getting them to come back

[pigguy]

how do you get your show calves to come back to the barn in the morning when they have been are the pasture at night??

 

[NHR]

how do you get your show calves to come back to the barn in the morning when they have been are the pasture at night??

If they are used to being fed a good feed they should come running to get into the barn like ours do every morning. (dog)

 

[pigguy]

they get a good feed when i have them in the pens they are all over you till you feed them but then if i put them in the pasture they dont want to come back in

 

[cowz]

If your goal is to add weight and finish, you may have to treat them like feedlot steers!  In my opinion, this means no pasture.  Im sure the excercise is really good for them, but if you are wanting to get to a certain weight goal, you may have to keep them in.

 

[knabe]

i concur with cowz on this one.  i have a steer ready to kill, and i had to pen him up longer.  since i have irrigated pasture, the grass tends to be a little sweeter, which they can really get used to.

 

[pigguy]

the barn is on a 15 acre patch of grass so they have about  10 acres

 

[Jill]

I go to the pen, open the gate and yell here girls come on really loud and they come running.  We don't have steers ours are all heifers and it really doesn't matter what they look like if they can't walk.  We keep them penned when they are in the grow stage, but once they are starting to get too much condition and we are limiting feed we start letting them out.  We let them out at night, they are in about a 23 acre patch it keeps them fresh looking and walking correctly.  We have found that if you keep them penned that is when you start having problems.

 

[chambero]

We've always given our steers hay or access to grass at night.  Never has been a problem getting them finished. 

 

[OH Breeder]

I think they have too much acrage to run on. We have a series of pipe gates set up in a big square pen. I keep a grass round bale in the middle of it. The calves are let out every night and in the morning they all know there pen. They run in and go to there pen for feed is waiting. We also keep water outside only. They drink all night. During really hot weather we keep buckets of water in each pen.
My advice would be to drive some post and reduce the size of there out door pen per say.

 

[pigguy]

I think they have too much acrage to run on. We have a series of pipe gates set up in a big square pen. I keep a grass round bale in the middle of it. The calves are let out every night and in the morning they all know there pen. They run in and go to there pen for feed is waiting. We also keep water outside only. They drink all night. During really hot weather we keep buckets of water in each pen.
My advice would be to drive some post and reduce the size of there out door pen per say.

how do you get them to go in their on pen??

 

[OH Breeder]

initially it was like sorting cats. But after they get into a consistent routine everyday they know there pen. Of course it has been hot here and they love to get back in the fans and the cool concrete barn.

 

[bluegrass]

ok pigguy, try this.  Get you some good electric fence {I like the white wide tape stuff} and some steele T post.  Make turn-out lot a long narrow strip that will allow 1 person to easily put the calves in barn. after about 3 days of bringing them in to eat they should start meeting you at the gate to come in on their own. When they start coming in on thier own you can give them more area at night, but make sure they dont get too much green grass or they will get the green grass shits on you.