Will These Cows Make Beef?

[mudfork]

Long story short, I now have 3 heifers in a field. They are still owned by a neighbor, but we are negotiating. They are angus, one weighs 622 pounds - born 2/5/09, another weighs 694 - born about 2 years ago, the last weighs 458 - born 4/19/09. My sole interest in keeping cattle in this field is to make beef for the fall. I have no need of the reproductive tracts of these animals. The past couple of years I have raised steers and heifers here and butchered at 900 to 1000 pounds. Meat has been good. Do you folks think these will finish nicely? What about the runt? Can I make something edible out of her?

 

[agmantoo]

Two of these animals are very light weight for their age. If they have frame size maybe all they need is improved forage. I believe in compensatory gain but I would like to see a pic before giving a strong opinion.

 

[mudfork]

They have come off some pretty lean grazing. Mud and hay all winter, and pretty short grass until now. They are eating high on the hog now. Thank you.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Two of these animals are very light weight for their age. If they have frame size maybe all they need is improved forage. I believe in compensatory gain but I would like to see a pic before giving a strong opinion.

I would say ALL 3 of these animals are light for their age
but if they have the frame a person could get some great compensatory gain out of these animals with good feed
now if they are just Dinks then they will always be Dinks

 

[Stocker Steve]

I bought a bunch of challenged heifers last fall. The ones with ribs showing did great. The two that were small for their age did not do well. One looks like she might turn out, and one is a still small except for her head so she goes to the locker plant for burger...

Hard to make money on them if they do not grow well.

 

[mudfork]

I have already had someone make an offer to take the little one for burger. Grain her out with the others and grind her? Does that sound like a good move? Let's say the bigger one's are poor animals. What would the meat be like by October? Can I polish these turds? Any ideas on what a fair offer would be for these 3 cows? The owner is a neighbor and a friend, so the deal needs to hit the middle of the road. Thanks for the comments.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Depends on your butcher' judgment and your pasture quality. They may need to grind a few more cuts than normal...

 

[Poundsy]

They do seem a little lite for their age. I bought some duds like this 2 years ago thinking that buying cheaper less appealing calves and pouring feed to them that I could come out ahead. I was WRONG. Took 3 months longer to get them to a good finished condition.

 

[mudfork]

Thanks to all for the info.

 

[mudfork]

I thought yall may want to know how the story ended. All 3 where butchered on Oct. 30th. Over the last 90 days on pasture they also got 1700 pounds of 50/50 cracked corn/corn gluten. The first 1000 pounds also had 100 pounds of soybean meal mixed in.

#1 - live weight May-622, live weight Oct.-inaccurate, hanging weight-551, yield-inaccurate

#2 - live weight May-458, live weight Oct.-782, hanging weight-441, yield-56.39 %

#3 - live weight May-694, live weight Oct.-1051, hanging weight-602, yield-57.28 %

Thanks.

 

[harry]

What was the finish like (if any) on the larger ones?

 

[mudfork]

I don't exactly know how to answer your question. Help a rookie out and ask again.

 

[harry]

Was there any finish (external fat) or marbling (intramuscular fat) in cattle that lite?

 

[donnaIL]

I wonder the same as Harry regarding the finish and IMF? also if they were really fattened/finished what was the loss of yield (YG).

Last year was first year I took a smaller animal like your #3, and while there was IMF, there was little finish...my animal was only 13 months old.. My result was that the tbone and ribeye steaks were tough (or tougher than I'm use to)..burger, stew, sirloins were fine. I think the reason was that because there was so little finish the locker could not hang them as long as they normally would. We ate the meat but I do not plan on repeating that again.

 

[mudfork]

I see. All three animals looked heavy in the brisket, and had varying amounts of folds at the tail head. I myself haven't had any of the prime steaks yet, but folks that bought the beef have had nothing but good things to say and want to buy again this year.