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| I pretty much agree with your closing statement. Feed efficiency is the place where beef cow people don't spend enough energy on. Some how the time part is not that important to me personally. Maybe just part of working with my environment. That is quite different than were my German ancestors came from.
Yes time is money, so it has to have valve. The most pounds with the least feed, with enough marbling for a good eating experience. All in a reasonable amount of time.
I am on the central California coast. But it is hard to know that during our summers. Ten miles from the ocean, on the east side of the ridge 100 degrees, with the ocean fog hanging on the peak of the ridge 3 miles away. You cannot fight mother nature, she never has a day off. The cattle business here still has bit of Vaquero Spanish culture hidden away. You just cannot hurry most things. We get our rain in only 6 or 7 months of the year on average. But in reality many years 80% of it comes in 3 months. My average on paper is 18 to 20. But 50% are way under that,30% way over that, so 20% near the average. I have seen single digit totals twice to over 60 inches 5 or 6 times. We never sold off all the cows but it was a struggle to keep 40% in some of the lean years. You just sit and wait, 1990 all the rain came in the month of March about 20 inches. Not a real good year, but along way from the worst. Many people had given up and sold all the cows.
This country looks like paradise compared to Russ's desert. Until have to average the chaparral and tree covered ground with bare grassland for how many acres one cow needs.
Foothill abortion and anaplasmosis makes it a challenge to bring new females into the range. So I have used that as the reason to put as much hay as I have into short years.
That time thing again. Until in the 1970's this country in general weaned fall calves in June to August and turned them back out as stockers until the next June. Our green grass ends in June. It always made my dads year to sell steers that weight 825 or above at 20 months. Back here in 2016 many factors came together. Weaned calves in Aug turned them back dry but very lightly grazed fields. Sold them in November, the top 30% went out over 800 pounds at 12 to 13 months most of the rest at 700 plus. I had not realized how much modern genetics had been improving our cattle. That is with the same size cows. | |
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Ideal cow weight- what does these cows weigh?
