SRBeef
Well-known member
I weighed my small herd late this afternoon. It's not weaning time yet but they are rotating to a next pasture away from the corral and scale. This is the last chance I would have to weigh them before weaning in mid Nov about 4 weeks from now.
Two things caught my eye:
My target "1200 lb" cows all weighed about 1350 lb I assume because of the unusually good rainfall and grass this summer.
My best calf out of my best cow today is 770 lb at 199 days old and using May weighing as a reference, has an average daily gain of 3.46 lb/day, no creep. His dam weighs 1360 lb today so as of today he is at 56.6% dam weight and should have a 205 day ratio of about 58%. Here is a picture from last week of the 770 lb T-21 calf:
By contrast, my heaviest (and also most photogenic/good phenotype) cow weighed in at a massive 1930 lb. She could hardly squeeze through my open chute! Her nice looking T-21 steer calf today weighed in at exactly 650 lb at 193 days for a ratio today of only 33.6% of his dam's weight today and this steer has had a 2.82 ADG using the same May weighing as a ref. His proj 205 day ratio will then be approximately only 35.4% of his dam's weight.
This has been a rare year as far as rainfall and grass. Fortunately this year I have had excess grass, even with the chow-hound 1930 lb cow and a couple other large ones.
However in a more normal year it is very clear that the big, beautiful 1930 lb cow with the beautiful 650 lb calf is going to cost me much more money than the 1360 lb cows with THEIR 650-770 lb calves.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the 1930 lb cow is consuming a lot more groceries than my 1360 lb cow. Their calves, both from the same sire, will be both be "nice" calves but even there the 1360 cow is much more efficient and raises an 18% heavier calf than a 1930 lb cow 42% heavier than she is!
This data makes it very clear what direction I need to be heading. FWIW.
Jim
Two things caught my eye:
My target "1200 lb" cows all weighed about 1350 lb I assume because of the unusually good rainfall and grass this summer.
My best calf out of my best cow today is 770 lb at 199 days old and using May weighing as a reference, has an average daily gain of 3.46 lb/day, no creep. His dam weighs 1360 lb today so as of today he is at 56.6% dam weight and should have a 205 day ratio of about 58%. Here is a picture from last week of the 770 lb T-21 calf:
By contrast, my heaviest (and also most photogenic/good phenotype) cow weighed in at a massive 1930 lb. She could hardly squeeze through my open chute! Her nice looking T-21 steer calf today weighed in at exactly 650 lb at 193 days for a ratio today of only 33.6% of his dam's weight today and this steer has had a 2.82 ADG using the same May weighing as a ref. His proj 205 day ratio will then be approximately only 35.4% of his dam's weight.
This has been a rare year as far as rainfall and grass. Fortunately this year I have had excess grass, even with the chow-hound 1930 lb cow and a couple other large ones.
However in a more normal year it is very clear that the big, beautiful 1930 lb cow with the beautiful 650 lb calf is going to cost me much more money than the 1360 lb cows with THEIR 650-770 lb calves.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the 1930 lb cow is consuming a lot more groceries than my 1360 lb cow. Their calves, both from the same sire, will be both be "nice" calves but even there the 1360 cow is much more efficient and raises an 18% heavier calf than a 1930 lb cow 42% heavier than she is!
This data makes it very clear what direction I need to be heading. FWIW.
Jim