Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Baymule]

Another set of twins. Do you ever try to keep the heifers or do you sell them because they might be free martians?
It gives you 2 calves, do they ever catch up, size wise to the other calves?

 

[farmerjan]

@Baymule , as a rule we do not bother to keep the heifer if it is a mixed set of twins. Too much time and money put into them to get them big enough for them to check them out... Plus they are worth too much now to keep as a "slight chance" of them being a replacement. If it was a last ditch attempt to get a heifer out of a favorite old cow, maybeeee....
The set of mixed twins on my one cow from last spring, that was the only open cow in that group because she had a uterine infection... will probably weigh a total of 8-900 lbs... so more total weight than a single weaned calf of about 5-600 in that particular group of cows...... plus they were later calves than some of the others... so each calf is smaller, especially the heifer is about 350-400... but the total weight is greater... Once weaned they will catch up weight wise as yearlings... but we hardly ever keep them that long.
Some of the cows might not make enough milk to raise the twins... My cow from last year was 1/4 holstein, and the cow that just had the little twins is a bought cow, but she has some holstein in her,,, she's got the big white udder and other color that makes you think part holstein.
The cow that had the twins a couple days ago... is hereford, and we are a little concerned if she will have enough milk, but so far they seem to be doing okay and growing.
I actually mentioned to DS that maybe we ought to put the ones with twins at snyder's (nurse cow pasture) so the calves will learn to come in the creep gate and get started on grain so they will not "stall out" on growth if they are not getting enough milk.. They are a week old and would be hard to get one on a bottle, even as a supplement since she is mothering them so well. You basically have to do that from the beginning...

"Stupid cow 1305" went around the barn a couple times this evening, got a foot hung in a part of a wire cow panel that got bent up and I hadn't moved..(but it was not right near the barn, she didn't need to be going through those junk tree limbs and stuff). then got out of it, and then refused to come in the barn because the jersey had already gone right in... and she did not want to come near me... I told DS that the next time he comes up there with a trailer, she can get on it and get shipped... Tired of dealing with her. I went back to the house and got the calf a bottle.... STUPID jerk.... She will probably come right in tomorrow with my luck... but it is a waste of my time mostly... I kept trying to be a little forgiving... but she really is a jerk. And she is getting old... 12 yrs... so ship her while she is in decent condition and not laying out there dead.

2 more new baby calves this morning.

DS went to the sale on the way home from the dr appt yesterday, and bought 2 calves, 1 bull, 1 steer... so we took the truck and trailer today to go to the other dr appt... had to go right by there again... and picked them up on the way back... he is going to try to start going to more sales and picking up a few of these singles... especially bull calves, that we can bring back and work through the chute; band and shots/vaccinate... and start making up some other groups to sell. He is saying that with the higher price of heifers, we probably need to sell more, and he can maybe get some of these steers/bulls put together and graze some of them this year instead of keeping more heifers... which I am fine with... pick out what we really want to keep... and sell more than we were thinking... especially since we do not have the WV place this year. We sold those 12 heifers in Dec for 2.30/lb I think it was... they weighed around 600... so 1350-1400/hd. And that was good money at the time for them.... He talked to a guy this afternoon that is interested in some... and DS told him 3.00/lb for the 4 wts; 2.85/lb for the 5 wts; and 2.70 for the 6 wts... that's about 1550 +/hd for the 6 wts. ... $.40/lb in 3 months time difference... We may take some time this weekend and look them over real good and see exactly what we would be wanting to keep, and what to sell. We did that preliminary looking a couple weeks ago after the steers were gone... but we were thinking keeping more of them...for putting out to pastures...
If DS can buy some of these "singles"... especially bull calves sold single or in pairs... for $2.25-2.50... and make them steers, that will increase their value $.75-1.00 a lb.... and graze them this summer.. It would be buying them at less than the heifer price is right now... and they will only gain on grass for the grazing season.....which is cheaper to figure cost of gain... put 2-300 lbs on them for 4-6 months...