# feeding holstiens



## Guest (Apr 8, 2014)

Im getting a group of holstien calves at around 350#. Plan on feeding them out to 1400. Being primarly a hay producer i always have a huge hay inventory. Can you feed feeder cattle too much hay where they will not eat as much corn and therefore not gain as fast. Planed on giving them all the grain and grass they wanted. Will they overeat the grass and not gain well? Or can i get good gain out of my grass and not feed as much of my cash crop corn?


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I'm not sure about giving them all they grain they want. Ours can have all the fresh grass they could want but come running for the grain, but they are limit fed the grain.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

The holstein steers I have feed have done best being on a self feeder of grain and free choice grass or hay. With too little grain they do not gain real fast. Make sure you have plenty of mineral for the steins. An old dairy guy told me when feeding them energy energy and energy in there diet


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

Is their feed going to be straight corn or will it be blended with something else?

I would ration straight corn. It can be tough on their digestive system. I do not believe any beef can eat too much grass or hay. (Unless the cattle are turned out on lush grass all at once.)


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## Guest (Apr 8, 2014)

Tim/South said:


> It their feed going to be straight corn or will it be blended with something else?
> I would ration straight corn. It can be tough on their digestive system. I do not believe any beef can eat too much grass or hay. (Unless the cattle are turned out on lush grass all at once.)


Corn will be blended by local elevator. Not sure exactly what im gunna blend, but planned on putting in a self feeder and keeping it full and wanted to keep the hay mangers full too so they can gain on my cheaper grass hay too


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## bluefarmer (Oct 10, 2010)

If you got access to soyhull pellets and mix 30 liquid feed (16% protein 10% fat), keep feeder full of the pellets, and tank full of mix30, I've done it the last two years works very well.


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## ngafarmer (Apr 3, 2014)

I don't know what kind a facility you are going to be using but the key to making a profit from feeder cattle is to supply them with enough feed to reach their max daily gain without over feeding. The bast way to do this is to actually weigh the progress to get your average daily gain for each head and then seperate the good gainers from the low gainers that way your not feeding a calf that only gains one pound a day the same amount as a calf that gains two pounds. Free choice hay is a must because an empty rumen is never good. Grass or grain will make them gain and grass is always cheaper haha. I hope this helps!


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I prefer to feed a mixed alf/grass hay that is higher protein (17-19%)then straight grass.The cattle will do better and finish ALOT better then if you feed straight grass hay.

My feeding program for the lighter weights when they came in from 400-600 is to put them on alf/orchard in hay feeder getting all they want.Pretty decent hay 2nd cut 18-20% pr.Hand feed them corn starting out very low at 3# per hd and working up to all they want over 6-8 weeks.Plus a 1-lb day pr pellet.

I was buying mixed groups and some of the cattle had never seen corn is the reason I had to start out at a low rate of corn and get them used to it.Or they will get acidosis.

After I got them up to full feed of corn.About 2% of their body wt.I would switch to late cut 1 st cutting alf about 17% using a hay saver feeder they ate about 4 lbs of hay per day.all the corn they want with the 1-lb pr pellet in the bunk.

By feeding the higher pr hay the cattle finish a lot better,common mistake for a lot is to feed junk hay and the cattle are not getting enough protein.They then grow frames.As I call them Giraffs


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

One thing is that your getting some good advice but holsteins feed different than beef cattle.


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## aawhite (Jan 16, 2012)

Corn, corn, corn!!!!! Coming from a dairy guy. Holsteins don't feed like beef cattle. Holsteins should be on a high or all grain ration, or corn silage/grain ration. They do not finish on a ration heavy on hay or even haylage.

Every holstein steer feeder I knew finished them on an all corn diet. This is why so many we knew quit feeding holsteins when corn spiked.


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## ontario hay man (Jul 18, 2013)

You have to be careful you dont feed them to much corn when they are small. Let them get some frame or they will be fat seals at 1000lb. Not what you want. Are they going to be finished at 1400 or be very short keeps. I would just give them all the hay they want and a bit of corn til around 700 they pour the coal to them.


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2014)

A lot of great suggestions! Sounds like everyone has a little bit different way of doing things. Seems a lot say maybe more hay at beggining then feed mostly corn to get them to 1400#


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

ontario hay man said:


> You have to be careful you dont feed them to much corn when they are small. Let them get some frame or they will be fat seals at 1000lb. Not what you want. Are they going to be finished at 1400 or be very short keeps. I would just give them all the hay they want and a bit of corn til around 700 they pour the coal to them.


What your saying works that way with beef but I have never had a holstein finish before 1200 pounds being on self feed grain since a month old. With holsteins if you wait too long they might not finish till 1800 pounds. I dont know what holstein steers are selling for right now but I have seen last fall 700 pound steers that were on some grain $1/ pound. Same weight no grain $0.70/pound. The buyers know that these ones will finish too big or they will sell them at a lighter weight and get a lower grade.

If you want to feed holsteins take your advice from a dairy guy or someone who has raised them. Like I said before they feed a whole lot different than beef, but if done right can be good money.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Like Hog said feeding a holstien is different then feeding traditional beef breeds.They take a higher energy diet to finish well and not get to much frame.If you get the frame to big before you push the corn to them they will be 1600 lbs before they get fat!!

Some packing plants even have a height limit on the cattle.They have a pipe in the alley and are rejected and turned back onto the truck if to tall.

I've seen it many times where guys will buy a few stines thinking they can feed up some junk ditch hay.Then they bitch because it takes forever to get them fat.Then they bitch because they brought $10 a hundred less then the ones hard fed.Then they say "I'm never going to do that again"


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## ontario hay man (Jul 18, 2013)

I dont know how you guys finish them. I fed hundreds of veal calves. They were always finished by 750 on full feed corn. I fed fat holsteins and had them out at 1500 and started the full feed at 750. I guess everything works different in different places.


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2014)

Im not plannin on feesing junk hay. Mainly just decent grass hay for a filler but dont want them loosing gain by eating too much hay. Basically at all times they can choose grass or corn. No shortage either route. Hopefully im on the right track


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## ontario hay man (Jul 18, 2013)

The thing im not figuring out is why 1400. They pay the same for 1700-1800 per pound. Went to the auction yesterday and a group of brown swiss steers [email protected] $1.33.


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## Guest (Apr 10, 2014)

Ive always thought there was a point where u would spend more trying to get them heavier than 1400. The feed it would take tk get them to 1800-2000 would cost more then ud get out of thise few hundred extra pounds... is that correct?


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

Two things about heavier weights. 
1- It all.depends on the grading system that the plant has that you are selling too. Around here it is 1300-1400 pounds that they want and can get detuctions for over I think 1550 pounds.

2- like mentioned it can cost a lot of money to put weight on a bigger animal. Every animal needs x amount of food to maintain its self. And than y amount of food to gain a certain amount of weight. As an animal starts to get fat there feef conversion goes down. Happens with all animals even us people. If eating from the land of plenty the body gets lazy. If half starved the body gets very efficient trying to play catch up. So a bigger animal needs more feed to maintain its self as will as the poorer feed conversion when starting to get fat.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

ontario hay man said:


> The thing im not figuring out is why 1400. They pay the same for 1700-1800 per pound. Went to the auction yesterday and a group of brown swiss steers [email protected] $1.33.


They are short of cattle now so bidding up on most everything.Typically you will see at least 10 hundred less for heavyweight or cattle that don't grade.I've seen discounts of 35 per hundred for carcass over 1000 lbs at times.

Here is a market report from sale barn in SE Mn.So if the cattle are not feed correctly and don't grade there is a heck of a discount.

Fed Holstein Steers 130.00 - 147.50 cwt
Silage fed, heavy weight, select grade,
light-weight 95.00 129.00 cwt


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