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Heavy Weight Calves
Pay Off For Product
Many Virginia feeder calf producers think that because lighter weight calves bring the highest price per hundredweight, they make as much money as on larger calves. ‘Taint so, says A. L. Eller, Jr., animal husbandman at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. The heavier calves, he says, sell for less per hundredweight, but invariably return more dollars per head.
To get heavier weight on calves, breed cows early—in April for January calves. Eliminate slow breeders. Use bulls that have performance records. Keep complete performance records on the cow herd. This helps eliminate poor producers and a better estimate can be made on the kind of a cow a heifer will become. Nutrition must be sound and economical. Cows are wintered on silage and hay, in most cases. Use a minimum of grain and use pasture to the fullest extent. Furnish minerals and salt free choice and be sure the water supply is always abundant and easy for animals to get to.
Says Eller, “Most of these management practices don’t sound new—and they aren’t. Record keeping is where most producers fall short. They commonly forget that records can give the information for making more exact decisions—the kind that produce more growiness in beef cattle, and more weight at weaning, or at any time up to maturity.”
Cattlemen who are missing the boat on size and quality in their calves should consider these factors and put these practices to use on their farms. A tailor-made record keeping system is available to beef catBeef Cattle Performance Testing Program with its own organization—the Virginia Beef Cattle Improvement-Association. Information on the program and help in enrolling herds is available from county aglnts.
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