wrong feed ration?

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joe

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the Mrs is feeding her 2 replacement heifers in a seperate pen here. One looks fairly good the other is stuck, and not really growing. Each heifer gets
#3 corn
#1.5 oats
#2 wet gluton
#8 silage
#.5 wheat bran
free choice hay/alfalfa mix
and mineral
Any suggestions? They need to gain about #3 a day for the next 30 days to get to breeding weight. I can get soy bean meal fairly reasonable, but the cotton seed hulls around here you need to take a semi load, and with 2 heifers is not feaisable.
thanks
 
As msscamp eluded - we need age & weight to really give you an answer.
But, have you wormed them recently? Also, silage is not much better feed than good quality hay. It is better, but depends on the % of corn in the silage. You are feeding about 7# of concentrate. They can easily get up to 3% of their body weight in concentrates.
Maybe the one heifer is a smaller frame and won't get very big??
They should weigh about 65% of what you THINK their mature size will be. So, if you think at 4-5 years old they will be 1000# - they should weigh 650# to be big enough to breed.
Bigger cows need to weigh more at breeding time.
If you plan on breeding in 30 days, you are looking at a late November calf. Is that when you want to calve?
 
sorry, I meant 90 days. The silage is well eared. The bigger heifer is a January '05 and weighs #679, the smaller one is from a larger framed cow, and sired by PFred, so should be bigger framed, born in late March, and she weighs #591. The smaller one seems to have more of a pot belly, and not as much rear muscling as she should have. Both poured on November 15th. It looks like alot of feed in their bunk. And it's split into 2 feedings. She tried adding more silage, but after a few days it was building up in the bunks and they were just sorting the grain out. The free choice hay/alfalfa doesn't look the greatest either. Fairly stemmy. She is feeding them with buckets, and uses the bath room scale for weights.
 
joe":2cz1bpah said:
sorry, I meant 90 days. The silage is well eared. The bigger heifer is a January '05 and weighs #679, the smaller one is from a larger framed cow, and sired by PFred, so should be bigger framed, born in late March, and she weighs #591. The smaller one seems to have more of a pot belly, and not as much rear muscling as she should have. Both poured on November 15th. It looks like alot of feed in their bunk. And it's split into 2 feedings. She tried adding more silage, but after a few days it was building up in the bunks and they were just sorting the grain out. The free choice hay/alfalfa doesn't look the greatest either. Fairly stemmy. She is feeding them with buckets, and uses the bath room scale for weights.
Click to expand...
I don't know who PFred is.
Anyway, the "smaller" heifer is actually heavier WPDA than the January, when you figure she is 2 (or more) months younger and only 88# less. She might be lighter muscled.
I would not increase the silage, but I would increase the concentrate. And I don't know the protein level of all your ingredients, but it looks to be LOW on protein. If they are not getting a high enough protein level (including the hay - which if it's poor, it will dilute the total protein level of their ration) they cannot consume very much feed. I would add some protein pellets. Your feed mill should be able to balance a ration for you.
At these weights, they can easily consume 15# of grain (dry matter) (including the grain in the silage which is wet).
 

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