Implanting calves

[Faster horses]

Thanks for the information, OT. I always appreciate your updates and your weather forcasts. And your humor too. :wink:

 

[Frank in West Dakota]

Implanting, creepfeeding, crossbreeding, earlier calving all go hand in hand. To get the most production out of the cows, you should do them all.
Or some people like me, prefer to keep them all british, calve in April and May, fall into an all natural program, (although I've never seen a premium for them, but I will) and still have respectable weaning weights.

 

[Soapweed]

Implanting, creepfeeding, crossbreeding, earlier calving all go hand in hand. To get the most production out of the cows, you should do them all.
Or some people like me, prefer to keep them all british, calve in April and May, fall into an all natural program, (although I've never seen a premium for them, but I will) and still have respectable weaning weights.

Frankly, Frank, your line "I've never seen a premium for them, but I will" strikes a chord. I admire your faith, loyalty, and perserverence, but until I see a clear sign not to implant, cross-breed, and calve early, I will probably keep doing it. I only tried creep-feeding once, on some first-calf heifers' calves, and could see no reason to try it again.

As far as implanting, to gain 25 extra selling pounds by investing 75 cents sure seems the way to go. Besides, it isn't as if most calves aren't implanted at a later time anyway. It is just that the buyers want to be able to get all of that extra gain for themselves when they implant.

Calving earlier this year was easier than it would have been to calve later. Our big runs were done in pretty decent weather. When the bad storms came along in late March and April, we were pretty much over the hump, and the calves had enough age to come through in good shape. By calving early every year, a person tends to be set up knowing that some bad weather will come along. Some operators that calve late, go through just "hoping" the weather won't get bad and are not set up very well when it does.

Cross breeding gives a bit more bang for the buck, but there are trade-offs. We are doing less all the time, and are trying to convert to strictly Angus. I think that straight Angus can do about anything the cross-breds do, and more uniformity is always desirable.

Have a good day in western South Dakota. It's sprinkling here at the moment, and a good rain or a new calf is always welcome.

 

[Northern Rancher]

So what your saying Soapweed is I'll see what I want to believe-just like the rest of us here on Ranchers.net/ We've fed implanted and nonimplanted cattle before but were different pens so really can't compare-one year we we implanted every odd numbered calf at branding-there was about a ten pound difference at weaning-about as scientific a trial as I can run lol. Hard to believe but I used to pound the early calving pulpit pretty hard myself-but luckily with age came wisdom-not much but some lol.

 

[theHiredMansWife]

I've noticed a regional difference, too.
Down here, non-implanted do seem to bring a higher price (speaking strictly weaned calves, of course). And non-implanted is definately the norm.

When we were on the ND/SD line, I would guess that easily half our neighbors, or more, implanted. And it couldn't have hurt them or the practice wouldn't have been so popular...
We worked for the same company up there that we do here and didn't implant at either ranch.