carcass weight?

[cswilson]

Our 250 cows are running out in the fields-it takes me less than 2 hours a week to feed them-we feed once weekly-it works out to about 70-75 cents of hay per day.I can't see how to bulge my yardage to get it to 1.50 per cow per day-not much corral cleaning costs etc. Anoyther thing about lighter calves if you retain ownership-your land base has produced more calves to add value too-one thing I've noticed our harvest weights haven't changed much going from January calving to June-just have more of them now.

[sjc]

Hmmm...7/8 cow bred to a purebred red angus bull. Well guess what cowman you have a PUREBRED. 15/16 bulls if used on purebred cow sire purebred offspring. Where is the cross breeding in that? Your other calf is at least 7/8 Simmental so same difference. Sure you are not going through the expense of buying a PB bull but in essence you are still going after the uniformity you get in your calf crop by using purebred genetics.

[cowman]

sjc: Well we mix them up. Getting a bit too much Charlais blood in them in my opinion. Going to go back to some Gelview next year. I've never been a strong Angus man...even though we've used a lot of Angus genetics(probably prejediced)!.
Really like the look of modern Gelviehs...last time we used them was in 1990.
Don't know about feeding out those small calves? Seems like there is more labor and equipment required? Now mind you we do that anyway to a certain extent(heifers and tailenders) but I'm not that keen on doing too much extra work! I figure the easiest money from a calf is wean him on the stock trailer, if possible.

[cswilson]

I feed about 200 of the little buggers every day-they all the good hay they can eat and a few pounds of screening pellets. Got a size 8 feeding wagon-dual ground drive with two opposable thumbed feeding extensions-doesn't take me too long every day. I just feed them in one pen then let them out for their grain-we didn't get all our fencing done or they'd be out in the fields too.Those drought years when we pellet fed the cows there were days I kind of wished we had a hopper bin and a feed wagon but we muddled through it. Had a pretty buff peewee hockey player after 20,000 or so pails of grain lol.

[cowman]

I know how it is cswilson! My daddy always said milking those cows would be the best thing ever for improving my wrist shot! And I think he was right!
Nothing wrong with a boy working hard...wish I had done it with my own child? He tends to think "manual labor" is some sort of a Mexican! LOL
Hope winter is favorably for you this year? We have absolutely no snow this year(central Alberta), so far, but you never know what this darned country can bring? Might be up to our butt by next week?