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King City, Mo | I have my second crop of calfs from my cows. My dad and I were always bred heifer backgrounders when i was growing up. After he passed i did it a few years and not a cow trader like he was and happy having the calves.
Last year we pulled the calves off and took em straight to the sale barn.
This year i'm thinking of waiting till around jan 1 to sell the calves. they have been on creep feed since late may and eating around 2.2 ton/month per 30ish head and there are a couple of cows that are getting into the feeder even after adjusting and adding gravel to make it hard for them to get in....
I've never weaned calves before, and more of a crops guy then a cow guy so need suggestions. The area where i could wean them is a gravel lot w/ continuous fencing. The lot is good sized and you can have all the calves in there with no problems. There is 3-4 acres of pasture with no shelter other then a large wind break i built. It has rural water and a couple of smaller pins and right along the blacktop and gravel road so you can see all the pasture just by driving by. We load by jack knifing the trailer in the gravel road so can load out in almost any weather without getting stuck.
One group of calves will have to be lead across the wheat field there anyways to be hauled out. The other group is in a rented pasture of 160 acres with lots of timber, and no dividing fencing and it will take at least two trys to get all the calves into the lot. Cows come in, eat feed and calves stand outside the lot looking at me like screw you. The lot i can barley get the pickup in and pack buckets outta the feeder on the truck. (Grandpa designed the lot and he's been on 10-15 years and quit farming way before that) That lot is out in the middle of the pasture at the edge of the timber. It has tobe dry or froze to get loaded there.
What happens if i ween bunch 1, then wait a week and bring calves from bunch 2 over? I would pull one creep feeder over and put in the graveled lot.
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Pull and sell or to ween
