Late July to early August is a good time to weigh cattle and get a handle on how animals have performed at grass.There is also an opportunity to combine weighing with some routine management tasks, such as worming.
Late July to early August is a good time to weigh cattle and get a handle on how animals have performed at grass.
There is also an opportunity to combine weighing with some routine management tasks, such as worming.
With an accurate weight on cattle, use this information to decide which animals to finish off grass, sell live or house for winter.
If there are plans to kill cattle kill off grass in autumn, these animals should be less than 50kg to 60kg from reaching target slaughter weight at the start of August.
Priority
Separate these animals out as a priority grazing group, as well as meal feeding at grass. Lighter cattle will probably benefit from housing in autumn and a short intensive finishing period.
Alternatively, assuming a daily weight gain of 1kg/day on good-quality grass, it is possible to get an idea of potential sale weight for stores that will be marketed through the live ring this autumn.
Spring-born calves
With spring-born calves, daily weight gain should be in the region of 1.2kg to 1.3kg/day while calves are on the cow.
Assuming a birth weight of 45kg, calves born in March should weigh somewhere in the region of 220kg to 260kg in late July, depending on date of birth.
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