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| My nutritionalist said in a typical year with adequate forage that calves will consistently gain .5-.75 lbs/head/day when they are 5-6 weights. And he is no feed salesman or someone who works at the coop. I have no numbers of my own to back it up as I don't have a scale, but he has worked with ranchers that do and that's been the consistant weight gain advantage. So do the math. But there are a lot of variables with genetics, milking ability of cows, etc. But its been consistant. Plus there is the draw backs with getting discounted at the sale barn because some might be a little fleshy or have the wrong color poop sticking to its tail. And in the years that I have creep feeded and kept back replacements, their longevity was decreased and were more likely to come back open or late when conditions weren't ideal and have a harder time mainting BCS in those years.
I had no other choice this year with the drought, and my calves really did well on it. I'm just not so sure its a practice that I would do every year. Depends on the price of feed and cattle obviously, but if all things stay where they are at now, if I had good forage they would be on forage only and keep the rest of my money in my back pocket. | |
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creep feeding lt weight calves
