Cow efficiency

[grassfarmer]

I was delivering a couple of 4H calves today and was blown away when I weighed one. A Luing calf out of a traditional red angus cow (ie <1200lbs, round, sound and close to the ground)calf born April 13th weighed 740lbs today! Allowing an 80lb birthweight that's a 200 day weight indicating he grew at 3.3lbs a day on grass with creep for only the last 5 weeks. Not wishing to start any interbreed rivalry here but aren't these pleasant surprises the thing that makes us want to be cattlemen? Brightened my day anyway.

[grassfarmer]

good for you grassfarmer. Those crackerjack cows that raise the front pen calves are one of the bright spots in this depressing industry. Got the calves weaned yesterday, and am pleasantly surprised at the size of the calves off first calf heifers. Even the 'old grannys' weaned off darn good calves considering they should have been out of the herd last fall !!! I think the measure of a real cattleman or woman is the pride they take in their herd, through good times and tough times.
I have always said that the day I don't get excited over the first calf in the spring is the day the cows will be gone. Have been out in the pen with the calves most of the day, just looking them over. I don't give a damn what the prices are, I know that I have one heck of a set of calves, and that makes me feel good......don't know how good it will make the banker feel though !!!

[cowman]

Well grassfarmer you should make some money on that one! Always nice to get those fat and sassy calves.
Just a question? What are you using for creep feed and how much do you estimate it might have added to the weight? And do you think any added weight justified the extra cost?

[grassfarmer]

Cowman, I'm not a big fan of creep feeding as I keep cows to convert my grass, sunlight and water into beef. I only creep fed 4 calves this fall, 3 were pure bull calves out of 17 18 year old cows to boost the cows condition prior to winter. The steer calf was put in with them as I wanted to be sure he was heavy enough for his intended market. They ate about 4lbs a day on average of wheatshort pellets and probably gained an extra pound a day as a result. I also shipped a 4H Charolais steer yesterday that had done 3.33lb a day with no creep - but out of a bigger cow.
Government schemes aside, time will cure this BSE mess - if we can slow down our sale dates of cattle and save some money on feed at the same time it increases the chance that we will still be owning more cattle the day things improve.

[cswilson]

We all have the odd great example but what will always make you more money is a herd of consistant good producers-my kids were looking at some old pics the other day and found an old pic of one of my buckskin cows with a 1010 lb bull calf sucking her on Oct. 5. But with all things there are tradeoffs-does the cow who raised huge twins breed back-is that big fat sassy heifer calf ever going to make a cow. The hardest job a cow has is replacing herself with a heifer calf that is as profitable as she was. It all gets harder when the feed pails and creep feeders aren't used. Denzil Sutton-an oldtime Charolais breeder put it best-"A great cow is like renting a house to a spinster-she pays her rent on time and you never notice she's around."