Steer Size

We have a couple steers one is a Chi cross (1600lbs and 55" @ the hip)  and the other is a Maine (1400 lbs and 52" @ the hip) both are pretty framey calves and definitely not your standard tiny little show steers. They both have a reasonable amount of cover on them although I would like to see more, but I don't really think that is possible at this point.  We have a couple weeks until they show and my question is do we try and take some of the weight off of them to try and weigh in at a more reasonable weight, or do we feed them like they have been fed and not worry about the weight in an attempt to try and present them at their freshest regardless of size?  They were gaining roughly 3lbs per day on full feed which was about 28 lbs of a complete feed/day.  Please feel free to post comments harsh or otherwise and I will do my best to answer any questions that may come up. 

If there is no weight limit for the show, you may as well feed them right so they look good.  Hard to be champ at 1600 lbs. but maybe the 1400 pounder might have a chance.  Good luck.

like stated above the 1600 pounder might be tough to shrink to much, maybe down to 1500 with some work, you can hold and shrink the 1400 pounder with out making him stale, he could weigh in in the low 1300 no problem. First our your weights full or empty?  Second do you have a weigh back? You need to feed him beetpulp, grass ha,y and a fat and protein supplement. if you do not have a weigh back, hold water back the day before weigh-in through weigh-in.  2 days prior to that start filling him with electrolytes,( we use Refresh) the day before weigh in give him drench him with quart of water and 6 scoops of refresh once in the morning and once at night. He should drop 70 to 90 pounds.
If you do this just fill them up slowly after weigh in a half a bucket of water a little feed and hay right after weigh in, then the same about an hour later and then once more an hour later after that they should be ready to eat and drink normal. If you have a weigh back you need to figure out how much you can take off him and still be in range, take him down and then fill  so he hits the bottom of your weigh back range.

We weighed a 1420 last year and 1410 the year before at 1336 and 1320 with no problems and the calf did not miss a beat. I know some can take 150 pounds off but I am not ready to try that.

id love to see some pics of these steers! they sound massive!

Thank you for the advice.  We are going to just continue to feed them and roll with it.  These days it is very hard to be competitive at 1600 lbs, so we are just going to roll with it and see where it takes us.  We don't have a max weight or a weigh back.  Those two things are working in our favor right now!  We will suck them back before weigh in and then feed them back up.  I just didn't think it was possible with our time frame to suck to much weight off of them and still keep them lookin' good.  ShortieShowGirl, if I can get some good pictures of them I will post them.  Thanks again.

I would not try and have them lose any weight, just slow them down between now and your show. If you can hold the 1400 pound steer under 1420, you can bring him in at under 1340 at be at the top end of the competitive weight.