Worked with calves today!

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

We decided to put some time in on our fall group, and our two steers we are raising for the county carcass contest this year. So I snapped some photos with my phone and thought I would share!

OK, so this first one is a June steer. We weaned him in November (we were flushing his dam and wanted to put some weight on her) and put him in with the other steer on grain. His sire is a Mo Better bull we raised, and his dam is a Built Right we showed a bunch. His sire is a bull we sold to KY, and won the 2012 MO State Fair in the Junior Show. I do not know if you remember, but last year I posted about a bull that we almost lost from heat stroke (he was 10 months old) in September. This calf is the result of a breeding AFTER he recovered and before we sent him to KY. We wanted to see if he could breed and settle a cow, he bred two and settled them both.
The steers are eating 50 pounds a day of just creep right now, and our weigh in is on Feb 8th. We decided to weigh the steers while we were working with them, and this one was 964 pounds! Not bad for a 7 month old calf!!!

This steer is a December born, so a year now, and weighing 980 pounds. Not as good of a grower, thus why we cut him (and other reasons).

And rear shot of the steers

I took a pic of all of our fall calves, but most did not turn out because of the light coming in from the door. But this one you can see. She is an October born AI calf, sired by Montecito. She is 90 days, and we are pretty impressed. This is only the second time she has had a halter on.

And a rear shot of our only two heifers we got in the fall. The rear on the left is a half blood, sired by Beef Maker (ABS bull) and dam is a Pioneer heifer. You might remember I posted a pic when she was born, at 45 pounds! She is a September born, about 3 weeks older than the other heifer. The rear on the right is the Montecito heifer.

Wish I had more that turned out, but we had a great day working in the barn today!

 

[Backbone Ranch]

Nice calves!

 

[inyati13]

Nice. That first steer is a beefy fellow. What is the deal with the feces on the Montecito heifer? Change in diet or weather?

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Nice. That first steer is a beefy fellow. What is the deal with the feces on the Montecito heifer? Change in diet or weather?

No, we had several fall calves that got a little loose for a week when the weather was super cold, and have dingle-berries now! Two that were bad I treated with Sulfa and they cleared up. That is why I am looking at trying the scour guard. We deal with loose stools often.... so trying to get it to stop. They are on just hay and milk right now, except a small snack we gave them for being good tonight!

 

[ousoonerfan22]

Calves look great! Are you feeding corn gluten pellets? Our calves and even the bull get a little loose if I feed cg pellets without skipping a day especially during that cold weather we had a couple of weeks ago.

 

[fitz]

Real nice calves.

fitz

 

[glacierridge]

They look nice FS!!!
(And delicious, lol)

 

[TN Cattle Man]

Good looking calves!

 

[OakCreekRanch]

Beautiful cattle!

 

[3waycross]

What did the black steer weigh at weaning?

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

What did the black steer weigh at weaning?

Here is a copy from the spreadsheet. His name is Little Mo, and he was weaned on 11/17. We started him on grain in October to make the early weaning easier on him, so you see his gain jump when he went on grain (we brought him up in a pen). He is being fed with the other steer since weaning, and they are cleaning up 50 pounds of grain a day, with orchard hay. His birthday was June 3rd, and he weighed 98 pounds (cow has had 5 calves). His brother (same sire, dams are related) weaned off at 7 months weighing 696, no grain and still a bull. He spent the last month before weaning chasing all of our open fall calving cows around trying to breed them (I like to keep an older bull calf in the group where I am breeding to help with heat detection).

Date Steer ID weight Gain ADG
9/21/2013 Little 495
10/12/2013 Little 505 10 0.48 (steered)
11/17/2013 Little 656 151 4.19
1/19/2014 Little 964 308 4.89

 

[3waycross]

Not looking for a fight but do you have any idea how hard it is to not call :bs: on those numbers. He gains 10 lbs in 21 days and then 150 or so for the next 32 days. Yes i can see that he was cut but this calf with i assume no implants is gaining more than the vast majority of bulls in America on test. Not just a little more but WAAAAY more. 4.89 ADG

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Not looking for a fight but do you have any idea how hard it is to not call :bs: on those numbers. He gains 10 lbs in 21 days and then 150 or so for the next 32 days. Yes i can see that he was cut but this calf with i assume no implants is gaining more than the vast majority of bulls in America on test. Not just a little more but WAAAAY more. 4.89 ADG

All I can do is record the number our scale gives me. We will get a better grasp when we weigh in on Feb 8th for the county carcass contest, and I will be sure to report back (different scale, certified). But he looks all of 950 pounds, and has not been implanted (we eat them ourselves). Remember, in those 10 days he was just on milk, then switched to grain the 35 days before weaning, free choice. Then the hard wean where he jumped even higher, and eats more grain. He gobbles up all the grain given, and they are out by the morning feed time. So two of them eating 50 pounds of grain in 12 hours, plus free choice orchard hay. No bs, unless my scale is wrong... And it is less than a year old and a digital Tru Test scale. I'll keep you posted on our "official" results when we get them.
Is it less hard to believe the gains on the other steer? Because he is more "average"? Why would I bs on one calf, but not the other??? Look back through the history of my posts, and I have posted pics and stats on that Mo calf before.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

OK, so this comment bothered me more as I thought about it. I DO NOT lie about my weights I report. There is no need!
Knowing beef convert at a ratio of 5 to 6:1, and that the two steers are CLEANING up in 12 hours 50 pounds of grain (we dump one 50 pound sack a day, at night, in their feeder, and there is no waist), that would equate to 10 to 8.3 pounds of GAIN a day, excluding the hay (which would actually add more gain- considering the quality). Divide that by the two steers, IF they ate equal amounts and gained equally (which I know for a fact THEY DO NOT since the JUNE calf has already caught up with the December calf), and that equates to 4 to 5 pounds of gain PER steer EACH DAY. So why can't our steer gain that much?
Set aside the fact that this steer comes from a genetic line that is known for its docility (helps with gains), and easy conversions. His sire had a weaning weight of 784 pounds, and a yearling weight of 1170. And he WAS NOT pushed on grain since he was raised as a bull. His paternal dam is a quarter Maine, quarter Angus and half Simmental, so you have genetic hybrid growth going on there. We raised the cow and the sire of that calf, and know what his sibs have done (he is the only calf from that line that has been steered). We weigh, and record every birth, weaning, and yearling weight on all calves we maintain ownership on.
I guess we will just have to wait and see on Feb 8th. And maybe I will go check my scale by putting a few 50 pound sacks on it... but I am in no way going to pile a half ton of feed on it just to verify!

 

[double v]

not questioning your results, what is the feed mix your using and what % protein. that's bigtime gain just wondering might have to get some.

 

[TexasBred]

OK, so this comment bothered me more as I thought about it. I DO NOT lie about my weights I report. There is no need!
Knowing beef convert at a ratio of 5 to 6:1, and that the two steers are CLEANING up in 12 hours 50 pounds of grain (we dump one 50 pound sack a day, at night, in their feeder, and there is no waist), that would equate to 10 to 8.3 pounds of GAIN a day, excluding the hay (which would actually add more gain- considering the quality). Divide that by the two steers, IF they ate equal amounts and gained equally (which I know for a fact THEY DO NOT since the JUNE calf has already caught up with the December calf), and that equates to 4 to 5 pounds of gain PER steer EACH DAY. So why can't our steer gain that much?
Set aside the fact that this steer comes from a genetic line that is known for its docility (helps with gains), and easy conversions. His sire had a weaning weight of 784 pounds, and a yearling weight of 1170. And he WAS NOT pushed on grain since he was raised as a bull. His paternal dam is a quarter Maine, quarter Angus and half Simmental, so you have genetic hybrid growth going on there. We raised the cow and the sire of that calf, and know what his sibs have done (he is the only calf from that line that has been steered). We weigh, and record every birth, weaning, and yearling weight on all calves we maintain ownership on.
I guess we will just have to wait and see on Feb 8th. And maybe I will go check my scale by putting a few 50 pound sacks on it... but I am in no way going to pile a half ton of feed on it just to verify!

I don't care about the calf but I would like to get my hands on some of that feed.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Here is a quick copy of the feed from the web site, without getting a tag off a bag. I have to look at my tag, but I am pretty sure I buy the creep without the bovatec, but not positive

MSF Winter Creep: Protein 12%; fat 2.0%



*Also with B68(Bovatec)



1. Feed in a creep feeder or hand feed to supplement cows milk.
2. Excellent grower feed for post weaned or shipped-in calves.
3. Creep feeding will improve health and weaning weights.
4. Bovatec for control of coccidiosis and increase rate of gain.
5. Always feed a recommended mineral with the Wintercreep.
6. Provide plenty of fresh water at all times. (Always read the feed tag).

 

[TexasBred]

Typically anything labeled "creep" is low quality least cost formulation and at best would give you about one lb. of grain for 9-10 lbs. of feed. Something is wrong here.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Yep, figured it out today. This whole topic has bugged me all day, so tonight after chores I went to the scales and looked them over. Nothing blocking or obvious as to what would cause weights to be off, so I went to the dry erase board where the kids record data when we work cows. Seems *someone* transposed numbers from the board to the sheet of paper that made it to the house. The black steer, little Mo, weighs 880 and the older steer is the one that weighs 964 pounds. So here is the new data when it is plugged into my spread sheet. Still honorable gains, for a 7 month old calf! The other calf gained 3.1 pounds, so at least they are consistent!

1/19/2014 little 880 224 3.56

I will still look forward to our weights on Feb 8th, since that scale is certified. BTW TB, our feed mill has some great quality feed. We do well with it, and also win a bunch during show season with their feed (different formulation for our show feed, which we switch to around April). We are getting better gains than you report, but my proof is in the end product and the last two years of winning the county carcass contest. Once again, certified scales are used so there is no mistakes there. And you weigh in front of the entire group and any people wanting to come and watch. Can't debate that, and I am betting we will do well again with Little Mo and his gains. This year our county is adding a rate of gain and cost portion, so the participants have to keep records on what they feed, how much they feed, and how much their feed costs. My kids have learned a lot by participating in this event, and it is great to see our own genetics taken to the line and seeing the proof in what we produce. And hopefully they become better at record keeping (and not transposing numbers!).

 

[double v]

didn't want to pick but I had used the same mix from MFA, and didn't get what you said glad you relooked. its good feed and gain is good, hope you do well on your carcass contest. hope all your animals grow good but remember feed is feed.