Finished cattle

[magpie]

Thinking about finishing our calves guessing steers and heifers range in that 575-775 lb area. a few heaver some lighter.all the time before always sold as feeders never tried to fatten so this is a new area for me.I don't know if this is the right move or not but i don't fancy selling calves for .50-.60 cents. might buy more time and or loose more money. Anyway my question is at what weight should i start to push the barley to them. right now i have them per day on 28 lb barley silage, 2-3lb crushed barley and free choice oats greenfeed about 20 lb/day.they are a red angus xsimmeital x saler breed.how much should i increase barley per lb/hd/day?what weight should i expect them to finish at? i know its hard to say without seeing them but general idea would be helpful

[rsomer]

magpie: you said "i have them per day on 28 lb barley silage, 2-3lb crushed barley and free choice oats greenfeed about 20 lb/day."
A 775 pound calf cannot eat that much. Fed 28 lbs. silage, 3 lbs. barley and 8 pounds oat greenfeed the calf would be expected to gain 2 pounds per day based on average feed values. To gain 3 pounds per day you could increase barley to 10 lbs, decrease silage to 25 lbs, and the calves would only pick at the oat greenfeed, 2 lbs per day.

[magpie]

rsomer the way i had it figured they were.it has been pretty cold here on average.a random sample of bales were weighed at beginng of fall .ijust divided weight of bale by numbers of calves to get average consumption.feed analysis showed good top feed as well.i might be a little high on greenfeed consumption but not by much. depends on weather. what weight should i start to push heavier barley?

[cowman]

I would agree you are feeding way too much. I guess you probably don't need any straw? They should be laying in a lot of greenfeed!
If your calves weigh an average of 650 lbs. and your target finishing weight is 1150 you will need to feed about 166 days at 3 lb. gain per day. With what you are feeding right now your costs are close to $1.42/day with a 2 lb./day gain? At 2 lb./day you would need to feed 250 days for a total of $355? 650 lb. calf X$.60= $390 $355=$745.
Now I have never fed silage. But I do suspect if you can crank that barley up slowly into that 12 lb. range and continue to feed 20 lb. greenfeed you will get some very good growth! And 12 lb. barley/20 lb. greenfeed works out to $1.20/day. Rsomers formula of 25 lb.silage 10 lb. barley 2 lb. greenfeed works out to $1.185. Whatever works best for you.

[Bruce14]

If they are Red AngusXSimmXSaler a finish weight of 1300 would be more accurate than 1150.

[magpie]

Thanks for information now i've got general idea on how