick them out on grass. They get free choice mineral and a feed bag rarely just to keep them running into the pen for sale time. With a 2 round vaccination program also, my pencil tells me preconditioning pays off. :2cents:

What county are you located in? You might call the local salebarn and see what their buyers prefer too.

 

[dun]

I prefer to wean my calves 45 days so I can advertise them that way. Buyers will pay a premium for pre-conditioned calves. I usually only pen mine for 5-7 days and then kick them out on grass. They get free choice mineral and a feed bag rarely just to keep them running into the pen for sale time. With a 2 round vaccination program also, my pencil tells me preconditioning pays off. :2cents:

What county are you located in? You might call the local salebarn and see what their buyers prefer too.

That's who we do it too.

You might check with the salebarn and see what they recommend, they'll be more in touch with their buyers wants then folks on CT will

 

[MOFarmer2013]

Thank you. I'm from Butler County in Southeast MO.

 

[snake67]

Not a recommendation - just what we now do and why.

I wish I could say we saw that "worked" cattle premium.

Over the past few years in my part of the world we have been seeing no difference in cattle pricing at the sale barn - between those that have been worked and those that have not been worked.

Now we ship them right off the cow and to the barn.

Having been there with de-nutting, vaccinations and de-horning, many of us have run "twin" pens - those worked and those not worked to see what the pricing difference was. We actually saw worked animals going for less than those we shipped "as is".

This year we sold a pen of 12 that averaged right at the 600 pound mark - straight from the field - price for the pen? $1.52 a pound. Considering they were not the holy grail angus but instead they were all horned herefords - with horns and nuts and no vaccinations - we thought the price was pretty good.

Those animals went right off the field and away from mom at about 0830 and sold that afternoon at around 1430.

It might be different where you are - however have any of you actually done this to see? I would be very curious to know.

At least around here there is no longer an advantage to working cattle before selling - so we - and most of our neighbours - have stopped - less work, less expense, less risk and the animals literally go when we want - about 5 hours before the sale - right from the field to the ring.

The feed lots have stopped thanking us for our labours (even when provided with veterinarian certification that the work was completed as reported) so we let them look after it now.

No matter what we have done to the animals, the feed lots run them through their own program anyways - making ours redundant. Be curious to see if there are any others out there that find this to be the way in their area.

Best to all

Bez

 

[randiliana]

I'm with Bez on this. Here, it makes no sense to do all the work, you won't see a premium and I have seen preconditioned calves sell for less than fresh weaned ones. Doesn't seem to matter what sort of vacc program you are on either, the non vacc'd calves sell just as well.... The only thing the vaccinations do for you is that you have a healthier herd at home.

 

[RScott]

We're in the sell them straight off the mama camp. No advantage seen and right now we have multiple barns and direct buyers all very interested in the calves we'll pull off in the next couple of weeks.

 

[A.Lane]

I've always been told buyers want calves that have been weaned 45 days or 45 minutes and nothing in between.

 

[snake67]

I've always been told buyers want calves that have been weaned 45 days or 45 minutes and nothing in between.

An awful lot of folks in Canada sell whole truckloads the way we do it. I would bet hundreds of thousands of cattle get sold this way.

Feed lots don't believe you anyways when you tell them about your precondition so they run the animals through their own program before they hit the lot.

That is why I asked if anyone has actually done any hard examination of this in the south - or are they still working on "heard" and "been told"?

Best to all

Bez

 

[Limomike]

Around here, if they are worked, weaned, vaccinated , black & steered.. they will bring a premium MOST of the time.
That being said.. I have sold them straight off the mama cow, and got top dollar for some of my steers. As with anything.. its all what someone is willing to pay for the product.

 

[shaz]

Can't say that I really see a premium for preconditioned calves but half the buyers won't even bid on unweaned calves.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Over the last month it had been hard to find a buyer for unweaned calves, weaned and shots has been the only way to sell. As it cools off that changes and bawling calves will be selling again. But I have always felt I get paid to wean and work my calves to sell here.

 

[dun]

A couple of the salebarns in this general area havepreconditioned calf sales. Tise calves typically bring more then the standard calves at the regular weekly sales. It's only 2-5 cents a pound different bu that is worth it for a 500-700 lb calf.