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Weaning weights

R

rancherfred

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 3, 2007
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444
Location
Western Nebraska
We just got back from the Range Beef Cow Symposium and there was quite a bit of talk in the Bull Pen sessions about weaning weights. I am curious what people saw across the area. Ours were off by probably close to 30 lbs and I heard similar comments from numerous other people. I am just interested in seeing how large of an area was affected.
 
The steers were 598- and usually weigh in the 610 range-- heifers were 564 and usually are about 575-- so about 10 off...
I didn't think that was too bad considering that according to the weather boys this area only got 9.75 inches of moisture from Jan 1st.....
 
i have heard of alot of calves 15-25 lbs. lighter this year around here. not sure what to put the blame on....we did have an awful tough spring and a zillion grasshoppers this summer, i'm sure that didn't help any. my steers go on the 15th, so we'll see.........
 
Ours were 45 lbs. heavier, but they were under the normal weight
in '08, so that's probably not a true comparison. But they were
heavier than '07 by 25 lbs.

We are finding that ours and customers calves throughout Montana
that were on the
new mineral formula we call "Western Range" have been heavier.
In fact, some work is being done to document this for future use.
 
Oldtimer said:
The steers were 598- and usually weigh in the 610 range-- heifers were 564 and usually are about 575-- so about 10 off...
I didn't think that was too bad considering that according to the weather boys this area only got 9.75 inches of moisture from Jan 1st.....
Click to expand...

That is kind of funny, because most of the comments explaining the light weights were attributing it to too much rain, reducing the nutrient concentration of the grass.
 
rancherfred said:
Oldtimer said:
The steers were 598- and usually weigh in the 610 range-- heifers were 564 and usually are about 575-- so about 10 off...
I didn't think that was too bad considering that according to the weather boys this area only got 9.75 inches of moisture from Jan 1st.....
Click to expand...

That is kind of funny, because most of the comments explaining the light weights were attributing it to too much rain, reducing the nutrient concentration of the grass.
Click to expand...

Nope-- the grass we had- that the hoppers didn't get- was powerful stuff...Just in short supply... Our wheat crop this year was lower bushels- but was 15.5 for protein...

I had to pull the cows off the fall pasture about a month early this year-- and while they still have grazing left on the hay meadows- am feeding about 10 lbs of last years hay to make the grass go farther....
Some around here where the hoppers were even worse have been feeding since Nov 1....I see USDA declared the county a disaster area last week because of the hopper damage...
 
Yep, these calves were off 25 pounds as well. I attributed it partly to the 20 inches of snow that fell a few days before they shipped. You could say that took the bloom right off of them :roll: . They were a very healthy set though, and I had a great calving percentage, so I guess it all evens out in the end :D .

My neighbors reported they were off around 25 pounds as well. Lots of grass, just not much to it I guess :? .
 
I read the Riverston Livestock Martket report posted in the Wy Livestock Roundup a known herd for genetic improvement for many years and for bull sales. Sold 19 heifers weight 307 pounds and 20 head at 392 pounds.
I assume they had bull or steer mates somewhere. Must of been a bad year in north western Wyoming. Market report Novemeber16 and 17th.
 
From what I know buying western cattle and bringing them east to washy grass is a real test of those genetics. Hard grass makes cattle washy grass sorts the cream out.
 
Denny said:
From what I know buying western cattle and bringing them east to washy grass is a real test of those genetics. Hard grass makes cattle washy grass sorts the cream out.
Click to expand...


I'll second that, it is my belief that our cows would wean an extra 50 to 75 lbs on hard grass.
 
No idea of our weaning weights as the calves are still on the cows grazing native and tame grasses along with the volunteer canola. I can say they are a better looking bunch of calves than last year. THe 150 cows we bought last year were bred to a real extreme range of types and sizes in bulls, so the calves last year were mostly a write-off as far as seedstock goes. That said, they're gonna be tasty beef. :wink:

While we had the driest year on record here, we managed to get through due to reduced numbers from having 17% open last year on the new cows, and Rkaiser selling his Galloways that had been on shares here. We had stockpiled grass this spring, just enough to get us through the summer, and rain finally came in late July-early August that saved our year. We overgrazed some pieces for sure, but managed to stockpile some for next spring. We dumped more open cows, and the calves look great, that's the main thing. It's a combination of cows being bred to ALOT more uniform bulls, keeping the best grass we had in front of them, (as little as there was), and a whole lot of luck.

In time, we'll find out if Orwig's mineral tubs have anything to do with it. All indications thus far look good, although the economics of it will show in time.
 
Hay Feeder said:
I read the Riverston Livestock Martket report posted in the Wy Livestock Roundup a known herd for genetic improvement for many years and for bull sales. Sold 19 heifers weight 307 pounds and 20 head at 392 pounds.
I assume they had bull or steer mates somewhere. Must of been a bad year in north western Wyoming. Market report Novemeber16 and 17th.
Click to expand...

Rather like guessing how long a piece of string is - what age were they? I notice no-one else here has mentioned the age of their calves and without that you don't know what rate of gain was. Does anybody work that out or are these "corrected for 200 day weaning" weights?
Ours this year averaged 534lb at 178 days which is bang on 3lb a day if you exclude a birth weight. 2.55lb actual gain if you factor in an 80lb average birth weight. Our average calf weaning weights are more influenced year to year by having a few more late calvers than usual in a particular year. We find the grass/milk contribution doesn't vary a lot from year to year although our calves maybe tend to wean heavier in a dry year than a wet one.

All that said we don't put a lot of emphasis on weaning weights - for us reducing the cost of running a cow is more profitable/important than maximising weaning weights.
 
Our steer calves averaged 575 lbs at approx. 180 days of age average. That's about normal, and about 30 lbs heavier than last year. Last year was extremely dry, this year not too bad.

edit: It is worth noting that nearly 25% of the mother cows this year were first calvers, and over a third were first and second calvers.
 
I would guess to say that most, not all cattleman do not weigh their cows when weaning but just their calves.

I know their are some cattleman that do do this. I try to make a habit of it. When weaning calves from their mama's how do the cows fair?

I would dare guess that when calves are down or up in weights that somehow the cow will be the same.

Also, how productive are our cows, are they weaning 600 lb calves yet weigh 1700 lbs. or Are they weaning 600 lb calves when the weigh 1200 lbs. I like a cow to wean a calf that is at least 50 % even upto 60% of her body weight.

I know that some can try to make an argument that when they cull out the 1700 lb cow it makes up for it.

I would like to know some more of your thoughts on this
 
Personally I am sick to death of the "big cows are inefficient, small cows aren't" argument.
Just like people, there are large and small cows that are 'easy keepers', and large and small cows that are not. I am not the least bit interested in maintaing a 50-60% weaning weight cow / calf ratio. I want easy keeping cows and the most calf pounds in the fall for the least input.
In 3 generations of feeding mother cows on this place the pounds of feed per cow figure has not changed, while the size and type of cow has. I don't want giant cows and I don't want midgets. Give me moderation in all things and I'll be quite happy. I generally feel like I have more latitude in bull selection if I keep moderate framed cows.
Year in and year out our cull cows generally average between 1300 and 1400 lbs depending on condition..... what I would consider moderate.
 
I would largely agree with that Silver - there's efficient and inefficient cows of all sizes. Focusing on 50-60% weaning weights is generally selecting for milk in my opinion. More milk generally equates to higher maintenance requirements or lean and open cows under a system like mine. Unless you are pretty careful with the cow versus calf weight thing you could get in a pile of trouble. Only weighing cows once a year at weaning time without carefully accounting for body condition could result in you identifying the milkiest cows that carry the least condition going into winter as being your most efficient cows based on their calves weight. Problem with that kind of cow is they don't stay in the herd very long usually unless you are really prepared to push the groceries to them.
As Silver says moderation and balance in all things - the problem is identifying what the right balance of genetics is to achieve productivity with profitability under your conditions.
 

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