scales are expensive but really informative

I only have a few cows so it has been hard to scrape together enough funds to buy a scale and chute system but finally got it done this spring.. I think I have about 7 K in the set up and even more if you count the barn it lives in

we have a few steers , heifers and bull calves at my place for the fall.

I have weighed them several times over the last couple of months and got some 2 month data this weekend... gains are all over but 2 bulls out of GVC Suh gained 3-4 pounds per day last 2 months ... A heifer out of I-80 gained 2.5 per day...


we are feeding a limited edition steer as a backup show steer... he gained 2.6 pounds daily and currently weighs 786

since there are just a few kinda hard to draw conclusions but it is really nice to  know they are growing ( and how fast)

it is really easy to run them thru to weigh  that helps

jbzdad said:

I only have a few cows so it has been hard to scrape together enough funds to buy a scale and chute system but finally got it done this spring.. I think I have about 7 K in the set up and even more if you count the barn it lives in

we have a few steers , heifers and bull calves at my place for the fall.

I have weighed them several times over the last couple of months and got some 2 month data this weekend... gains are all over but 2 bulls out of GVC Suh gained 3-4 pounds per day last 2 months ... A heifer out of I-80 gained 2.5 per day...


we are feeding a limited edition steer as a backup show steer... he gained 2.6 pounds daily and currently weighs 786

since there are just a few kinda hard to draw conclusions but it is really nice to  know they are growing ( and how fast)

it is really easy to run them thru to weigh  that helps

Click to expand...

is 2.5 lbs/day reasonable?

was the limited edition steer out of the maine bull limited edition? if so, that gain seems a little disappointing.  make sure to weigh at the same time of day to account for fill of water and feed differences.

without knowing how much you were feeding them, how much they gained per day is an arbitrary number.

I'm hoping to get a similar setup in the spring.  What type of scale did you go with?

We bought a Cattle e quip manual chute with an alley and attatched a home built swing gate to it.. the dealer had a used Gallagher heavy duty scales that went under it

It is on concrete in the shed... we leveled it with boards an screwed a board to the concrete to keep it from moving forward... has been working well

The calves are out on milo stalks and getting 11 pounds a day of supplement... about 1/3 each of DDG,ground milo,and Scott pro pellets with rumensin... I actually have about 4 show calves for folks that will be here about 2-3 months ... they are sort of "on hold" until after the first when they go on full feed ... they want to full feed them about 140 days

In regard to the limited edition steer... It is a heifer breeding that was born a bull.. That and the Suh Bulls... I didn't find any takers to buy him as a bull so finally cut him a month ago... we had a smaller frame show steer (Butterscotch) here that needed a little more to eat but wouldn't settle down and eat after we sorted him off by himself.. I am gonna butcher the Ltd edition steer anyway so just started feeding them together.

for fun we will get him ready and will show both steers at the county fair... the Ltd edition steer is gonna be big... I habe about 200 days til fair and I expect he will weigh over 1400.. probably closer to 16 by then...

Knabe ,... last night I bumped those 2 steers from 40 pounds total to 50... and will probably be at 60 in another month or so ...
I will try to catch some pics

Scales are a great tool. We have a scale right on our squeeze chute every time we work an animal we have weights. Its not just a great tool for tracking performance but also great for saving on drug costs. We run a small feedlot and the drug savings hasore than paid for the scale in a short time. We expect a lot of calves on avg across breeds to gain 2.5lb/day on a back grounder ration of 30-40% concentrate mostly barley balance in silage and hay for roughage fed at 45lbs a day. When feeding finishing rations of 60% or greater concentrate we expect a minimum pen gain of 3lbs/day. We feed very few supplements about a half pound per head each day. Our own maine calves trend ahead of their bought in British cross counterparts. With other exotics they stay right on track in comparison typically grading more compatible to the British calves. To agree with knabe always try to weigh around same time and on an empty bunk to account for feed and water weight its surprising how much that can affect the scale reading.