Dexter Cattle For Sale Discussion Board

I have just worked out my average steer stats for the last 11 animals i have started to record. I say steers, there was 1 short heifers and my next 2 to go are both heifers.

6 Non short steers averages 196kg deadweight , age 24.8 months
5 short steers/heifer averages 132.8kg deadweight , age 22.9 months ( this included a real runt that only gave 92kg deadweight).
2 of the shorts, 1 steer 1 heifer graded R.
These animals are all out of short cows, mostly show stock, bred to non short bulls. How does this compare to non-short to non-short matings that people believe gives a bigger carcass. I am not saying my stats are great but just wanted some comparisons.

I only have the deadweights when I have sent them to a butcher - 3 non short steers in the last 12 months 197.6kg aged 33.7 months on average.

Two were significantly lower around 184kg and one that had been left to wean naturally 224kg.

I don't have any dead weights, as we sell our steers at weaning, but I can give you liveweights for non-carrier heifers. We'll be weighing the 1 and 2 year old heifers in a day or two, before the biggest ones go to the bull.

We sold two steers that were 11 months old and weighed an average of 192.5 kg on the stock yard scales.

In a previous year, our non-carrier purebred 2 year old heifers weighed; 249, 269, 301, 302, 302, 334. We had a Grade 3 heifer that weighed 339 kg. Once again, those are all liveweights. If you weighed your heifers before they were sent off, perhaps you can make a liveweight comparison?

If weighed "normally", our pure steers average around 225-245 at 26-27 months, and heifers 195-220 at 24-25 months. All non-shorts.

I think there's more variance in the boned out figures than deadweight though. Can't remember exactly as I usually just get a deadweight or a final boned out figure, rarely both!

According to stats I have for Dexters, excluding bulls, deadweight is usually around 53% of liveweight (assuming a decent finish of course), and it doesn't vary much. Deadweight to boned-out varies a lot more in the figures I have.

Ben
Does leaving calves to wean naturally affect their weights?

I don't know for sure, but as his mother did not get in calf so he was still suckling occasionally at 24 months and his weight was significantly higher than the other two which were bought in at 12 months of age.

Mark Bowles wrote:I have just worked out my average steer stats for the last 11 animals i have started to record. I say steers, there was 1 short heifers and my next 2 to go are both heifers.

6 Non short steers averages 196kg deadweight , age 24.8 months
5 short steers/heifer averages 132.8kg deadweight , age 22.9 months ( this included a real runt that only gave 92kg deadweight).
2 of the shorts, 1 steer 1 heifer graded R.
These animals are all out of short cows, mostly show stock, bred to non short bulls. How does this compare to non-short to non-short matings that people believe gives a bigger carcass. I am not saying my stats are great but just wanted some comparisons.

Does anyone have any stats that include dam's liveweight relative to finishing weight/deadweight? It'd be interesting to know how efficiently they produce finished calves.

Using a combination of Marks figures above and Clives 53% KO, that's a liveweight of 250.5kg for shorts and 369kg for non-shorts, on average. Any idea how much your cows weigh Mark?

And what sort of range do you have on the deadweight to boned out, Clive?

Percentages for boned-out to deadweight:

- Short-leg Dexter: 53% (the only animal identified as short in my records)
- Overall average of approx 100 carcasses: 61%
- Dexter bull: 76%, (yes, that's 76% !!!)

Those are figures averaged over a number of farms, and about 100 cattle in all, mainly steers. The best steer boned-out was a tall one, which came as a surprise. Although his deadweight was slightly below average, he boned out at 65%.

Boned-out to deadweight ranges from 52% to 65%, that's excluding the one bulls who was 76%.

Those are all pure Dexters.

My cows are all about 400kgs (that's a guess), average deadweight for my pure fatstock is about 225kgs.

I only have a weighband so don't take liveweights from them.If i removed my runt short from my stats the average for shorts would be 143kg, plus the age average would only be 23 months so there is some growing left to do but i like to send them in before they start getting fat.
Overall i would suggest your figures for liveweight are on the low side, as Clive says, killing out percentage can be better than 53%.