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nw oh | I was writing my response while you were writing mine and you got in before I did. Pretty much the same conclusions a little different type of rations. With a contract holsteins can be very profitable. But, without I do not know how or why people do it. Here in the east there is way too much variability in the basis on holsteins to be able to predict what your selling price will be.
I agree on the predictablity of holsteins. Not on steer to steer but on group to group I agree whole heartedly. Look at the grade and kill sheets and weights and days on feed and they seem to come out pretty close to each other. If grading or final weights start slipping then it is time look at feed analysis or what you are doing.
For us it was our mineral was getting too many foot and lameness issues and had to cull some early. Added zinc, vitamin A and thiamin to the mineral and these issues went away. Picked up another .1 lbs of gain per day and the groups look a lot more even with less tail end cattle.
Our grading was slipping and with wide choice/select spreads we needed it too change. We fed them an extra 20-30 days and it has improved. With holsteins if you have problems you cannot chalk it up to it was the cattle. More times than not it is a managment issue. | |
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Help understanding Feeding out cattle.
