We get guys that have been fighting issues. They end up having very lightweight calves. When they get that fixed, it's not uncommon to see them go up a long ways, even up as high as one hundred pounds. While that isn't necessarily what everybody sees, often we're seeing forty or fifty pound increases, but you can make dramatic improvements through a number of factors. There's a lot of factors at play to get a one hundred pound increase in weaning weights. And we can remove all the roadblocks and help express that genetic potential, it all ends up in terms of calf weight gain. That's what it's all about is unlocking the potential. And we're just gonna kinda unpack the reasons behind those those numbers. Hey, guys. Welcome back to That Ranching podcast. Joining us here this morning, as you probably well have known, Daryl Paskewitz, Trevor Greenfield. And wearing out this kitchen table. Yes, sir. Daryl, you were saying you had a customer once claim he got a hundred pound increase in weaning weights. Do you believe that? I don't know. That sounds like a stretch. We get guys that have been fighting issues, challenges, maybe it's environment or nutrition supplement challenges that whatever combination of factors, they end up having very lightweight calves. They get that fixed, they supplement well, they improve digestion on the cattle, and they're getting the cow ticking at maximum performance. It's not uncommon to see them go up a long ways, even up as high as one hundred pounds. Doctor. Hall told us a story about a customer that he had to do the same thing. While that isn't necessarily what everybody sees, it's often we're seeing forty or fifty pound increases. You can make dramatic improvements through a number of factors, can't you? Absolutely. Yeah, there's a lot of factors at play to get a one hundred pound increase in weaning weights, like you're saying, and you probably got to have a good year along with it. But what we see with Riomax on average is a ten to forty pound increase in weaning weights fairly consistently. And we're just going to kind of unpack a few of the different things that we the reasons behind those numbers. The first one, and most importantly, is really Nutrizorb. So what we're doing, feeding the good microbes in the cow's rumen and in the calf's rumen and really helping them do a better job breaking down the feed and forage they're consuming. For the cow, that means she's pulling more protein, more energy out of every bite of feed she consumes or grass she consumes. So that's in turn not only is she producing more milk, but she's actually producing better quality milk. So we had a dairy a few years back that did a bit of a side by side comparison with Riomax. They saw a fifteen point two percent increase in the butterfat content of their milk. So you think about that, every pound of milk that that cow produces is not only can she produce a bit more of it, but she can also produce a higher quality milk going straight to the calf. Second with Nutrizorb, is that calf doing a better job actually as it gets old enough to consume feed, it's doing a better job breaking down the grass and the feed it's consuming as well. Well, even the mother's milk it consumes, right? It's getting more out of everything in its diet, which is for the first bit mainly mother's milk. Then it starts to graze a little bit and copy what mom does. Then as it comes up on grazing, same thing. We're extracting more out of anything in that calf's diet. So between that and more milk from mother, the mama cow, and better quality milk, it's kind of a no brainer that we see this ten to forty pound increase. To your point, Daryl, like maybe the outliers out there that have seen a one hundred pound increase. We're not saying everyone's going to see that. But when you have genetics, and every ranch does, they've invested wisely in genetics, and we can remove all the roadblocks and help express that genetic potential and work with mother nature in terms of, like we said, milk production, milk quality, getting more out of the grazing. It all ends up in terms of calf weight gain. Yeah, and we don't want to confuse that with just fattening them up, is it? This is actually growing and developing the calves. These are frame growth. Yeah. Yeah. Not butterfat. Yeah. We were talking about butterfat in the milk, you might think, well, we're just fattening the calves, but that is allowing them, like you said, to express their genetic potential and grow and develop how they should. It's it's kind of like guys use creep feed to try get weight gain on calves, but that's more putting Putting fat on calves. Fat on. Yeah. Which which is is I'm not gonna comment on that, but this is very different. This is like framey. You won't comment that I will. But you put a bunch of calf fat on the calf. They're gonna end up getting weaned off and into the feed yard. And for the first couple weeks, they're gonna be going backwards wearing wearing that fat off. And we wanna see them hit the feed yard and start gaining from day one. It comes back to building a bigger calf. I mean, weaning a bigger calf, having more sale weight, but also the appetite that the buyer has for your product. Shouldn't use the word product because that's what McDonald's calls their burgers. But if you have that demand from the feedlot because he knows that that thing takes off instead of going backwards like the one with back fat. With calf fat. Calf fat. One of the other factors that impact your weaning weights are when the calf's born. Obviously, the age of calf at weaning. And if you got a ninety day breeding window, those calves that are born at ninety days versus calves that are born in the first couple of weeks are typically there's a pretty big difference in weight obviously there. Your genetics today's genetics, are the what does the calf gain per head per day? I mean, I don't know. We're talking earlier on some of those curve benders as you call them that they can get up. I mean, you know, what were you saying? The calf weans at seven hundred and is born at seventy and they're two zero five day old calf, they're gaining over three pounds a day, You know, so if you figure a calf gains two and a half to three pounds a day and you can even bump it up one cycle, twenty one days, you know, at three pounds a day, that's sixty pounds per calf that you bump up a cycle that you're potentially gaining. That when when we can get those cows bred in a tighter window, you know, have more cows calving in the first cycle, that means you're weaning essentially an older calf crop, more consistent calf crop and packing the pounds on. Exactly. That gives some insight into how potentially you could get a one hundred pound increase or a very big increase. If your genetics are doing two or three pounds a day on the calf gain and you just simply moved up ten or twenty or fifty cows a cycle. Along with that, maybe you suppress some disease challenges or issues that may be stunting some of the calf growth and you soon unlock a big differential, don't you? Yeah, that's what it's all about. And our purpose driving profitability back to rural North America is unlocking the potential. One part of it is the reproduction, you know, getting those cows into an earlier cycle. The second part of it is helping that calf gain better because she's, you know, getting more out of mama's milk, more out of the grazing, higher butterfat in mama's milk, and we just wean a a bigger calf. Absolutely. Guess that's all for this morning, folks. Thanks again for joining us on That Ranching podcast. We'll see you next week.
AUDIO VERSION
Can you really add 100 pounds to your calf weights at weaning? Daryl, Trevor, and Twain sit down to dig into the real numbers behind weaning weight gains — and lay out exactly what it takes to get there.
They break down the two biggest drivers: rumen health and reproduction timing. When a cow digests better, she produces more milk — and higher quality milk, with up to 15% more butterfat going straight to the calf. When that same efficiency carries into the calf as it starts grazing, it compounds fast. Pair that with a tighter breeding window and calves conceived just one cycle earlier can hit the scale 60 pounds heavier by weaning day.
They also take aim at creep feeding — why packing fat onto calves before weaning can actually work against you at the feedlot, and what frame growth looks like instead.
Most ranches already have the genetics. This episode is about removing the roadblocks so those calves can finally show it.