-winning Ways Feeding Tips for a Fast Start Typically, weaning is a time of year with hot days and cool nights, where calves are exposed to conditions that can compromise their respiratory system, says Kim Hager, CHS western region beef nutritionist, Billings, Mont. “Often, forage quality has deteriorated and the mother cow isn’t milking as much, so her calf is defi cient in trace minerals. That can affect immunity to disease,” Hager says. “Calves that are creep-fed before weaning usually are in better shape and already used to eating.” Hager off ers these tips to get weaned calves off to a healthy, fast start. • Divide the daily weaning ration into two equal feedings. • Keep fresh water and feed available at all times. • Calves should be fed their fi ll of grass hay on day one, then start incorporating a weaning ration and begin reducing hay intake over the next two to three days. Continue to full-feed a weaning ration until the calves have consumed 250 to 300 pounds of feed, then gradually transition to a feedlot ration that includes more grain. • Bunk-feed the weaning ration. To reduce risk of bloat and other digestive disturbances, formulate and mix rations with gradual increases in energy content. • Carefully manage bunks to avoid feed buildup where mold could occur. By Greg Lamp J Bar E Ranch counts on genetics and nutrition to get calves off to a speedy start . D espite walls crowded with awards garnered over the years at J Bar E Ranch, Plentywood, Mont., Arvid Eggen never stops trying to improve his herd’s genetics and nutrition. His great uncle started the operation in 1898 and now, as third-generation ranchers, it’s still nose to the grindstone for the Eggens every day. Tucked into northeast Montana, just 15 miles from the Canadian border, Eggen and his wife Linda, along with their son Jay-De and daughter Lorrie, run 200 purebred Herefords and 800 commercial Hereford-Red Angus cows. “We wean, background and sell our steers as yearlings at 800 to 900 pounds,” Eggen explains. “We sell all our bulls private-treaty. On our better heifers, we’ll AI (artifi cially inseminate) and sell them as bred heifers. Our bottom-end heifers get spayed at a little over a year of age and put into our backgrounding program. “Dad started raising purebred Herefords in 1953, mainly to provide bulls for our commercial cows,” he says. “But now we sell our quality bulls into 25 states and three foreign countries. We have a lot of repeat business. Some guys trust us so much they’ll call and buy sight unseen, then we deliver. They trust us and know we’ll ship our best bulls.” Raising quality cattle takes quality genetics, plus good management and attention to detail. For the Eggens, who have consistently won championship titles at county and state cattle > Your CHS Connection 21