Average Birth Weight In Your Herd

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ROAD WARRIOR

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With calving season in full swing for alot of people, I was wondering what your average BW for bull and heifer calves are. Ours runs about 84# for bulls and 80# for heifers. If you sell breeding stock how big is too big to sell as a commercial sire?
 

farmboy

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i know we rarely have trouble with cows, never have trouble, our cows could handle a big calf but our bull that we use has a low BW epd, hes half angus. most of our cows are maine crosses with some older blood in them

if i knew how to calculate epds, i could figure it up
 

Jill

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Our heifers have averaged 76 with a good test, had almost all heifers, our bulls averaged 96 but we have only had 2 so not a good test there.
 

fluffer

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Oh, usually around 80 or so.  Had a 100 pounder today- momma did it all on her own.  Also had some 50 pounders last week. 

Fluffer
 

ROAD WARRIOR

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ROAD WARRIOR said:
With calving season in full swing for alot of people, I was wondering what your average BW for bull and heifer calves are. Ours runs about 84# for bulls and 80# for heifers. If you sell breeding stock how big is too big to sell as a commercial sire?

This is a 6 year average on mature cows. I haven't started calving this year yet. Average on 1st calf heifers is 69# heifers and 73# on bulls.
 

aj

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Great topic. For some reason I used to think 100# is the cutoff for sires to have. For show cattle this might work. I would think 80# would be perfect for the commercial industry. My ave used to be 100# in my Shorthorn herd. I've been whittling away at it over the years lowering it.It is so hard to lower it through genetics. I hope to be down to 90#'s this year. After saying that those darn shorthorns cows can have a 120# calf unassisted alot of times. The pelvic region is unbelievable. I always thought the pelvic region would be a selling point in shorthorn cattle to the beef industry...if we can just shave the bwt's down a little. :)
 

red

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I hate to say this but I'm happy when I get a 90# calf! I tend to have really big ones although my average is getting better. so far my bulls have run 75 & heifers 95.

Red
 

Jill

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I guess to me birthweight is just a number, I really don't care what the birthweights are, I have no desire to have 60# calves.  We have cows that will spit out a 120# every year regardless of what they are bred to and some that can't have an 80# calf.  I think the problem for me comes in more of the structure the bull throws more so than the weights
 

fluffer

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Jill,
I am with you, I don't care about the weight of the calf, I only care that the cow can have it on her own with out any trouble for her or her calf.  Like I said earlier, we had a 100 pound bull calf yesterday and she nor he missed a beat.  Those 50 or 60 pounders do take a while to catch up.

Fluffer
 

ROAD WARRIOR

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Jill said:
I guess to me birthweight is just a number, I really don't care what the birthweights are, I have no desire to have 60# calves.  We have cows that will spit out a 120# every year regardless of what they are bred to and some that can't have an 80# calf.  I think the problem for me comes in more of the structure the bull throws more so than the weights

Jill - I agree that the shape of the calf has as much or more to do with calving ease as the weight. However from the seedstock producing side of things, my bull buying customers would have a coronary if I tried to sell them a bull with a 120# BW irreguardless of how he was made. We have maintained our mid 80's BW for two reasons - 1: bulls are marketable at that weight 2: I feel that this BW does not loose much if any growth or gain compared to the 95 - 100+ BW calves and we don't have "big, dumb" calves that you have to keep an eye on for the first week of their life. JMO! RW
 

chambero

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The vast majority of the commercial cattlemen I know couldn't even begin to tell you what birthweights their bulls were when they were born.  Most don't care as long as their mature cows can have unassisted babies.  They are using Angus bulls, Simi bulls, Charolais bulls, Limi bulls, and on and on with all varieties and colors of cows.  With the exception of SOME Angus cattle, most commercial cattlemen consider registered animals to be playthings of people with more money than sense.

So, the "steer" people who just judge calving ease by whether a cow can have the calf without help or not are probably closer to the real world than purebred breeders.

Honestly, when I hear commercial cattlemen in our region talking about calving ease, they are usually griping that there is too big of a swing toward "calving ease" bulls.  If you start reading advertisements closely, you'll notice a lot more talking about moderate calving ease than "low birth weight" bulls.

I have no idea what our average birthweight is for sure, but I'd guesstimate it in the 80-90 lb range.
 

showsteerdlux

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Show Heifer said:
jill and fluffer...do you sell breeding stock? or just steers?
I'll say that alot of the commercial people who sell breeding stock(commercial breeding heifers) and to feedlots would rather have the heavier calves. More pounds = more money which is what the industry is about in the end. Im not saying heavy as in 120#s but if its a 100 pound calf and the momma can get it out, so be it. A 100 pound calf versus a 50 # calf will probably be heavier at weaning which means it has a chance of bringing in more money. That being said as long as the momma has a calf that is healthy, momma breeds back quick, then I dont care what the bw is within reason.
 

Jill

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Show Heifer said:
jill and fluffer...do you sell breeding stock? or just steers?
I'm guessing by the tone of your post you would be shocked to know we breed very few of our cows for steers.
 

Jill

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ROAD WARRIOR said:
Jill said:
I guess to me birthweight is just a number, I really don't care what the birthweights are, I have no desire to have 60# calves.  We have cows that will spit out a 120# every year regardless of what they are bred to and some that can't have an 80# calf.  I think the problem for me comes in more of the structure the bull throws more so than the weights

Jill - I agree that the shape of the calf has as much or more to do with calving ease as the weight. However from the seedstock producing side of things, my bull buying customers would have a coronary if I tried to sell them a bull with a 120# BW irreguardless of how he was made. We have maintained our mid 80's BW for two reasons - 1: bulls are marketable at that weight 2: I feel that this BW does not loose much if any growth or gain compared to the 95 - 100+ BW calves and we don't have "big, dumb" calves that you have to keep an eye on for the first week of their life. JMO! RW

To answer that question, we cut anything over 90 pounds, and yes we do actually weigh every calf.  I would not even consider putting a bull on the market the weighed more than that.
 

Show Heifer

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I weigh every calf also.
And jill you must be darn good if you can tell the "tone" of my post.....what I was asking was: you stated you had calves born at 120 unassisted (which I believe as I had a 132 pounder unassisted last year out of Kaboom) and then you stated that you thought calf shape not weight determined calving ease (which I also agree with as my herd bull throws 70-110 pounders all born unassisted). So my question was to see how you market your bulls with that philosphy. How do bull buyers respond?
But I guess your assumption of my "tone" will follow any post I make, regardless of my intent. Just remember what assuming does...
 

justme

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I wish I could handle a bigger calf, but being home alone during the day without help is no fun.  No I don't have any neighbors within 3 miles of me.  So far out of 4 calves my heaviest has be 80 pounds.  Some may not agree, but my smaller ones get up and get nursing faster, less hassle (ecspecailly on my back), and ours tend to catch up fine.  Just my opinion...just a farm wife that is tired already.
 

Jill

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Show Heifer said:
I weigh every calf also.
And Jill you must be darn good if you can tell the "tone" of my post.....what I was asking was: you stated you had calves born at 120 unassisted (which I believe as I had a 132 pounder unassisted last year out of Kaboom) and then you stated that you thought calf shape not weight determined calving ease (which I also agree with as my herd bull throws 70-110 pounders all born unassisted). So my question was to see how you market your bulls with that philosphy. How do bull buyers respond?
But I guess your assumption of my "tone" will follow any post I make, regardless of my intent. Just remember what assuming does...
Not what I meant either, most people associate big birth weights with clubby bulls, I actual get the big birthweights on my old purebred Maine cows and it doesn't seem to matter how they are bred or fed.  Out of 49 cows 5 embryo's were put in hoping for steers, the others were all bred hoping for heifers, we don't have facilities for bulls so unless they are just exceptional most will be cut and like I stated we cut anything over 90 pounds, just too hard to convince others that birthweight isn't the determining factor.
 
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