Finishing heifers off grass

saranac1

Hi, just wondering I've 15 heifers about 550 kg and want to finish them off grass. I have plenty of grass for them and have decided on a 15% high energy beef mix.

Wondering HOW much meal to give them per head per day?

Would 6 pound per head per day be enough
Fed once a day!

Willfarman

saranac1 wrote: »

Hi, just wondering I've 15 heifers about 550 kg and want to finish them off grass. I have plenty of grass for them and have decided on a 15% high energy beef mix.

Wondering HOW much meal to give them per head per day?

Would 6 pound per head per day be enough
Fed once a day!

Give them 6ib twice a day if you could and a bale of straw.

Farmer Pudsey

Protein looks a bit high. I be trying to get a 13% P ration. Get to 4+kgs/day. Barley/Maize/soya hulls mixture would work as well and negate need for straw. Dose with a short withdrawal period Drench(Albex is 14 days) and repeat if they be around longer than 8 weeks.

A lot will depend on quality of grass. Is it a real heavy cover with a whitish butt or is it a lighter cover that is green all the way down. Another issue is will you have enough of it to carry them all the way to finish.

billy100

A lot depends on grass quality this time of the year, the longer the year goes the feeding value goes out of the grass. Trying to finish a couple of cull cows and I notice supplementary forage is needed along with a pile of meal

Robson99

billy100 wrote: »

A lot depends on grass quality this time of the year, the longer the year goes the feeding value goes out of the grass. Trying to finish a couple of cull cows and I notice supplementary forage is needed along with a pile of meal

Weighed heifers today. Had been doing 1kg/day up to 1st Oct. Have done 0.5 kg/day for the month of Oct. Sure sign that quality is gone from the gross. Indoors now for 70 - 90 days finishing. Sorry I didn't put them in 1st October

Willfarman

Robson99 wrote: »

Weighed heifers today. Had been doing 1kg/day up to 1st Oct. Have done 0.5 kg/day for the month of Oct. Sure sign that quality is gone from the gross. Indoors now for 70 - 90 days finishing. Sorry I didn't put them in 1st October

Ah you got another 15 kgs of cheap gain in fairness! They'll be in for long enough!

Robson99

Willfarman wrote: »

Ah you got another 15 kgs of cheap gain in fairness! They'll be in for long enough!

True but they would have been gone a couple of weeks earlier. Although with the prices at the moment it might be the worst thing to happen

Farmer Pudsey

Robson99 wrote: »

Weighed heifers today. Had been doing 1kg/day up to 1st Oct. Have done 0.5 kg/day for the month of Oct. Sure sign that quality is gone from the gross. Indoors now for 70 - 90 days finishing. Sorry I didn't put them in 1st October

I presume that it was on grass alone. If you fed 3kgs of hull, barlet and maize they have done near 1Kg/day at 60ish cent/day

Robson99

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

I presume that it was on grass alone. If you fed 3kgs of hull, barlet and maize they have done near 1Kg/day at 60ish cent/day

Ya grass alone. They were getting 2kg barley for the last 2 weeks but was probably not enough. On 5 kg now of barley maize wheat and oat mix with ad lib silage

saranac1

Well I have 11 heifers picked out which are all around 19.5 months of age and average weight 450 kg to 500 kg. they are on 8 pound per head per day of 15 % high energy beef mix and out on grass till there is none then onto silage.

I'd be aiming to kill them in march.

ZETOR_IS_BETTER

saranac1 wrote: »

I'd be aiming to kill them in march.

What kind of weight would you have them at that stage?

saranac1

ZETOR_IS_BETTER wrote: »

What kind of weight would you have them at that stage?

I'd be hoping to get them to 600 kg if I could with 1-1.5 kg weight gain per head per day on that amount of meal

degetme

saranac1 wrote: »

Well I have 11 heifers picked out which are all around 19.5 months of age and average weight 450 kg to 500 kg. they are on 8 pound per head per day of 15 % high energy beef mix and out on grass till there is none then onto silage.

I'd be aiming to kill them in march.

What breed?

saranac1

LM,CH, one or two AAX

TUBBY

saranac1 wrote: »

LM,CH, one or two AAX

You'll be doing well to get over 1 kg a day on 4kg of meal and silage imo.

Did you test the silage.

saranac1

saranac1 wrote: »

Well I have 11 heifers picked out which are all around 19.5 months of age and average weight 450 kg to 500 kg. they are on 8 pound per head per day of 15 % high energy beef mix and out on grass till there is none then onto silage.

I'd be aiming to kill them in march.

I have a few the same age around 20 months ive picked out for finishing soon but their only around 400kg
As Ive never finished cattle before whats my best approach to finish them
as efficient as possible? Their mainly lmx and aax and their still out on grass with a bale of silage, haven't started to feed them much meal yet.

saranac1

If out on field still silage and 4kg of meal up to 6 kg up to 8 kg per head per day for a period of 90 days

If housing use straw or silage then meal as above and minerals on the meal 100 grams per head per day

Weight them every 3/4 weeks if possible

I dosed with Ibr shot then bimectin at 5/6 wks into housing

I'm open to suggestions/opinions but that's how I'm going at it

Meal is 15 % high energy beef mix @205 euro a tonne