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Question about feeding calves through the winter
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<blockquote data-quote="Jeanne - Simme Valley" data-source="post: 1815653" data-attributes="member: 968"><p>Wow - lots of advice. You opened a can of worms.</p><p>I agree with the statement to haul the calves directly to the sale barn - especially the heifers. Right now, prices are off the chart. Will they be in the spring? Maybe, most likely, but not a sure thing.</p><p>I would never start any cattle on sweet feed. Bag feed is the most expensive feed. Once a calf gets fed SWEET feed (molasses), it is EXTREMELY difficult to switch them to non-sweetened feed. "Generally" the mills put molasses in the feed to make all the power/fines stick to the small amount of grain put in the feed.</p><p>I would ship the steer with the heifers, so you didn't have to winter feed him - but, your "winters" are much milder than mine - LOL</p><p>"IF" you decide you want to keep the steer - I would recommend feeding him Whole Shell Corn and buy a bag of a protein pellets to mix with it. Weaned calves need about a 14% protein ration. Corn is only 9% protein, so you need to add protein to the ration. You start calves off at 1% of their body weight. So, 500# calf - can start on 5# of grain. You slowly increase weekly, making sure they are cleaning everything up (twice a day) up to 3% of their body weight.</p><p>But, I would recommend feeding 2 steers together to finish/harvest. Cattle eat better with company. Obviously, you can feed 1 heifer and 1 steer - but, heifers will start cycling and the steer will spend 1-2 days every 3 weeks chasing and riding and both losing weight.</p><p>If you were getting into breeding stock, I would spend time arguing with others on the benefits of feeding loose mineral - but -- I'll leave it alone.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jeanne - Simme Valley, post: 1815653, member: 968"] Wow - lots of advice. You opened a can of worms. I agree with the statement to haul the calves directly to the sale barn - especially the heifers. Right now, prices are off the chart. Will they be in the spring? Maybe, most likely, but not a sure thing. I would never start any cattle on sweet feed. Bag feed is the most expensive feed. Once a calf gets fed SWEET feed (molasses), it is EXTREMELY difficult to switch them to non-sweetened feed. "Generally" the mills put molasses in the feed to make all the power/fines stick to the small amount of grain put in the feed. I would ship the steer with the heifers, so you didn't have to winter feed him - but, your "winters" are much milder than mine - LOL "IF" you decide you want to keep the steer - I would recommend feeding him Whole Shell Corn and buy a bag of a protein pellets to mix with it. Weaned calves need about a 14% protein ration. Corn is only 9% protein, so you need to add protein to the ration. You start calves off at 1% of their body weight. So, 500# calf - can start on 5# of grain. You slowly increase weekly, making sure they are cleaning everything up (twice a day) up to 3% of their body weight. But, I would recommend feeding 2 steers together to finish/harvest. Cattle eat better with company. Obviously, you can feed 1 heifer and 1 steer - but, heifers will start cycling and the steer will spend 1-2 days every 3 weeks chasing and riding and both losing weight. If you were getting into breeding stock, I would spend time arguing with others on the benefits of feeding loose mineral - but -- I'll leave it alone. [/QUOTE]
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