HOSS
Well-known member
I'm a little bit giddy right now :cowboy: I weighed my weanling steers and was really surprised. The average weaning weight was 686 with the heaviest weighing 722. Interesting to me is the heaviest steer was the youngest of the group being born April 15th so that puts him just over 6 months old. The whole group was born from mid-March to mid-April. My heifers averaged 577 with the heaviest weighing 643. I had a whole lot more heifers than bull calves this year so their age spread was from early-March to late April. This is about a 46 pound improvement over last year on the steer average and a 50 pound improvement on the heifers. I am using the same bull with the exception of a handfull of In Focus calves. The biggest difference maker that I can see from this year to last is that last year I calved out quite a few heifers and this year those have matured and have done a much better job with their 2nd calf. I do not creep at all just grass, minerals and milk. We also had better rain early on and they grazed a pasture that I had redone last fall which was heavy in red and white clover along with the fescue.
The In-Focus calves did pretty well for all being born to heifers. The best steer weaned at 660 and best heifer at 594. It seemed that these calves started slow but put on alot of weight later. Maybe it was because they were all born small between 65 and 70 pounds. I retained one of the In Focus heifers and I suspect she will probably continue to grow at a good clip.
I am very happy with the 6 month weaning weights so now my next step is to focus on overall improvement. I have some work to do on legs and some on depth. I feel good about hindquarters. I also need to possibly cull some late breeders. I love it when I can see hard work pay off. It gets frustrating when you make changes and see no benefit but the last 3 years or so has produced year over year improvement in just about every area. Now that I have this A.I. thing down pretty well I hope to make another big step over the next year.
The In-Focus calves did pretty well for all being born to heifers. The best steer weaned at 660 and best heifer at 594. It seemed that these calves started slow but put on alot of weight later. Maybe it was because they were all born small between 65 and 70 pounds. I retained one of the In Focus heifers and I suspect she will probably continue to grow at a good clip.
I am very happy with the 6 month weaning weights so now my next step is to focus on overall improvement. I have some work to do on legs and some on depth. I feel good about hindquarters. I also need to possibly cull some late breeders. I love it when I can see hard work pay off. It gets frustrating when you make changes and see no benefit but the last 3 years or so has produced year over year improvement in just about every area. Now that I have this A.I. thing down pretty well I hope to make another big step over the next year.
