Weaning weights

[Big Swede]

This doesn't concern weaning weight but my neighbor just weighed his calves after being weaned for a little over a month. Normally the ration he feeds his steers puts on about 2.7 lbs per head per day. This year they only gained about a pound. He has had a terrible time with something spooking his calves. He's been fixing a lot of fence and they have been so jittery that they just haven't gained that well. Possibly a lion or bobcat? Hope he gets them straightened out soon.

 

[George]

I just weaned at about 200 days. With a small herd I only used one bull - - -"Smokey" ( born april 2006 ) came from one of my best Charolis cows and AIed to a good Angus bull.

My herd is about 1/2 Angus and 1/2 Charolis so I feel I get a little hybred vigor on either side.

Steers from Angus cows ( about 1400# @ ) averaged 635#

Steers from Charolis cows ( about 2100 # @ ) averaged 585#

My Charolis cows all look better ( fleshier ) than the Angus but I feel it is because the Angus are working harder producing a much higher % of body weight calf and they don't look thin just not fat like the Charolis.

I can feed 10 Angus on the same amount of hay as 6 Charolis so I have been culling the Charolis very heavy and keeping a few smoky hiefers and buying a few Angus cows at the sale around Christmas when we seem to always get a real drop in prices.

I love the look of my Charolis and love the smoky calves but I want the maximum # ( read $ ) per acre ( I feel this is the true test - - - -not what an individual cow will do ) and I feel in my small test Angus seem to be best for me.

 

[Northern Rancher]

There's probably more money with the terminal breeds on the sire side-Char bulls on Angus cows-that being said those smokey cows are probably the most underrated cow inthe cattle business-we ran them for years and they were good cattle. That Charolais bull LT Bluegrass looks to me like he'd make some good smoky cows.

 

[Denny]

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.

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.

Why weigh them if you don't care. Anyone who says he does'nt care about weaning weights is jerking their own cord. I'm all for reduceing expences but not at the cost of low weaning weights. Late calvers here are normally cows that were run down the spring before.Harvested feed is where you can cut cost's the quickest if the cows can do it vs. machinery.

I'm sure up there where it's less populated you can get by on alot of grazeing if you have the acres and if they are connected so your not paying alot of trucking bills. Here were better off getting free commodities like sweet corn silage,distillars syrup,beet tailings or pulp potatoes or french fries. We've got access to all of these and most are free but the trucking can really add up.I prefer to raise my own corn for silage and hay.

 

[Northern Rancher]

If you don't sell your calves at weaning they are kind of a redundant-they are the holy grail of extension agents and breed associations-I can build any weaning weight you want just by how much I want to spend-I've weaned 9 weight calves in October when we calved in January and 450 wreight calves from our June calvers-were still calving in June lol. Were better off weaning a light calf that winters pretty cheap than letting them go to town on feed or off grass as a yearling.