"HOLDING SHOW CALVES"

What's the best way you have found to "hold" an animal at it's weight without loosing it's "bloom" and freshness? How long do you believe you can just "turn it out to pasture" before you lose the ability to get it back in show shape? Any body got any rations that have worked well? All opinions appreciated.

GONEWEST said:

What's the best way you have found to "hold" an animal at it's weight without loosing it's "bloom" and freshness? How long do you believe you can just "turn it out to pasture" before you lose the ability to get it back in show shape? Any body got any rations that have worked well? All opinions appreciated.

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We have used prebagged show feed and beat pulp. We have only ever turned heifers out to slim down or freshen up. I think you can shrink them without turning them out too much.You would be surprised how fast they loose it. How long are you wanting to hold as well?

They are starting to make some high bulk show feeds that apparently work very well.  Kent and Acco are ones I know of.  They look like bales instead of sacks.

Folks are using it a lot on the older Heat Seeker/Heat Wave bloodline calves to get them that mature, fat look without getting too heavy.

We fed an old calf once that was fed 3 scoops feed/1 scoop beet pulp every day of his life from the time we got him in June till he won at Houston in March.  Beet pulp works, but I think the new stuff may be better.

I am not recommending this, only relaying what I was told by a well known breeder from Iowa at a sale I attended here in Texas.  I was concerned with the size and age of the cattle for our shows, and was told that he feeds potato peels he gets from a restaurant to help hold steers.  This one caught me off guard, has anyone heard of this before?

We have had a lot of experience in this area of show cattle and we found something that works really well for us. This ration is one that not a lot of people have probably heard of or even thought about but it works. It will keep the animal fresh and hairy and will not let them gain a pound.

Here it goes:
MILK REPLACER, OAT GROTES (Not regular steamed oats), beet pulp, and your traditional feed. Buy the bagged NON-MEDICATED milk replacer and place about 1 cup per feeding, use about 3 lbs. of beet pulp per feeding, and 3lbs. of oat grotes then add about 2 lbs. of your show feed. If he wont eat it then wet it down because sometimes they do not like the powder of the milk replacer. It kind of smells like oatmeal when all is done but it sure does work. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Craig

That is what we use without the milk replacer with free choice hay and mineral.  It has been a long time since we held a steer, they get really grouchy so we started selecting ones we had to push rather than hold, however we end up holding a lot of our heifers and they do great on this, just not sure what it will do to your finish on a steer.

I am not recommending this, only relaying what I was told by a well known breeder from Iowa at a sale I attended here in Texas.  I was concerned with the size and age of the cattle for our shows, and was told that he feeds potato peels he gets from a restaurant to help hold steers.  This one caught me off guard, has anyone heard of this before?

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Don't know if this is the same product but there is a local feedlot that used to ( maybe still does) buy leftover potato products from Frito Lay and used it to fatten cattle.    I have no idea what else is in their ration but they were buying the stuff (it is called something) very cheap. 

I know of people that feed whole potatoes to show calves.  We've nevery really used them that I can remember.

We've relied on beet pulp a lot, sometimes with a heavy dose of oats - especially if we are trying to smooth out a really fat calf. 

Been a while since I've had one that has had to be held hard though.

Without seeing your steers, I can think of something that most people seem to leave out. When you shrink back a calf, or in your case hold them, the tend to get slightly sloppy looking up front. Get some wheat germ oil ( you can buy it at TSC or maybe your feed mill has it) and mix it in his feed. This will tighten up his front end as he looses/maintains a certain weight and keep him more uniform, flashy, and fresh. It has worked wonders for us.

We cut the amount of feed being fed and replace with the same amount of cottonseed hulls and beet pulp.  When you cut the amount of "good" feed the calf is getting, you cut the amount of nutrients he is getting.  To keep him fresh, be sure to feed a good quality topdress and a little fat.