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nw oh | We work directly with a grower. They buy the babies and set up the Amish to bottle and they feed them to 500 lbs and we buy directly from them. Their are a few guys that own the babies from start to finish and organize the Amish to bottle and then they take it from there.
Even though we do not do it this way I think that is the most profitable way of doing it. The calf fed holsteins are really efficient from 350-900 lbs. It really tails off after that.
As far as efficiency and rate of gain. We do about 2.8 lbs per day from 500 lbs to 1325 pay wt. I have weighed groups that were doing 3.5 per day up to 1000lbs. But those were just gate cutting and weighing. I also figure 6 lbs of corn per lb of gain. With 5 lbs of dry matter DDGS. These are the numbers I use how it compares to coloreds I do not know. Been a while since we fed any coloreds.
This is getting windy but, 4 years ago we bought some 350 lb calf feds out of Idaho. Supposedly there is a big out fit there that bottles baby calves coming from the big dairies out there. At one time they were shipping 3 or 4 semi loads a week. Those were some of the best cattle we ever fed. I think we only lost one to sickness. I do not have any names of that outfit. You might want to talk to a broker about them.
I do hate to get you colored feeders into feeding holsteins you will start running up the price of the holstein calves. | |
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Holstein Calfs vs colored
