Post by Lesli on Jan 22, 2012 16:56:53 GMT -5
Friends of ours that manage a 1700 acre cattle ranch up the road have had several cows deliver twins this year. They have kept most on their mom for a week or two or three, but have dispersed the weaker calf of all the sets to different folks who want to bottle feed. We got one pretty good sized steered bull calf.
For some reason Daisy will let him nurse with her little girl out side of the chute. That is not how she has done things in years. I think Sammy is the last one she adopted that strongly! But he looks very similar to a few of her first calves as they were part Charolais and Hereford too. Hytop is cream colored with with a white face and feet, and he has an F1 (Hereford X Brahman) mama, and a Charolais dad, so he is rather tall. He is about a month old and rather wild. He was born to a range cow and roped to be penned and roped again to be loaded in the back of our truck so he is not taming down too fast. He has been cut already. That disappoints me, as the little intact bull calves grow so much faster. We had an 7/8 month old Charolais steer, Pinto we just sold that was a nice looking little steer, had all the same feed/milk and opportunities our others have had and we just sold him he was just 330lbs! Any others would have been bulls and 600lbs by that age. He did bring $1.70/lb so we are not devastated. I will have to get photos of Hytop, being rather unfriendly he runs and hides when the camera comes out. Personally I already look forward to selling him since he won't be growing as fast.
Does any one have any tips to getting a steer to grow as well as a bull, short of implanting with the hormones? He is nursing twice a day and usually gets a belly full and gets creep feed and hay... Grass right now in the calf paddock. He is a big calf, looks like he must of been born rather large, esp. for being a twin. He is large and was the smaller of the two. He is about a month younger than Tessa and is just about as large as she is. She is supposed to be half mini, but at the rate that she is growing, I don't know if she will be mini or as large as her mama. She is still quite a beauty though.
Lesli
For some reason Daisy will let him nurse with her little girl out side of the chute. That is not how she has done things in years. I think Sammy is the last one she adopted that strongly! But he looks very similar to a few of her first calves as they were part Charolais and Hereford too. Hytop is cream colored with with a white face and feet, and he has an F1 (Hereford X Brahman) mama, and a Charolais dad, so he is rather tall. He is about a month old and rather wild. He was born to a range cow and roped to be penned and roped again to be loaded in the back of our truck so he is not taming down too fast. He has been cut already. That disappoints me, as the little intact bull calves grow so much faster. We had an 7/8 month old Charolais steer, Pinto we just sold that was a nice looking little steer, had all the same feed/milk and opportunities our others have had and we just sold him he was just 330lbs! Any others would have been bulls and 600lbs by that age. He did bring $1.70/lb so we are not devastated. I will have to get photos of Hytop, being rather unfriendly he runs and hides when the camera comes out. Personally I already look forward to selling him since he won't be growing as fast.
Does any one have any tips to getting a steer to grow as well as a bull, short of implanting with the hormones? He is nursing twice a day and usually gets a belly full and gets creep feed and hay... Grass right now in the calf paddock. He is a big calf, looks like he must of been born rather large, esp. for being a twin. He is large and was the smaller of the two. He is about a month younger than Tessa and is just about as large as she is. She is supposed to be half mini, but at the rate that she is growing, I don't know if she will be mini or as large as her mama. She is still quite a beauty though.
Lesli