RuffoniSistersCattle
Active member
Hello Steer Planet I strongly need your help. I posted earlier about some questions about two may born club calfs headed for a season of jackpots and then a fat show in late july with a minimum of 1.100 lbs.
Currently both calves are arounf 650 on 15lbs a day Show Rite full throttle grain. 7 1/2 AM -- 7 1/2 PM. ( Or Suppose to be eating this,)
they came to us eating 10 lbs a day of an extremely sweet show feed. We tried to get this feed ut prices were not what we wanted and the feed mill was over 7 hours away and hauling price to get feed to us was not what we wanted. Over a couple week period of time we switced them both over to a local grain mix. This mix we had fed in the past and is what a majority of the people in our area feed for their 'Fat steer shows'. Our steers in the past had eaten it just fine yet these two calves wanted nothing to do with this grain. after a month of these calves just not eating at all we were getting worried and decided maybe a sweet molasses feed like they came on is what we need to do. So we did, we ended up going to Show Rite full throttle sweet grain and again over weeks anmount of time slowly switched them over. once they were on this and were eating this feed we started slowly upping them from 10lbs a day to 15lbs a day. At one point they both were fully eating and cleaning up grain. Latley we have been seeing them go downhill. They did get sick a couple months ago and were treated with Draxxin and Bananmine and seemed to have a full recovery.
---Our problem steer, My calf, isnt showing interest in eating. they have been fully switched over to this nnew grain for over 3 months. We give them 45 minutes to eat every meal then grain is pulled. They have free choice grass/oat hay mix and fresh water. Both calves have been wormed,treated with Corrid, get probios weekly. They have room to play in the pen and get walked about every other day. they do have a pasture we can let them out in but have not let them out beacuse of flooding irrigation issues. We origiannly thought he is picky and wanted the sweet grain like the one he was 'raised' on .. now he is on a sweet grain, then we thought because he is a little bit of a nervous steer maybe that is hwy he isnt eating. Our routine is schedule and we dont know hwat to do..This calf this week hasnt touched his grain for the past 4 days, 8 meals. To the point where this is common and expected with him. We are desperate. I dont want to make any rash decisions or change anything up too severly and mess him up any more. Everytime I feed him daily am and pm i am getting even more worried and upset that this could happen. Advice needed. I am weighing him tomorrow and will get a more accurate weight. Also I am worried bevcause when people have come out and looked at the calf to give me more advice they have said the other calf looks like he is growing taller and bigger and this calf looks to have LOST muscle mass in his rear for one, and seems to if anything lost weight. I have never had issues like this and am very puzzled this is why I am trying to ask as many people in the industry as i can for help with this calf. Everyother calf i have fed has not had soundness issues or weight gain issues where they dont even want to eat grain and wont eat for weeks straight. I also believe e does not consume enough water. the 70gallon water torugh I refill as it goes down, yet between both calfs only drink the trough down 3 inched every 30-48 or so hours....
--- problem two, starting 1 1/2 months ago both steers started popping in their pasterns when tey walked. It is painfull for me to even watch them walk it looks like it hurts or as if a joint or bone is rubbing. The calfs were picked because they were structurally sound our judge John Edwards for our fat show preached he wanted nothing but the most solid sound calves. We are trying to push them now with weight so we can try not to struggle in the end. Yet with these young only 650 lb steers i worry we shouldnt be having these issues. We called the breeder both calves came from and asked advice and hwat to do, we were told because we are on well water that is high in iron and our county is known for being low in selenium that is our issue. We have since given them a selenium mineral block and they enjoy licking this and trying to eat it. Yet the problems have not gotten getter. The pen is all wood chips and the shelter inside barn they can go into is concrete floors with matts and then fresh straw on top. they are not cooped up and get excersice so i dont know what we have done wrong. Looking at my personal videos of the calves when we bought them they were sound and walking fine and no issues were seen and now we have this.
If any more information is needed just say so and i will gladly tell you anything and everything about our routine and the calves if i left out a vital piece of info. We are getting desperate and worried. These calves seemed to start out stroing and have been going downhill from here . The plan was to jackpot these calfs year loing and then go to the fat show in late july and sell them there at county fair.. we havent gone to any jackpots yet because we are worried they wont eat and will loose weight from stress AS well as these newfound popping in the pastern problems I dont want to take them to a show.
UPDATE: 1/8/13 UPDATE: i did the math right now woth weight of gain
As of last night this calf weighed 647lbs 1/7/13 if he continues at this pace his average daily gain is 1.86lbs a day.... I was told i need to gain 3lbs a day.... We have 151 days to fair as of today 1/8/13 minimum weight to be accepted is 1,000 no max.
This is how desperate i am to get them eatibg^^
UPDATE: 1.21.13 steers have both been given a shot us mu-se two weeks ago, arent seeing improvment but we will do another shot in 30 days. Wormed them both again today. They are now having Golden Flow and Appetite Express from Sullivans livestock supply in their feed the reccomended amount . As well as Calf Mana protein pellets of 1/2 lb a day for each calf. Current weights are 734lbs and 671lbs.. this was a 40lb jump in 2 weeks. So only 20lbs a week. Here is a more detailed list of weights to see whats going on. we try and weigh every two weeks but in there there was a 4 week gap at one point
tag 33- Tag 25-
11/11 543 534
11/26 593 575
12/10 628 595
1/7 708 647
1/21 734 671
Currently both calves are arounf 650 on 15lbs a day Show Rite full throttle grain. 7 1/2 AM -- 7 1/2 PM. ( Or Suppose to be eating this,)
they came to us eating 10 lbs a day of an extremely sweet show feed. We tried to get this feed ut prices were not what we wanted and the feed mill was over 7 hours away and hauling price to get feed to us was not what we wanted. Over a couple week period of time we switced them both over to a local grain mix. This mix we had fed in the past and is what a majority of the people in our area feed for their 'Fat steer shows'. Our steers in the past had eaten it just fine yet these two calves wanted nothing to do with this grain. after a month of these calves just not eating at all we were getting worried and decided maybe a sweet molasses feed like they came on is what we need to do. So we did, we ended up going to Show Rite full throttle sweet grain and again over weeks anmount of time slowly switched them over. once they were on this and were eating this feed we started slowly upping them from 10lbs a day to 15lbs a day. At one point they both were fully eating and cleaning up grain. Latley we have been seeing them go downhill. They did get sick a couple months ago and were treated with Draxxin and Bananmine and seemed to have a full recovery.
---Our problem steer, My calf, isnt showing interest in eating. they have been fully switched over to this nnew grain for over 3 months. We give them 45 minutes to eat every meal then grain is pulled. They have free choice grass/oat hay mix and fresh water. Both calves have been wormed,treated with Corrid, get probios weekly. They have room to play in the pen and get walked about every other day. they do have a pasture we can let them out in but have not let them out beacuse of flooding irrigation issues. We origiannly thought he is picky and wanted the sweet grain like the one he was 'raised' on .. now he is on a sweet grain, then we thought because he is a little bit of a nervous steer maybe that is hwy he isnt eating. Our routine is schedule and we dont know hwat to do..This calf this week hasnt touched his grain for the past 4 days, 8 meals. To the point where this is common and expected with him. We are desperate. I dont want to make any rash decisions or change anything up too severly and mess him up any more. Everytime I feed him daily am and pm i am getting even more worried and upset that this could happen. Advice needed. I am weighing him tomorrow and will get a more accurate weight. Also I am worried bevcause when people have come out and looked at the calf to give me more advice they have said the other calf looks like he is growing taller and bigger and this calf looks to have LOST muscle mass in his rear for one, and seems to if anything lost weight. I have never had issues like this and am very puzzled this is why I am trying to ask as many people in the industry as i can for help with this calf. Everyother calf i have fed has not had soundness issues or weight gain issues where they dont even want to eat grain and wont eat for weeks straight. I also believe e does not consume enough water. the 70gallon water torugh I refill as it goes down, yet between both calfs only drink the trough down 3 inched every 30-48 or so hours....
--- problem two, starting 1 1/2 months ago both steers started popping in their pasterns when tey walked. It is painfull for me to even watch them walk it looks like it hurts or as if a joint or bone is rubbing. The calfs were picked because they were structurally sound our judge John Edwards for our fat show preached he wanted nothing but the most solid sound calves. We are trying to push them now with weight so we can try not to struggle in the end. Yet with these young only 650 lb steers i worry we shouldnt be having these issues. We called the breeder both calves came from and asked advice and hwat to do, we were told because we are on well water that is high in iron and our county is known for being low in selenium that is our issue. We have since given them a selenium mineral block and they enjoy licking this and trying to eat it. Yet the problems have not gotten getter. The pen is all wood chips and the shelter inside barn they can go into is concrete floors with matts and then fresh straw on top. they are not cooped up and get excersice so i dont know what we have done wrong. Looking at my personal videos of the calves when we bought them they were sound and walking fine and no issues were seen and now we have this.
If any more information is needed just say so and i will gladly tell you anything and everything about our routine and the calves if i left out a vital piece of info. We are getting desperate and worried. These calves seemed to start out stroing and have been going downhill from here . The plan was to jackpot these calfs year loing and then go to the fat show in late july and sell them there at county fair.. we havent gone to any jackpots yet because we are worried they wont eat and will loose weight from stress AS well as these newfound popping in the pastern problems I dont want to take them to a show.
UPDATE: 1/8/13 UPDATE: i did the math right now woth weight of gain
As of last night this calf weighed 647lbs 1/7/13 if he continues at this pace his average daily gain is 1.86lbs a day.... I was told i need to gain 3lbs a day.... We have 151 days to fair as of today 1/8/13 minimum weight to be accepted is 1,000 no max.
This is how desperate i am to get them eatibg^^
UPDATE: 1.21.13 steers have both been given a shot us mu-se two weeks ago, arent seeing improvment but we will do another shot in 30 days. Wormed them both again today. They are now having Golden Flow and Appetite Express from Sullivans livestock supply in their feed the reccomended amount . As well as Calf Mana protein pellets of 1/2 lb a day for each calf. Current weights are 734lbs and 671lbs.. this was a 40lb jump in 2 weeks. So only 20lbs a week. Here is a more detailed list of weights to see whats going on. we try and weigh every two weeks but in there there was a 4 week gap at one point
tag 33- Tag 25-
11/11 543 534
11/26 593 575
12/10 628 595
1/7 708 647
1/21 734 671
