I gotta chime in on this topic. We don't wean until calves are at least 180 days old on 95% of our herd. This year, inputs (feed) are expensive and our grass is paid for. Unless you can put weight on for less than 95 cents per pound, your best bet is to leave em out there with mom. Yes, I know, we all love those cute, squishy looking hairy cattle, but come on folks, this is the beef industry, keep inputs low, and profits up...............Superior was selling 550# calves for Oct delivery yesterday for $120.00 on steers and $110.00 on heifers. Those are for pot loads, not singles at the salebarn. You can back those small lots up $10.00, especially if you take them in and ten head get cut 3 ways. Feed is costing y'all $300.00 per ton. Here is the math. $.15 per pound of feed *7.0 conversion rate = $1.05 cost per pound of gain. If you creep in the pasture, and don't wean, your conversion will be better on the purchased creep due to the calf eating milk as well as creep feed. This is a year to tighten the belt and hang on in my opinion. I truely believe that our passion for showing will be slowed down in the future due to cost of production (gas, feed, electricity to run the cooler, hotel bills, gas, gas, gas). Not wanting to vent here, but I pay the bills at our little ranch, and right now it hurts.