#TransformationTuesday

Well I have decided to join the fad on Instagram and Facebook... Transformation Tuesday, but I am going to do it Rancher Styler!

This little guy was born February 18, 2013. In just a few short months he grows to be about 7-8 times his birth weight. We wean our calves in early October, this year it was more towards the middle of October because wheat seeding went extra long with the wet fall weather that we had. The calves go out to grass late May or early June again depending upon the weather and moisture in our pastures. In October we round up all the calves and bring them home to the lots at the farm. After a few days of missing their moms, they soon forget and start to get pretty hungry.

We believe that our best opportunity to sell our calves is the first big calf sale in January, usually within the first two week after the new year. So in the three months that we have the calves in our lots, we feed them a very specific ration. These calves are still growing at a rapid rate so it is crucial to feed them exactly what they need and not too much. We try to be as efficient as possibly with everything that we do, so yes that meets a feed ration needs to be perfect so that the calves are fed enough to put on weight, but not too much so that their isn't any left over or wasted resources.

Currently we are feeding a ration that has sorghum sedan grass that we raised, sugar beet pulp from the local Sugar plant, and Dried Distillers grains a bi-product from corn ethanol. We are ever so thankful to have bi-product resources available near by to help control the feed costs. If we didn't have these bi-product resources we would have to replace the proteins and nutrients with more costly options such as alfalfa.

So I hope my post isn't too "ranchy" for you! :) But I must say that I am always amazed by God's creations that I thankfully get to experience everyday on the ranch.