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NW Iowa | I am planning to keep some of my heifers back from this year to add to the herd. We usually never do this unless it's an oops deal and the bull gets out (maybe once or twice in the past 15 years). We either buy bred cows or heifers or pairs to add to the herd. So this will be a new game for me...
I will typically wean the calves in Sept/Oct and they go into a yard and start on good grass hay and creep feed, and getting them bunk broke with a little corn. They then get switched over to a starter ration, which is corn silage, hay, cornstalks,corn, and protein. I will take them up to around 7-800 lbs and then they're gone in Feb/March.
Cows will be on pasture until after harvest. They will get supplemental feed (silage, corn stalks, distillers) here starting in about a month when the grass is gone. Then they will be out to stalks until Jan/Feb/March. I will end up feeding them on the stalks as well late in the winter (or if there is a ton of snow cover). Then back to the yard for calving time.
What are your preferences for feeding the heifers? Leave them with the other calves until they are gone, and keep feeding until breeding time? Feed for awhile and turn out with the cows? Or move them to a separate pen and feed differently? I know that I don't want them fat, so I am leaning toward shoving them out with the cows after awhile. I just want to make sure they are big enough by breeding time, and I don't know if I will get that if they are on stalks with the cows for the winter. Any ones that I don't like will get wheels before breeding time too, so I can pick and choose.
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Feeding Retained Heifers?
