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Columbia City, Indiana | I have a question about converting my calves to full feed. Right now there are 16 calves, and they're getting 6 5 gallon buckets of 14% cracked corn and pellet mix in the morning, and 5 buckets of the same mix at night. Their roughage source is the cornstalks they're bedded with, and another bale of cornstalks in a bale feeder. Obviously I don't have enough cattle to justify a mixer wagon, etc like the pros have, so I have to make due with what I have. I'm wanting to work them up to the point where I can fill the steer stuffer and get them fat for freezer beef in the April/May time frame, when they'll be about a year old. I'm guessing they will all fall in the 650 to 750 range now. Problem is they don't come to feed as hungrily as I would like. In the past I have skipped a feeding when they didn't have as much appetite as I liked, but since I'm trying to get them to full feed that seems pretty counter productive. The reason I'm being pretty cautious is that I got the flu over New Year's and my dad came down and did my chores for about 10 days. At that time 17 head were getting 4 buckets night and morning and one morning he gave them 6 buckets, which is what I was going to do anyway because he knew I was wanting to get them on full feed soon. Well the next day there was a dead heifer in the lot. He felt terrible, probably worse than me. I told him that the only thing you're guaranteed in owning livestock is deadstock, but he still felt bad. Anyway, since we already lost one I'm kind of nervous. So should I just go ahead and fill the steer stuffer? I know somebody will comment on limiting their roughage, and they did hit the new bale I gave them yesterday pretty hard, but I'm set up for round bales and there isn't a convenient way to limit their roughage. Thanks for any advice. | |
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converting calves to full feed
