Horseless said:
Ben H said:
I want your opnions with breeding. Am I better off to reduce the size of my animals through breeding or to sell them and buy smaller? In other words, how long will it take to reduce the size. I need genetics for grass-finishing and my cows are two big right now.
I have somewhat of the same problem. I just don't think I could go out and find a great group of cattle to buy and make money doing it. I am getting away from buying bred animals, just too many bad experiences.
I am just taking my best cows that are somewhat moderate framed, breeding them to some moderate framed bulls, that I have seen his daughters, and his mother.
I had a someone helping me ship calves, when sorting out replacements, I picked out a heifer that was pretty small, from an old cow (15yrs). He laughed at me, I said her mother was one of my better cows, his response was "must be very good cow if she can't raise a 500lb calf" :twisted:
The cow should have been sold earlier. But that heifer is probably going to be one of my better cows.
It was kind of hard to take his critism. So hang in there.
Ben, in my experience, when you go about doing this with your cattle, you can expect lots of comments like Horseless pointed out.
Bottom line, do what YOU want and ignore all the naysayers.
I too want smaller cattle. When I bought some for my son this winter, I discovered that 1000 pound cows are a thing of the past, in this part of the country. I don't know if that is good or bad, but it is sure the way it is.
Remember, it isn't what they bring per head, it's what profit you make per head. A smaller calf that brings less per head can sure beat a bigger calf that cost you more to produce.
My thoughts would be to buy the kind of bulls that should work for grass fattening and keep all the heifers and run ALL of your cattle very tough. Those who can survive and breed back will be good cattle, whether they are put in a feedlot with corn or fattened on grass. And you will lower your inpout costs. Mother Nature is real good at pointing out what works and what doesn't, if we just listen to her.
If Faster Horses doesn't reply to this thread, send her a pm, asking for advice on bloodlines. She and her husband look to have very efficient, smaller type of cattle. But I'll bet they aren't real light weight, as many would think. They ones I saw were very shapey and looked to do real well on just grass and hay. I'll bet they would work for grass finishing.
If a cow can stay in good shape year around on just grass and hay, she probably will work, if she isn't too large. It's pretty hard to grass fatten a steer who's mother weighs more than 1100 lbs, as the rule of thumb seems to be a steer will finish at 100 pounds more than his mother.
Enviroment plays such a large role in this. Smaller lighter cows from a desert country will get larger in a lusher enviroment, I've heard and read. And I've seen cattle from east of here come out to this "high plains desert" have a harder time gaining than cattle from west of here where it's drier. You can take desert cattle to a lush enviroment, but it's a lot harder to do it the other way.
That is how the cattle business got started in the northern plains.They could bring a mature steer up from Texas and he would gain in height and weight on these northern plains.
I've often wondered of it still works that way?
Good luck.
