Beef cattle

Lazy WP · Jun 4, 2019

I come at this from a ranchers point of view and just curious. Do you run your replacement heifers with your mature mamma cows? I had never seen it before last week. My Father in law dumped his yearling replacement heifers in with his older cows, then today I saw some yearling heifers in with some older pairs.
On the ranches I have run, we have always had enough replacement heifers for their own group, so having seen them in amongst older cows kinda caught me off guard.

danofarming · Jun 4, 2019

Heifers are still growing, thus they need a little extra to eat. Old cows will beat them back from the feed. It is best to run them separate.

Bruce from Can. · Jun 4, 2019

My greatest fear would be that the yearly heifers would start to nursing the cows, and robbing this years calf of the milk they need.

in-too-deep · Jun 4, 2019

We keep em separate.

formenwhogrow · Jun 4, 2019

Replacement heifers need to be able to develop on the same inputs they will receive as mamas. Babying them does your future herd no advancement services. It will separate the scrubs out much quicker. The farms and ranches that practice this will set themselves up with tougher cows who will serve as better brood cows who need less and less inputs. The best genetics (and I'm not talking about what ABS or Genex considers good beef genetics) will rise to the top. Same goes for Bulls. Grain or silage fat bulls won't pack the gear to breed lots of cows for long periods of time. I want 1100 lb cows who can stay in good condition on grass and hay alone, breed back, and wean a calf every year without expensive "crutches". Just my 2 cents.

formenwhogrow · Jun 4, 2019

https://www.pharocattle.com

Here is ranch that practices the low input philosophy in Colorado.

OregonAaron · Jun 4, 2019

We keep em all together. We have range cattle that forage most of the year except winter or early spring, so there are no concerns as far as not allowing the yearlings to get to the feed. We raise sim-angus and they are excellent mothers and wont allow yearlings to nurse when there are new calfs. None of our yearlings even seem interested in nursing anyhow. Typically we dont keep many yearlings around except a few for butchering and sell calfs 8n the fall. This last year we kept all of our yearlings due to a tragic death in the family that changed our schedule quite a bit and had zero issues with keeping them all together.

Olyj1947 · Jun 5, 2019

We keep them separate until they're bred the second time. They need the time and groceries to develop plus we've had some trouble getting heifers to settle the second time. Nothing major but a couple.

Traditional Farmer · Jun 5, 2019

Agree 100% if a heifer or bull need 'something extra' to grow up and mature they need to be headed to the sale barn as far as I'm concerned.Like my breeding buck goats if they ever have any type health issue they won't be used for breeding and have to develop on browse/pasture/hay and minerals.Feeding grain to grass eating animals is a looser all the way around as far as I'm concerned.

Lazy WP · Jun 5, 2019

While I agree that they need to develop on the same inputs that they will have as adults, there?s no way a 700 pound heifer can compete with a 1400 pound cow

formenwhogrow · Jun 5, 2019

Shouldn't be a competition if there's enough pasture. Yeah, they'll get muscled out of bunk space, but if you're feeding brood cows at the bunk this time of year you're doing something wrong.

OregonAaron · Jun 5, 2019

Do your cattle have the ability to forage for feed or are they dependent on you feeding them? If they have plenty of open range then there shouldn't be any problem with them being together.

oldtanker · Jun 5, 2019

Just gotta make sure that there is enough feed out. Most of the guys in my area do it that way. Little wasted feed is way better that a stunted cow.

Rick

MJMJ · Jun 6, 2019

There s several reasons some people like to keep heifers separate from older cows. Equal opportunity to grass/hay is one. Also, many larger operations prefer to breed heifers prior to older cows. Everyone has their own management style, just because their different doesn t make them wrong. Many ranchers consider one particular operation, who s link has been posted here, to be a joke and nothing more than a used car salesman selling poor cattle. But he makes it work for him.

Beef cattle

Lazy WP

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danofarming

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Bruce from Can.

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in-too-deep

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formenwhogrow

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formenwhogrow

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OregonAaron

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Olyj1947

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Traditional Farmer

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Lazy WP

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formenwhogrow

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OregonAaron

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oldtanker

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MJMJ

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