Finishing a heifer

[buck 01]

I have a freemartin heifer that weights about 275 and has been on grain and hay for 3 months now. My question is I want to finish her to 600 lbs and slaughter her. What would a good finish program be. I feed her 5lbs of grain and free choice hay now. Orchard grass. The grain is a 14% protein and some rolled corn. It's just me and my wife so we don't need big quantities of meet. Would breather have tender small portion than larger cuts.

[stockdogcompany]

I will assume she is a dairy breed. You will never "finish" her at 600 pounds. The only way to get well marbled meat with a decent bone out yield from that small of an animal is to make her milk fed veal. Outside of that, she will be putting energy and protein to frame development.

You can cut her down to 12% total dietary protein and gradually increase starch(corn) content while reducing the forage:concentrate ratio to increase fattening, but you will need to walk the tight rope of sub-acute ruminal acidosis to get any kind of marbling into a dairy freemartin at only 600 lbs. Fat Holstein steers can be fed corn silage, high moisture shelled corn, and SBM along with other commodities and additives and yield choice and hit 62-65% yield at 1150-1200 pounds with hard core intensive feedlot management. The old grain and hay regimen meant 1600-1750 lb Holstein steers at finish.

Have you ever thought of selling her and buying back feeder lambs? Smaller cuts and easier to get grade on dry hay and grain or grass? Or swap someone who has larger animals raised the way you like, trade the heifer for pounds of finished meat from another producer?

[buck 01]

She is a black Angus.

[buck 01]

ImageUploadedByHomesteading Today1425225963.787962.jpg

She is the one with the blue tag.

[buck 01]

The other 2 will be bred when old enough.

[Alaska]

WE finish our lowline with a alfalfa product (Chaffhaye) really happy with results

[stockdogcompany]

Originally Posted by Alaska

WE finish our lowline with a alfalfa product (Chaffhaye) really happy with results

Well done. Our OP is going to butcher an early/light weaned calf at 45-50% mature weight and is in a very different boat.

With a beef breed you have more of a shot at marbling. You are still butchering before frame development has mostly completed. Much harder to "finish" an animal for best yield and grade. Increasing calories and caloric density of the diet will increase fattening. You won't be able to finish such an immature animal on a high forage diet and get acceptable yields or condition. However, you can hang up anything you want at anytime as long as it is healthy and acceptable to you.

[montysky]

BA at 600 pounds talking Rose Veal, and I'm not a veal producer so would not have a guess at finishing her, only veal we eat would be from animal that needs to be put down on the spot.

my two cents wait 3 to 4 months then start to finish her for 3 to 4 months on grain with a little grass/hay. our goal is 1200 to 1300 pounds holding at 20-25 pounds of grain but a critter that small and young maybe 10 to 12 pounds per day? will need to ease her onto the grain.

[Allen W]

I would concentrate on keeping the calf growing well. Your not going to finish a calf this young in the traditional sense and if you push too much grain your going to end up with a fat toad.

[wannabfishin]

if your real picky about the meat quality youd be better off finishing it at the correct size and selling half of it. If your not real picky id keep doing what youre doing and take it in when you want to. that way you dont need to feed it separate from the others. the meat will taste fine it will just be lean