Steer Planet - Show Steers and Club Calves Forum

has everyone stopped beating their chests?


i proved a negative the other day.


it gave me a positive feeling.

The one and only reason this or any sale barn would post this is simply to tell you ahead of time that if you bring your finished show steers here they are going to sell well below the prices you see quoted for fat cattle.  Don't say we didn't warn you. 

No sale barn likes club calves.  I've heard that same line from many other barn owners (all small ones) - don't bring your club calves here.  Then they wonder why you stop bringing them anything.  You're not getting my best stuff if you don't want to sell the rest.  It's all a cover their arse deal, because they don't want to hear sellers complain that their calves brought less than average. 

We've fed showmaxx in the past, we've eaten beef that's been fed showmaxx.  I'm not saying the USDA is infallible, but they did approve it.  I'm less afraid to eat beef that I know has been fed USDA approved supplements correctly than I am to eat something that came from Wal Mart that came from heaven knows where before that.  We don't feed it now because it didn't live up to the hype IMO.  And it's a bonus that I know that if I need to sell the steers myself that people like to hear that they're free from that kind of thing.

Several years ago we had 3 steers left after OYE and couldn't get a kill date anywhere around here for nearly 3 months.  My uncle fed all his own steers, and sold them through Tyson, so I called his buyer. He said sure, take them out next week.  When I got there, the guy I was to talk to when I got there laughed at me - he said I show steers, I know.  No show steer is fat enough for this deal.  I said you haven't seen these.  He said it doesn't matter - no show steer works here.  I left them and sweated for 3 days.  On the 4th day I got my check.  The Hereford graded prime, both black steers graded high choice and went CAB.  I can't recall the exact numbers now, but they brought about 25% more than most were getting for the steers on the rail at home.  Even after that, I have no desire to go back.  I understand that show steers are a very small portion of their supply and that they can choose not to take them if they want.  I really believe that their reasons have less to do with actual food safety than with public perception - aka profits.  If it's necessary for their export markets I guess that's okay, but if you'll recall all this started with videos of crippled up cattle (supposedly caused by zilmax) that had the animal rights activists up in arms.  Whether it's all of why Tyson chose to refuse zilmax fed cattle, it's pretty hard to believe that appeasing them didn't have something to do with it.

I don't worry too much about what the chicken molesters at Tyson think.  I still question the truth behind the story from that sale barn.  If there's any truth, it's likely a guy at Tyson and not "Tyson".  That sale barn would be considered a piss ant in Tx.  400 head runs?  And their proud of it?  Maybe its a time of year thing.

XBAR - let go of the conspiracy theories.  Plot the average human lifespan and use of all these bad chemical modern ag use over time.  You'll see a pretty strong positive correlation.

If that many steers test positive for drugs up north, I guess our crooked Tex/Ok steer jocks are a lot better than their yankee counterparts.  Our steers in Tx have been getting drug tested  for 20 yrs.  We get great prices for our Zilmaxed up show steers that get put on the truck at our majors.

I know full well about the Zilmax ban from Tyson.  Zilmax hasn't been available for nearly a year.  I question the prevalence of it in show steers going to slaughter right now.

Interesting topic!  I know that when I was on our local county fair board we had to deal with getting someplace to take the market pigs due to the same instances of drug residues. 

I think that these county, small and even state shows are going to have to think outside the box-- I see a door closing, but a window opening.  Get together with all your 4-H and FFA clubs before going into next year and look at alternative fair sale market avenues-- the first thing that comes to my mind is-- kids get 100% buyers for their product- not just premium buyers-- get your local lockers involved on if they are interested in setting up a system to collect these cattle.  This could be a good opportunity for kids to learn from birth to plate-- if they have to represent their project to a potential buyer that is going get the calf and have that calf on their plate!  The Showmaxx and Zilmax calves can be represented as such and then it is up to the buyer to decide if they want to eat a feed additive calf or wait for the next calf in the ring that did not get Showmaxx or Zilmax.  We need to learn disclosure and standing behind that disclosure.
 The Last year my son showed a market steer-- we had to find the final home for that calf-- it wasn't that hard-- we marketed that we had beef for sale at the end of July and sold that guy to a couple of people as halves.  This was not because of feed additives, but our fair has a rule- that comes from the packers-- that any calf weighing in over 1500 pounds at the fair can't go to the packer.  We knew that going in when the project started in January.  We knew he was going to be big and planned ahead for it.   We did not get to go into the premium sale, but we knew that and made up for any premium by selling as halves at meat price.

I am glad that when I do feed out calves I keep it simple:  Corn and protein supplement that has no additives.  With today's genetics--  we shouldn't need fancy stuff-- my opinion.

EF

i could be wrong but from what i understand is that alot of feed lots feed Zilmax to their steers. I was told by a few different people that the amount of yield gained is making them more money compared to how much the Zilmax costs.(estimated 35 lbs extra of hanging weight on every steer so at $2 per lb it has made them extra money because the bulk price is about $30 per calf) I have a friend who worked for a feed lot that every animal there was on so much Zilmax they looked stupid. I dont know how true all this really is but it was from some people i would trust their word.
Now if it is true and alot of feed lots feed it why is the show world and show jocks being brought into this. The way i understood it is basically every steak or beef product you buy at a store such as walmart was fed Zilmax.
Does any one know if this is true and if alot of feed lots feed it. i find it hard to believe only one would and that its the one my friend happened to work at.

Zilmax has been off the market for awhile. Tyson, Cargill, and JBS have all  came out and said they will not accept cattle being fed Zilmax (not sure about National they might have too). So the statement about the feedlots feeding it would be false. Unless they had a bunch stored up before it got pulled off the market and are not selling to Tyson, Cargill, or JBS. The reason these three stopped taking cattle fed Zilmax was due to the "animal welfare" issues supposedly identified prior. Another reason was the export market to certain countries would no longer accept cattle being fed Zilmax and at the ports of these countries they would test for it. 

Its probably an unfounded fear.....but I would be scared to death to eat a show steer.

not unfounded. been saying it for years. it's probably ok to buy a lower placing one, but then it probably won't be fat, which is ok. one can probably ask the butcher to hang the carcass for an extended period of time.