How long to raise a black angus cow to 1400 pounds?

Answer 1

A cow is a mature female bovine, so she may have already reached 1400 lbs or more. However, without knowing where the starting point is for raising an Angus "cow" (since "cow" is a general term neither do we know whether you are raising a heifer, steer or bull calf), we can only guess and assume, making the answer to this question less simple and more complex. What are you raising this "cow" for? How old is this "cow"? When did you first aquire this "cow"? What sex is this "cow"? These are VERY important questions to ask in order to get a straight-forward answer.

However I will try to answer this as well as possible. If you are raising this "cow" from birth, it would take 2 years, depending on what diet it gets, what the weaning weight is, the growth characteristics of its sire and dam, growth weight and ADG, etc., particularly if you are aiming to get this "cow" to slaughter weight, which I assume you got the "1400 pounds" from. Steers (castrated male "cows") tend to grow at a faster pace than heifers (female "cows" that have not had a calf), even though the rate of intake is the same. Steers tend to put on less fat and more muscle than heifers; heifers tend to lay fat on their backs, hips and belly quicker than fat, causing a lot of excess fat to cut off the carcass. Bulls (intact male "cows") are leaner and put on weight even faster yet. But DO NOT go with raising a bull at all because of the unpredictability and agressiveness that these animals possess.

Now it could take longer to finish an Angus "cow" on pasture than in the feedlot or on a grain-based diet. It usually takes about 2 to 4 months longer for Angus steers to reach slaughter weight on pasture than in the feedlot. This is why most grass-fed finisher cattle are slaughtered at a lighter weight than 1400 lbs; most are "harvested" at around 1200 lbs, because if they happen to go past the 2 year stage, the meat might toughen up more than you'd want. However you do not have to go pure 100% grass-fed; some folks like to fatten their cattle up with a 70-30 or 60-40 diet of forage and grain, or even 50-50. This helps put more marbling on the carcass and makes the meat more tender without taking away the good flavour that grass-fed beef gives.

If you are raising this "cow" or heifer to breed, you can't determine what size she is going to mature at. This is all in her genetics; if her dam and/or sire was big, she is going to be a big, 1600 lb cow. However if her sire had the genetics for smaller-sized offspring, despite her mother's size she is going to be smaller. The traditional Angus had a mature weight of 950 to 1100 lbs. That was back then. Now the modern Angus has been selected for more frame and growth, ending up with big monster Angus cows mature up to 1800 lbs. However, you can still get the smaller-sized range cow if you know what to look for and who to breed to whom. An Angus heifer reaches puberty at 7 to 12 months; adult maturity is complete by at least 2 to 3 years of age after the adult teeth have grown in place of the "milk" teeth.