Grouping Cattle

Hagimalone

What way do most group their weanlings, age sex & weight? I've 23 weanlings from 10mts to 20mts, of which 7 heifers from 18-20mts and rest bullocks, mixture of buck feed and suckler. Shed can only accommodate 2 groups, what's peoples advice?

Albert Johnson

Hagimalone wrote: »

What way do most group their weanlings, age sex & weight? I've 23 weanlings from 10mts to 20mts, of which 7 heifers from 18-20mts and rest bullocks, mixture of buck feed and suckler. Shed can only accommodate 2 groups, what's peoples advice?

Provided all the males are bullocks I'd be inclined to group by weight as opposed to sex or age. In a group with wide variation in weight or size the smaller animals will be at risk of bullying particularly if there's limited feed space. I'd try and make 2 group's consisting of the largest and smallest.

Once there's no intact bulls then there'll be no unwanted pregnancies although some of the bullocks may take interest in a bulling heifer. You could always run a few strands of electric fence wire over head in the pens to discourage mounting when the heifer's are bulling.

tanko

Is there any way you could divide the shed in three and keep the heifers away from the bullocks and split the bullocks in two by size.

Cavanjack

Albert Johnson wrote: »

Provided all the males are bullocks I'd be inclined to group by weight as opposed to sex or age. In a group with wide variation in weight or size the smaller animals will be at risk of bullying particularly if there's limited feed space. I'd try and make 2 group's consisting of the largest and smallest.

Once there's no intact bulls then there'll be no unwanted pregnancies although some of the bullocks may take interest in a bulling heifer. You could always run a few strands of electric fence wire over head in the pens to discourage mounting when the heifer's are bulling.

Would an electric fence stop you ðŸ˜

Water John

Cavanjack wrote: »

Would an electric fence stop you ðŸ˜

Depend on what height the wire is set at.
Depends also on head feeding space. If feeding nuts it has to be by size.

Hagimalone

No bulls all bullocks, have enough feeding space per head for feeding both silage and nuts separately

Lady Haywire

Can you split the shed again? We have a three bay shed but with a couple of 14ft gates we turned it into a 5 bay last year.

Otherwise I'd group to size, regardless of sex, because otherwise the littler ones won't get a chance to thrive if they're bullied.

Bass Reeves

I think when you start splitting pens below bay size you are risking animal injury. To stop animals mounting string electrical wires 8-9' above slat level. Get some lead and cut it into bits 40 mmX20mm. Bend them over and use electric fence string to hang off electric wires. It takes a.bit of work you need 7-8 runs of electrical wire and 8 lead wire drops per length. It will need to be lower for smaller animals. I have used it with pens if bulls and it stops them.

If op is thinking of mixing I presume that bulls are squeezed. However they need to be squeezed 8-10weeks before being put with heifers. As well you need to be sure no bullock is partially intact.

Group by size. If there is any exceptionally small animals try to keep outside until Christmas. Suckler farmers often sub group cattle too much. This prevents rotational grazing and maximising sheds and land.i have seen Suckler farmers with small groups of heifers or bullocks as well as cull cows all.in separate bunches usually set stocked.

Albert Johnson

Cavanjack wrote: »

Would an electric fence stop you ðŸ˜

It would depend on what was on the far side of it.

Sacrolyte

Cavanjack wrote: »

Would an electric fence stop you ðŸ˜

It would depend on where it got me

SuperTortoise

Group bulls seperate to heifers, shed space is tight enough so have little choice at the minute.

In an ideal world i would group them by weight provided bulls are squeezed and then maybe a sub group of heifers i intend to keep for cows.