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Feeding this hay
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Greg_
Posted 7/4/2020 11:30 (#8353367 - in reply to #8350005)
Subject: RE: Feeding this hay


Texas
Based on ADF, that hay is around 55-57% TDN. For a 5-weight to gain 1.5 lb/day (the generally agreed up minimum acceptable), you need a 65% TDN, which means 30% of the ration would need to be corn. For 1.5 adg, you'd also need to get your total CP% up above 11.5%.

Even if well fertilized, the coastal will be poor calf feed until late Sep. or Oct. if/when there's rains and it gets a fall flush in cooler weather.
It's hard to compete against calf buying outfits that have cheaper feed bought in bulk, years of know-how, economies of scale for equip. and labor, etc, etc.

Personally, if I had hay to be fed along with some grass, I'd go with cheap old breds or old pairs. That old NAT-favorite Make Old Cows Great Again. Buy them sometime b/w late Oct and a week or two after Thanksgiving. They're typically cheapest that week or two after Thanksgiving, but you get more grazing of your coastal if buying earlier. Use stockpiled coastal w/ electric fence strip grazing for two or so weeks after 1st freeze. They might need some cake (for protein) toward the end.

If doing pairs, sell cows around 1st week of March when cull market is at seasonal high. Sell calves as weaned/VAC 45 in special feeder sales (gets you an extra $40-$50). I know the Three Rivers salebarn has those.

There's not as much pressure from the big order buyers for pairs or old cows potentially needing TLC. This is where the market gives the small guy an actual advantage. You can give the individualized attention, whereas the Big Guys take a pass because it's not something cookie-cutter that can be scaled. Too much health risk shuttling those animals around 100s of miles in pots with multiple aggregating stopovers and loadings/unloadings. And that week after Thanksgiving/1st freeze, there are so many animals coming in, they just don't even have the capacity.

The goal when buying the pairs is to pay as if they were split: cull cow value + present calf value + [as little premium as necessary]. When selling, the rise in cull value will kinda-sorta-mostly pay the 3 months feed costs. Then you'll get 150 lbs in calf gain selling while also selling into a better market (grass fever) as profit.
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