The US Meat Animal Research Center has studied utilization of high and low quality forage by heifers and mature cows. Compared to heifers, cows consumed, in relation to body size, about 25% more high quality forage and about 50% more of low quality. Rate of fiber digestion was faster in cows. What does this mean? As forage quality declines, heifers will need nutritional supplementation sooner than cows or else performance, efficiency, and profit will be reduced.
Black Calves, How Much Premium?
Do black calves bring more money? Maybe. Why? Because Certified Angus Beef brings a premium. And cattle must be predominantly black in color in order to be eligible for evaluation to meet CAB carcass specifications. Just how much more might black calves bring? According to CAB officials, last fall 500 lb black calves averaged $2-3/cwt premiums. That is equal to about 10-15 lb of sale weight at current prices. So, don't give up too much weight to get price bonuses (of any kind), or sacrifice too much price for extra weight. Remember, it's the combination of price and weight that determines total dollars.
Fence-Line Weaning
Canadian researchers weaned 248 calves and placed them in two feedyard pens. The dams of the calves in one pen were allowed to stay in the area just outside the pen. The other dams were removed from the area. After 10 days there was no significant difference in weight gain, immune function, or physiological indicators of stress. But there was much less fence walking and bawling in calves weaned next to their dams. Fence-line weaning appeared to be a calmer process.
New Products
Pfizer is marketing Durasect IITM, a new pour-on for horn fly control, with a label claim of waterproof. Bayer has a new line of six BRD vaccines, FrontierTM, with Type 1 and "true" Type 2 BVD fractions and a label claim of "the longest proven duration of immunity" against IBR.
Weaning Weight VS. Retained Ownership
At a recent tour at the Texas A&M Center at Overton researchers discussed an experiment where calves are weaned and retained for grazing. With their cattle and under their usual conditions, calves are heavy at weaning and also after grazing (often + 900 lb), resulting in price penalties as feeders. Under such conditions there appear to be three feasible options: (1) sell at weaning or retain ownership for feeding without grazing; (2) continue grazing to heavy weights but retain ownership for short-term feeding; (3) change management and genetics (to cows more moderate in body size and milking ability) so that calves are lighter and less fleshy at weaning, then graze to acceptable feeder weights. The latter option lowers per-cow costs and shifts more forage utilization from the cow-calf phase to grazing. Genetic types should be matched to forage, management, and marketing conditions. If you retain calves it may be better to give up some weaning weight in exchange for greater postweaning efficiency and market acceptance.
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