calves on grass

[gopher]

I have approx. 200 acres of good irrigated grass pasture that is all set up for rotational grazing. We use to run 80 cows on this land and cut enough hay to winter the herd. Old age seems to be slowing me down so the cows were sold and rather then renting my land out I thought buying calves and putting them on the grass for the summer would be a good alternative. I have no experience doing this and would appreciate any advice as to type and weight of calve to buy, the typical gain on grass and if anyone in this type of operation would recommend it as a possive experience.

[WoolyBear]

Here is something to checkout. Its an old article, but interesting just the same.

http://www.sare.org/sanet-mg/archives/html-home/39-html/0306.html

[WoolyBear]

Don't think they even give out free samples on their tours anymore either.

[agstar77]

Actually most of the wiskey is made from corn as I understand.

[cswilson]

Why not rent your grass out to a someone who runs yearlings and see how they gain on your place -kinda get a feel for the deal.

[chaffmeister]

agstar77's right. Mostly corn. Out west here rye is used as well (Alberta Distillers (Calgary) and Diageo (Gimli). After all, it IS called rye whiskey. If any wheat is used anywhere, its minor.

Scotch whiskey is made with barley - but only in Scotland.

[chaffmeister]

agstar77's right. Mostly corn. Out west here rye is used as well (Alberta Distillers (Calgary) and Diageo (Gimli). After all, it IS called rye whiskey. If any wheat is used anywhere, its minor.

Scotch whiskey is made with barley - but only in Scotland.

[cowman]

Personally I would try to buy calves that have been raised fairly tough? It seems those "lean and mean" ones can really pack on the weight? Those fat babies don't seem to do that well...just my opinion.
I am always amazed at how much grass cattle sell for in the spring? I think some of these grass guys must have pretty sharp pencils to keep doing this year after year?

[parsley]

From their website:
http://www.glenoradistillery.com/glenbreton.htm


"Glen Breton Rare Canadian Single Malt Whisky is the only single malt whisky produced in Canada. It is produced by the traditional copper pot stills method using only three ingredients: Barley, Yeast and Water."

"It can not be called 'Scotch' unless it is produced in Scotland, hence, Canadian Single Malt Whisky."


Legal sales of spirits products generate revenues of more than $2.5 billion to federal and provincial governments each year according to the Distillery association. Can less taxing
leave more money on the table?

Parsley

[kato]

If you buy calves with too much flesh on them, they go backwards for a while when they first hit the pasture. Best to get some really healthy looking ones that haven't been pushed too hard. And you can't put too much emphasis on healthy either.

Talk to someone who's been grassing cattle for a while and get some opinions as to what works in your neighbourhood, and with your type of pasture.

One important thing that a lot of people forget is to make sure you don't buy a bunch of wild animals! We've found our experience that these young ones just don't stay in a herd the way cows do, especially if they get out on you. We had one bunch get out once that instead of sticking in one herd of 25, they split into 25 herds of 1! It took three weeks to get them all back.

[kato]

some interesting reply to your grazing
cattle.
we done it for many years and is not always profitable due to price variaton
on 200 irrigation i asume by pivot or wheelmove ,so you have controle of when ,to put on water.and use off fertilizer.
you be able to manage ,and run 200head
of 6 to700 weight on rotation set up .
it is like cowman has said lean and green me be brittish breeds you need some size to get a average gain of 1.6
to 1.8 per day .
implants plus fly -tacs we give all long acting biomycen on delivery and not mutch problems after that.
you need to have a good setup,if you get in to wreck like hoofrot, respitory
pinkey ,bulls??? if you run hfrs .
irrigation grass is soft so more head
and less gain per unit.
if you need more info be glad to assist
you author gopher!

[smcgrath76]

A couple of thoughts. CSW has a good thought about renting and custom grazing for a year or two. We did this in the early 80s and it worked well. If the system is intensive the cattle get really quiet, really quick. One twelve year old kid with a horse and a dog can move 300 yearlings lickety split.
Leaner, british type cattle are the way to go. Healthy is important, although we have had good luck buying tailenders and spending the first two weeks watching them like hawks.
look for 1.5-2.5 pounds a day depending on incoming condition, pasture type/condition, etc.
One other thing, if you don't pump your water (direct dugout access) spend the money and buy or build a pump. It really pays with growing classes of cattle.

[chaffmeister]

Speaking as a dedicated Scotch drinker, that doesn't count.

I doubt the volume is worth talking about with regards to barley consumtion - also likely all from eastern Canada anyway.

[greybeard]

Last year was my first experience grassing my own steers. Of course, it was a learning experience. Jerryk sums up the important points nicely. I was hopping to see this topic come up, as it will be much more common as we move to bigger herds and grass calving.
I can’t afford to let the calf leave my place with almost half the value left to be earned. If calving in May and selling in the fall, the calf will only be 150 to 180 days old. Worth maybe $600 of a possible $1350 finished value? I need more of the total or a lot more cows. Simply put, cowman’s 150 cow herd at $600 is $90000, but at $1000/ calf it’s $150,000.I think sometimes we try to calclate out cost of gain to the penny, and lose sight of the $60,000.
I agree with Jerryk’s point about having a good set-up to handle and sort. Yearlings seem to be in demand at about 900 lbs. That means sorting off loads into marketable groups. The feedlots won’t pay much for any weight after that as they want to feed for at least 100 days?
Has anyone ever contracted to take some of the price variation out that jerryk mentions?
To any of you feeders, am I correct in assuming you want an 850 to 900 lb calf?

[grassfarmer]

greybeard, not sure if I'm understanding you right. You say you need more than $600 of a possible $1350 finished value, but will taking calves to greater weights achieve greater NET profits? A 550lb steer last October was around $1.35 or $742. An 850lb steer is now @$1.05 or $890. So you need to put 300lbs on for $150 - $.50/lb. Do the feedlots want 900lb versus 500lb calves? They seem to pay equally for them currently. Keeping later born calves through the winter and summer grazing them will reduce your daily cost of gain - but will also screw you on the yardage as you are talking about keeping the animal so much longer to get the same total weight gain.
I don't see how we can "beat the system" within the current thinking - you need to be able to feed cattle cheaper than the feedlots to make any more money. I think the real opportunity is not limiting ourselves to the excellent $1350 value cswilson is getting for fats but rather target the $2000 value that animal becomes when it hits the next rung on the ladder.