Spring of rib

We have a beautiful heifer that has plenty of depth and moves like a cat but she need a little more spring of rib. We were told by a show friend to feed a case
of beer a week. What is everyone's thoughts on this? We tried to add two cans to their feed tonight but they didn't like the smell. Will the beer actually help?

Getting her bred will do more good than anything. Ground cobs and ultra full in addition to our already high fiber feed and winning fill have our heifers huge bellied and fresh.

I'm with Olson get her bred we feed cottonseed hulls and pre con in this part of the country but it's all the same idea "feeding a belly" depending on what's in your area

Thanks for the comments. The heifer has been bred for 41 days. I am guessing she will be out state fair trip even though we haven't had our county fair. She will be about 101 days bred for our state fair so I am hoping being over three month bred this will help. We would have liked to breed for an early January calf but that is a big gamble in West Central Minnesota. February is actually a big gamble. We are feeding Grand 4T Fyer mixed with our own corn and oats and mineral plus Precon Complete. We did add a can of beer last night and at first they walked away from the feeder as they didn't like the smell but it was all eaten in the morning and we tried about 1 1/4 can this morn. Don't know if there is anything else we could do. Keep the comments coming. I will post some pics from our county fair as I don't know if I will make it to a show before then.

I'd probably get some cottonseed hulls and think about getting some ultra full if you have a Purina dealer near you.

I really like precon for young calves, and it does have applications for yearling heifers, but I have had some issues with it.  There is a chance you'll have a hard time getting enough "bloom" on one if they're eating a lot of it. They tend to get a little stale if they eat a lot of it for a long time. Almost lIke beet pulp, but not quite as bad as their chests usually don't go south on precon.  We aren't feeding any of it to the big heifers right now and I'm very happy with how they look.

I understand Ultra Full is for lower body and flank. I may have the wrong term when I say spring of rib. She is plenty deep she need to blossom behind the front shoulders and widen out throughout. I understand some of this will come as she gets farther along but I don't know that Ultra Full will do this. She could maybe use more flank but she certainly doesn't look high flanked and we have plenty of hair to camouflage. That's why I'm thinking the beer may be a better source but I actually think the Ultra Full may be a bit cheeper. Any other suggestions?

Ultra full isn't going to go directly to the flank. That's not how it works.

If you really want to blow her apart behind the shoulders, a hose down her until she's full every day for 45 days will help. But I wouldnt do that.

I agree with Olson if it worked like that ultra fill would be a multi million dollar product, cattle anatomy doesn't work like that where you can exclusively fill a flank

It'll go in her center rib area first

mainecattlemother said:

Any other suggestions?

Click to expand...

Drink the beer, while u are feeding ultra fill <beer>

Personally, I am a fan of Precon.  I have never fed anything that will belly one down like Precon, without putting a bunch of chest on them.  Olson Shorthorn covered that in his post, and I completely agree.  You can make one stale if you aren't careful.  If you are going to have lots of hair (which you said you would), that stale factor isn't as big of a deal.  Or goal is to feed our steers about 75% Precon for the last 45-60 days before State Fair.  It is easy to grow hair on this stuff.

I really don't know why someone would have told you to feed beer.  Drenching with beer...absolutely!  Feeding it is something that I am not sure I understand.