Weaned calves when?

[Mpwelch50]

Our 3 bottle calves are now weaned and out on pasture. We have been giving them calf starter twice daily. They are 6 months old and have great body scoring. Probably 4-5. At what age should we take away the calf starter and just let them eat grass and hay?

 

[farmerjan]

Put them on a maintenance type feed, like a 14% feed once a day. Calves need the extra feed/protein until they are yearlings. They don't need a high price feed, but need the extra vitamins and minerals and supplements that are in a good feed. You didn't say what kind of calves they are.... breed?..... And where are you located? General state or area? Alot depends on the conditions that they are in. Grass growing this time of year?
Hay is great but they need the extra nutrition. Especially dairy and dairy cross genetics... they have been bred for so long to require more and more concentrates.... and they will get pot bellied on just hay until they have a good frame growth. They will eat and eat because their bodies are craving "more" out of their food. That develops the gut to extreme because they cannot eat enough to satisfy that need for nutrition to grow their frame and then put on muscle and fat.

 

[Mpwelch50]

Thank you! I guess I was a little vague. I was trying to get a quick answer before we got our load of farm feed. We have an angus calf, a charolais calf and a jersey/angus calf. All heifers. 2 were bottle fed for 3 months and 1 was weaned when we got her. We live in Northern Alabama. We have winter grass we sowed. Not a lot though. We give the calves the stem hay from the dairy goats alfalfa. And horse hay. Plus a show grower feed. Obviously too much. We taped them and they all weigh around 250 lbs. We have 15% all stock pellets that we use for our sheep. If we fed the calves this food, how much per calf should they get? We weigh our feed. Right now we are giving 3-4 lbs of feed per calf. Too much I think.

 

[farmerjan]

No offense..... but they had better weigh more than 250 lbs at 6 months. Are you sure you read the tape right? Is it a calf weight tape or a cow weight tape? They are different. That is barely weaning weight. They should have weighed that at 3 months. They jer/ang will naturally be lighter and smaller due to the dairy in her.... but she ought to go 350-400 and the other 2 should weigh 4-500. Calves should be getting 1-2% of their body weight in grain/supplement. So they are not getting too much if they are getting around 4 lbs a day.
I would go ahead and switch them to the 15% feed and stay with the amount. Since a 5 gal bucket will hold approx 20-25 lbs feed, they ought to be getting more than 1/2 bucket a day....2/3 more like.
Any pics?
Alabama means easier on them as far as not having to keep growing on top of maintaining body heat in freezing temps....