Richards Brothers
The Better Animals Store
7 Ways to Add Value to Your Calves
According to animal scientists at Texas A&M University the following seven calf management practices can help you add value to the calves you produce

1.  Parasite Control:  Calves are more susceptive to internal and external parasites than adult cattle.  Managing these parasites can add additional pounds of weaning weight. 
2.  Creep Feeding:  Creep feeding is designed to add weight to nursing calves on pasture.  We have several feeds that are excellent choices to give your calves that extra start.
3.  Dehorning:  In the feedlot, horned cattle require more bunk space, can cause bruises that lower carcus values and are a safety concern for people.  Discounts for calves with horns are usually about $2 per hundredweight. 
4.  Castrating:  Castrate bull calves.  Depending on weight, steers are worth more per hundredweight.  To minimize stress and risk, calves should be castrated before 4 months of age.
5.  Growth Implants:  There is a high net return on implanting suckling calves because it can increase daily weight gains and weaning weights.
6.  Fill:  Cattle fill is classified as gaunt, shrunk, average, full or overfilled (also called tanked).  Keep calves within the shrunk -average-full range should eliminate discounts for full.
7.  Group Size and Uniformity:  Buyers prefer feeders that are bred alike, managed alike and sold in truck-load lots of 90 to 100 head.  The traits that buyers value most are weight, color, breed type, frame, muscle and condition.
At Richards Brothers we have everything you need for parasite control, designing a creep feeding program and a weaning program to help you get the most out of your calves!
Winter Feeding 10-Point Plan
This 10-Point Winter Feeding Plan will help assure you that you have adequate, high feed supplies during the winter.
1.  Analyze hay for feeding value and develop a supplementing program to meet energy, protein and mineral requirements. 
2.  Keep Hay or adequate pasture available for cows at all times.
3.  Body Condition Scores (BCS) of cows should be recorded every two months during winter and more often
during extremely cold or damp conditions.
4.  Ensure there is enough feed on hand for the winter season to feed all cattle.
5.  Separate heifers, thin cows and older cows from the main herd for feeding purposes and separate lactating cows from dry cows.
6.  Re-Group the cattle during the winter as needed so thin can can be fed separately.
7.  Cull Chronically thin cattle, old cows and cattle with dental or health problems.
8.  Adjust rations as calving season approaches to provide more energy and protein.
9.  Provide minerals at all times based on requirements for your area.
10.  Provide adequate shelter from wet or cold weather.
Purina Helps You Get the Most From Forages
The cattle nutrition experts at Purina realize that home-grown forage is your greatest resource for your beef cattle enterprise.
Although cattle can survive on a diet consisting exclusively of grass or hay, variability of forage quality due to environmental changes, damage in storage and other factors can result in nutrient deficiencies or a lack of consistent nutrition being delivered to the animal.
Purina's beef cattle nutrition programs have been designed to help you extract the most value possible from your forage resources by potentially improving animal performance while enhancing forage utilization.  For example, Purina Wind and Rain minerals are specifically designed to meet mineral deficiencies based on forage quality and cattle nutritional requirements throughout the year.
If additional protein and energy are needed before and/or after calving, consider using one of the Intake Modifying Technology products.  Accuration, Impact, and Pur-Lyx range products can help optimize the use of your forage and meet the cow's needs on a continuous basis, all while providing lower supplement delivery costs.
Come in today to discuss which of these products will meet the needs and budget of your cattle operation.