Finishing Cattle 2 - Finish slow or fast

[choochter]

These are 13/14 months, at grass, no other feed meantime.
Bazadaise sired. Got some nice clover rich haylage. Can I finish them slowly and cheaply on that?

Or sell store?

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Sell them as stores and let someone else blow their brains out

 

[Werzle]

Sell them as stores early september, clover rich haylage on top of all that nice green grass will just make them sh#te imo. For whats it worth i would save the haylage and dribble them a little bit of barley or some beef cake from early august and sell them fat straight out the field mid to late september if your FA.

 

[HarryB97]

Smart looking cattle but if you sell in the autumn you will be selling when the prices are lowest and nearer the potential brexit date. Feeding them on just haylage they'll spend a lot of days on farm which is all money i'd slowly introduce a bit of meal and aim to sell deadweight straight off the grass.

 

[DrWazzock]

I am just learning but the general gist seems to be that cattle use quite a big percentage of their feed for maintenance and the rest for growing/fattening. So the longer you keep them the more money/feed you waste on maintenance.
I'd leave them on nothing but grass till you bring them in in the Autumn so they grow a bit bigger frame, though its hard to judge frame size from the photo.
I would feed them ad lib haylage and build up to 8 kg per day barley ration when they come in, feeding twice a day so they just clean up, i.e. almost but not quite ad lib, not stalled. Sell at Christmas when the price will be high.

 

[Werzle]

I am just learning but the general gist seems to be that cattle use quite a big percentage of their feed for maintenance and the rest for growing/fattening. So the longer you keep them the more money/feed you waste on maintenance.
I'd leave them on nothing but grass till you bring them in in the Autumn so they grow a bit bigger frame, though its hard to judge frame size from the photo.
I would feed them ad lib haylage and build up to 8 kg per day barley ration when they come in, feeding twice a day so they just clean up, i.e. almost but not quite ad lib, not stalled. Sell at Christmas when the price will be high.

Only point i would make is that as soon as cattle come inside they start costing more money and sometimes abit of grub earlier stops them slipping away only to have to feed them more to get the weight back on. I hope your right about the christmas trade

 

[choochter]

I am just learning but the general gist seems to be that cattle use quite a big percentage of their feed for maintenance and the rest for growing/fattening. So the longer you keep them the more money/feed you waste on maintenance.
I'd leave them on nothing but grass till you bring them in in the Autumn so they grow a bit bigger frame, though its hard to judge frame size from the photo.
I would feed them ad lib haylage and build up to 8 kg per day barley ration when they come in, feeding twice a day so they just clean up, i.e. almost but not quite ad lib, not stalled. Sell at Christmas when the price will be high.

That's exactly what I did with their brothers last year. They finished between 18 and 21 months.

I'm just wondering if an extended fattening period - and just on grass/haylage (they would have to come inside when the weather breaks) - would be a cheaper way to finish. It would be slower but wouldn't need barley./cake. Is it possible?
My steers finish as Us and 3 or 4L usually.

edit: these steers were 350kgs end April, no idea what they are now.

 

[Celt83]

Sell them as stores off the grass 0% input=maximum profit. But I’m a store seller.

Nice cattle by the way, I tried to convince my father to buy a Bazadaise bull 10 years ago but he wouldn’t[emoji17]

 

[gone up the hill]

I am just learning but the general gist seems to be that cattle use quite a big percentage of their feed for maintenance and the rest for growing/fattening. So the longer you keep them the more money/feed you waste on maintenance.
I'd leave them on nothing but grass till you bring them in in the Autumn so they grow a bit bigger frame, though its hard to judge frame size from the photo.
I would feed them ad lib haylage and build up to 8 kg per day barley ration when they come in, feeding twice a day so they just clean up, i.e. almost but not quite ad lib, not stalled. Sell at Christmas when the price will be high.

Doing it as you suggest above means there is not a hope in hell those cattle in the OP pictures will be ready by Xmas!

Unless of course your target weight is to send them at 480/500 kilos live!

And as for feeding twice a day, just making work/ a tie for the sake of it!

 

[crofteress]

lovely yearlings, would you 'tickle' them over from now on on a creep ration for growing [ 17% protien] or 2 feeds a day if you don't have a creep . Not barley yet. Then finish them inside from Christmas onwards on a barley ration once they have grown on enough. Thats what I would do with them if they were mine, unless October comes and they look or weight over 500kgs , then I would let someone else do it !

 

[choochter]

That's what I did with the last lot, they finished in Feb. Just looking for a more 'cost effective' way of doing it, if possible.
I would have to buy in creep.
Although I will have carrots and potatoes to feed later on.

 

[Timbo]

Imho, similar or better dlg can be got on a cheaper ration than adlib barley...

 

[choochter]

Imho, similar or better dlg can be got on a cheaper ration than adlib barley...

what would that be then?

 

[Timbo]

what would that be then?[/QUOTE

Can't be giving it all away.