Just Arrived! My Daughter's new steer! It is her first.

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SandyB

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Oct 4, 2013
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65
We just picked up my daughter's steer from the hauler today. We purchased him from Trausch Farms Sale. He is a April calf. He is sired by Blueprint and out of a Hoodoo cow. He traveled about 1700 miles and looks pretty darn good for the long trip. We unloaded him and after a brief skiing, he decided he might have remembered his halter tying sessions and began to give to pressure and lead with a little encouraging. He settled right in and went to eating his grass hay. We purchased grain manufactured by Farmers Feed and it is a Steer Finisher. He appears to be about 550 pounds. We know he needs to work up to eating 2-3% of his body weight a day. Our fair is held Labor Day weekend so we have approximately 10 months of feeding. Wondering if I should keep him on a Developer a little longer? Any feeding suggestions are appreciated. We want to do our best feeding this guy out and plan to take him to a few jackpots for experience before our fair. What do you guys think of him? Strengths/weaknesses and what we can do to make any weaknesses better?
This photo is him with my daughter right after we unloaded him.

Thanks!
 

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bruiser

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Dec 28, 2009
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Illinois (God's country)
Looks like a nice steer and  if he will stand that calmly after being hauled that far he must be gentle. Just keep track of his weight and the feed intake. The main thing now is to work with him as often as possible.
 

Davidsonranch

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Dec 2, 2011
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SE Oregon
Good looking steer! Where are you all at? Our fair is also Labor Day weekend, so by doing the math that is a little over 300 days of feeding.  At 3 pounds of gain per day that could potentially be 900 pounds.  So you have plenty of time.  If he was lets say to turn out to be a 1350 pound steer at Labor Day, then he would need roughly 2.6 lbs of gain per day. 
I would stay on a higher protein (14%) starter/grower feed for awhile longer before I switch to a finisher. We usually do not start hitting a more finishing ration until Spring. I want to build that muscle and frame up really well before putting on the cover.
Good luck and hope she has fun!  We just got our steer last weekend. 
 

doc-sun

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Jan 21, 2009
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367
SandyB said:
We just picked up my daughter's steer from the hauler today. We purchased him from Trausch Farms Sale. He is a April calf. He is sired by Blueprint and out of a Hoodoo cow. He traveled about 1700 miles and looks pretty darn good for the long trip. We unloaded him and after a brief skiing, he decided he might have remembered his halter tying sessions and began to give to pressure and lead with a little encouraging. He settled right in and went to eating his grass hay. We purchased grain manufactured by Farmers Feed and it is a Steer Finisher. He appears to be about 550 pounds. We know he needs to work up to eating 2-3% of his body weight a day. Our fair is held Labor Day weekend so we have approximately 10 months of feeding. Wondering if I should keep him on a Developer a little longer? Any feeding suggestions are appreciated. We want to do our best feeding this guy out and plan to take him to a few jackpots for experience before our fair. What do you guys think of him? Strengths/weaknesses and what we can do to make any weaknesses better?
This photo is him with my daughter right after we unloaded him.

Thanks!
i would start him on 10 to 12 lb of finisher a day split into 2 feedings and 5 to 6 lb of grass hay at night probably 1 good flake. no extra protein. then increase his finisher as fast as you can maybe a lb a week if he won't scour until he is eating 25 lb a day and stay there leaving hay the same. you might need to add corn oil or rice bran in april or earlier if you to burn him out because he is getting to much frame as well as beet pulp to add volume. i am sure trausch had him on a pretty hot feed with lots of hulls at the self feeder because fat sells.
 

Tallcool1

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Jun 21, 2012
Messages
969
doc-sun said:
SandyB said:
We just picked up my daughter's steer from the hauler today. We purchased him from Trausch Farms Sale. He is a April calf. He is sired by Blueprint and out of a Hoodoo cow. He traveled about 1700 miles and looks pretty darn good for the long trip. We unloaded him and after a brief skiing, he decided he might have remembered his halter tying sessions and began to give to pressure and lead with a little encouraging. He settled right in and went to eating his grass hay. We purchased grain manufactured by Farmers Feed and it is a Steer Finisher. He appears to be about 550 pounds. We know he needs to work up to eating 2-3% of his body weight a day. Our fair is held Labor Day weekend so we have approximately 10 months of feeding. Wondering if I should keep him on a Developer a little longer? Any feeding suggestions are appreciated. We want to do our best feeding this guy out and plan to take him to a few jackpots for experience before our fair. What do you guys think of him? Strengths/weaknesses and what we can do to make any weaknesses better?
This photo is him with my daughter right after we unloaded him.

Thanks!
i would start him on 10 to 12 lb of finisher a day split into 2 feedings and 5 to 6 lb of grass hay at night probably 1 good flake. no extra protein. then increase his finisher as fast as you can maybe a lb a week if he won't scour until he is eating 25 lb a day and stay there leaving hay the same. you might need to add corn oil or rice bran in april or earlier if you to burn him out because he is getting to much frame as well as beet pulp to add volume. i am sure trausch had him on a pretty hot feed with lots of hulls at the self feeder because fat sells.

This reply came up as I was typing mine...so I just deleted mine.

I agree with Doc!

Feed this dude.  It is way easier to slow one down than it is to speed one up.

My only other advice......pick up the phone and call Chris Wilson @ Trausch Farms.  He will answer the phone, and he will remember the steer.  Tell him what your plans are, and he will tell you EXACTLY what to feed, how to feed, and how to manage THAT steer as well as tell you what to watch out for.  He knows what he is doing.

I liked him when I saw him on the sale. 

Have fun.
 

Davidsonranch

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Dec 2, 2011
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443
Location
SE Oregon
doc and Tallcool1 as a commercial rancher, we are kinda new to feeding show steers so your posts got me thinking a little.
So if this kiddo started this steer at 12 pounds of finisher and then added 1 pound per week until she got up to 25 pounds (so 13 weeks, or a little over 3 months, Nov,Dec,Jan) that means she would be feeding this steer 25 pounds of feed or more per day for over 8 straight months until labor day?
I'm taking notes for our steers this year because although we did well, we had to push ours till the end.  We did not start feeding quantities of feed like that (25-30 pounds per day) and additives (rice bran, corn oil, steam rolled corn) until June or even July or so.  I'm still learning this battle of finishing them too early and not going stale vs. having to push them till the end. 
Thanks for the advice!
 

OH Breeder

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Feb 14, 2007
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Ada, Ohio
Our Fair is the same week after Labor day. I don't know where you all live. But in Ohio calves have hard time gaining in summer months. Unless you have a cooler and you can keep them cool. We try to have ours finished by June so we can sweat it out through the summer or just put final cover on. I would suggest you weigh yours frequently. January should be around 800 and March around 1000-1100. That's keeping it around 3.00 a day. For our slow gainers we have used implants to give them a boost early to get a jump start. As far as feeding, we feed them an til they stop cleaning it up. Usually if they are good eaters they eat about 3% of body weight. If you have a local elevator where you can drive through with truck and trailer empty and with him in it just so you can keep track of weights. You look like you have a dandy so I would take the time to feed it. By finish he should be more than 25#'s a day. I have had steers in past that ate really well that were 30-35#'s a day. Most important is to keep him eating and on feed what ever that is. Probiotics help keep him on track as well as plain grass or grass mix hay. This site has been a great resource over the years. I have ask many questions and believe me I felt like they were dumb one's but found I was not the only one in the crowd. Good luck!
 

doc-sun

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Jan 21, 2009
Messages
367
Davidsonranch said:
doc and Tallcool1 as a commercial rancher, we are kinda new to feeding show steers so your posts got me thinking a little.
So if this kiddo started this steer at 12 pounds of finisher and then added 1 pound per week until she got up to 25 pounds (so 13 weeks, or a little over 3 months, Nov,Dec,Jan) that means she would be feeding this steer 25 pounds of feed or more per day for over 8 straight months until labor day?
I'm taking notes for our steers this year because although we did well, we had to push ours till the end.  We did not start feeding quantities of feed like that (25-30 pounds per day) and additives (rice bran, corn oil, steam rolled corn) until June or even July or so.  I'm still learning this battle of finishing them too early and not going stale vs. having to push them till the end. 
Thanks for the advice!
You probably can't increase him a pound a wk so that slows u down some but where we are for a Labor Day show you need to weigh 900 to 950 by April 1st then feed himall he will eat April thru June because they won't gain but 2 lb July & aug when they are just putting on cover & it's hot even with a cooler feed him to 1340 weigh him in at 1280 to 1320 the Charolais in him makes me want to feed him where he is less likely to grow frame
 

SandyB

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Oct 4, 2013
Messages
65
Thank you all for the advise. So I am okay to keep him on the Finisher seems to be the general consensus??
He is getting one flake of grass hay a day, but he does not finish it. We are up to 10#'s of Finisher and he pounds it down. If we want to take him to some jackpots for fun, should I add anything else to his diet or just keep on with what I am doing. We were not sure how much grain we could throw at him since he had been off the grain for the couple weeks it took him to get here. He is a very easy going guy and my daughter already has him leading. He does tie awesome which I pretty much already expected. I am working on getting him to a scale to get a weight on him.
 

vc

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So-Cal
Just work the grain in over a period of time, you estimate him at 550, 3%  would be 16.5 a day.
I would add a half pound a feeding every 3 or 4 days until you get him there.
Just watch his stool and appetite, if you see any changes back up a half pound and keep him there for a few days more, then start increasing again. I have also used the powdered pro biotics, adding a scoop a day when ever changing feed, adding feed, or environmental changes. If nothing is changing we just give it to them twice a week for insurance.

The thing to remember is once they start growing they are gaining 80 to 100 pounds a month, I think it is best to add feed a little at a time, as they seem to grow or you get a weight on him, adjust his feed. I like to add a half pound to a pound at a time to keep up with their growth, not wait and jump 3 or 4 to get them caught up to their weight.
 

CAB

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Corning,Iowa
JMO, 10 lbs of feed that quick is pushing a little hard until he gets acclimated to everything he needs to right now. I would be at 5 to 6 lbs along with free choice long stemmed grass hay for an adjustment period of time. You have a lot of time ahead of you. Be a little cautious.
 

SandyB

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CAB said:
JMO, 10 lbs of feed that quick is pushing a little hard until he gets acclimated to everything he needs to right now. I would be at 5 to 6 lbs along with free choice long stemmed grass hay for an adjustment period of time. You have a lot of time ahead of you. Be a little cautious.


I may not have made myself clear, he is on 1 flake of long stemmed grass hay (high quality as we also feed to our horses)per day and 5 pounds of finisher am & pm (10 pounds total per day). We plan to increase 1/2 pound every few days until we get to our goal of 3% of his body weight. Hopefully we will have a weight on him in the next week.
 

CAB

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No I understood & I'm saying that for me 10 lbs. of a concentrated feed is pushing a little for me. I would be cautious. That may be just me.
 

Tallcool1

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Jun 21, 2012
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We have 3 steers that are "basically" being targeted at a Labor Day end point.

We do what vc is telling you.  We do it for the reasons that OH Breeder has given.

Where we show, hair is pretty much necessity.  It is just too hard to grow hair in July and August when we are feeding a steer really hard, and we do have a cooler.

So the calves we have weigh 550, 700, and 750 right now.  We are on our way up to 3%, and we are at 14 pounds right now.  That is just the way that it has worked for us, right or wrong.

The 750 pound steer is the one we will prospect with the most, which is why we have him so heavy.  Otherwise he would be EXACTLY where OH Breeder suggests.

 

doc-sun

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Jan 21, 2009
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367
going to a prospect show every week slows gain and won't win fat shows in the fall. you have to be smart and go to just enough to get your daughter and the steer used to each other and everything else that goes on. tall cool is right on to prospect the heavier steer.
 

Davidsonranch

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SE Oregon
Our steers are way smaller than I was anticipating this year.  They are probalby only 400 pounds right now for our Labor Day sale.  We will definitely have to push more this year.
 

SandyB

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Oct 4, 2013
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doc-sun said:
going to a prospect show every week slows gain and won't win fat shows in the fall. you have to be smart and go to just enough to get your daughter and the steer used to each other and everything else that goes on. tall cool is right on to prospect the heavier steer.


We have no plans to jackpot that much, just two or three shows to get my daughter and the steer used to the the show ring. If we want to jackpot heavier, we plan to get a heifer to promote. Again, we are new at this and are learning as we go. This steer is doing great so far in the few days he has been here. His temperament is outstanding, he is eating well, learning to lead like a piece of cake and tying up like a champ and enjoying his grooming. So far it seems we are very lucky with this first steer of ours.
 

AAOK

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Rogers, Ar
SandyB said:
CAB said:
JMO, 10 lbs of feed that quick is pushing a little hard until he gets acclimated to everything he needs to right now. I would be at 5 to 6 lbs along with free choice long stemmed grass hay for an adjustment period of time. You have a lot of time ahead of you. Be a little cautious.


I may not have made myself clear, he is on 1 flake of long stemmed grass hay (high quality as we also feed to our horses)per day and 5 pounds of finisher am & pm (10 pounds total per day). We plan to increase 1/2 pound every few days until we get to our goal of 3% of his body weight. Hopefully we will have a weight on him in the next week.

Perfect!
 
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