What do you think about this calf.

[VCC]

After reading the post on another thread I got the idea to post a series of pictures to see what you think about a steer calf, see everyone thinks his faults are, and see how he ends up. It will also show how a picture can skew the actual animal.

First picture

Let me know what you think of him and how you think he will develop.

 

[E in PA]

what breed is he?

 

[VCC]

Main / Angus he is about 6 or 7 mo old in these pictures.

 

[lynnmcmahan]

Like your orange trees. Can't see much of the calf.

 

[E in PA]

that cross should grow out nicely, he looks thicker in the 2nd picture than he does in the 1st. did you purchase him or breed for him?

 

[Isomade]

Need better pics

 

[VCC]

Here is his progression as a calf
3 days

Weaning

Month after weaning

10 months

13 months

14 months roughed out 1112 pounds

I do not have recent pictures but he now weighs 1340

 

[KNERSIE]

He was very well brought out, in the second pic you could see that there was lots of potential for rump development. If he was roofy in that pic he never would have filed out like he has. The problem I see is his dam didn't do him very well.

 

[VCC]

First calf heifer, we will see how she does with this next calf. Grass is better this year and she has grown some.

The cows sire was a calving ease Main, he tends to throw small calves that really take off as they mature, the cow herself started out on the small size and did not take off until about 9 months and by 14 months was one of the best looking heifers in the bunch.
They grow, they just do not look like much until they hit 9 or 10 months, She looked just like him as a calf.

 

[KNERSIE]

What did you feed him?

 

[VCC]

The boy I sold him to has been feeding him sack feed the ingrediants are below, he is now eating about 20 pounds a day with a pound of Stabilized Rice Bran to help lay down a smooth layer of cover, he will go to the fair in 21 Days, he will weigh in at around 1320 an probably weigh 1370 to 1380 full.

List of Ingredients
Corn cracked, Cottonseed Hulls (Not more than 22.8%), Recleaned oats (fancy), Rolled Barley, Soybean Meal, Molasses, Vegetable liquid Fat, Wheat Millrun, Calcium Carbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Corn Distillers, Linseed Meal Expeller, Urea, Sodium Silico Aluminate, Vegetable Oil, Salt, Sodium Sesquicarbonate, Whey Dried, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E supplement, Brewers Dried Yeast, Dried Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation solubles, Brewers Yeast Dehydrated, Kelp (Seaweed Meal), Zinc Methionine, Manganese Methionine, Copper Lysine, Cobalt Glucoheptoate, Anise flavor dry, Magnesium Oxide, Monensin, Tylosin Phosphate, Sulfur, Selenium Yeast, Brewers Dried Yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast, Cane Molasses, Diastatic Malt, Corn Syrup, Propionic Acid, Ammonium Hydroxide, Verxite, Bentonite, Artificial flavoring, Manganese Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Choline Chloride, Sodium Selenite, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Folic Acid, Calcium Iodate, Rice Bran, Cobalt sulfate.
Guaranteed Analysis
CRUDE PROTEIN(Min) 11.0%
* (INCLUDES NOT MORE THAN 1.5 % EQUIVALENT CRUDE PROTEIN FROM NON-PROTEIN NITROGEN)
CRUDE FAT (Min) 4.5%
CRUDE FIBER (Max) 12.3%
ASH (Max) 7.5%

50# 500985

 

[KNERSIE]

That's a very good looking heifer, i'm surprised that he didn't look better at weaning.

 

[VCC]

It is Southern California, the grass is dry by May, gone by July and they are foraging in the brush and creek beds until fall. We have the tubs out early this year and the rains came later, grass is looking like it will hold through July, should be a better year for the calves and the cows.
Our first real rain comes in October; we might get ½ from the first of June into October.

 

[3waycross]

That's a very good looking heifer, i'm surprised that he didn't look better at weaning.

Why is that. My first thought was she had lost some of her milking ability by being fedd hard herself. I could be wrong and is just not a great milker.

I have been very concerned with the milking ability of the heifer i loaned the young lady for 4H but so far it looks like my fears were unfounded. Her calf weighed 91lbs at birth and @ 27 days he weighed 220lbs.

 

[cow pollinater]

Just about everything in CA had a rough time of it this year. The country I see in the background is pretty gentle but not the kind of stuff that will support mains. I think in a better year he'd be a completely different animal.

 

[VCC]

The cow in the picture is his dams mother, she is out of a commercial Angus cow and Simmental bull. The calf with the cow is his dam, She was the cows first calf, the cow had to put down after she stifled carring her 4 calf. The cow in the picture was not grained, she was running on pasture in the Central Valley before we bruoght her home. His dam was up on the same pasture,prior to calving.

 

[VCC]

Well he weighed in at 1344, empty, that is at 505 days old. he averaged 2.51 from birth.
He finished 3rd in the black cross division. The kid did a great job feeding and getting him ready, this was his first year with a steer.