Steer weight???

How do you slow down a steer without burning off finish? Our steer bound for San Antonio weighed in yesterday at a whopping 1433 lbs. The week before we cut him back to 25lbs of grain and increased the beet pulp and precon to 3lbs each. He was eating 34lbs a day with 1 1/2lbs each of precon and beet pulp added. We cut rice bran back to 8oz morning and evening. He still gained 30lbs last week. I want to stop the rice bran and lower his grain intake even more but my husband is worried he will lose his fat cover. Thank you in advance.

You should seriously consider eating him. If he is not in contention for the top prize, why not? That is what they are there for after all. <nopics>

Most recent pics I have when he was still in the 1200lbs range.

Edited to add: This isn't about us taking a top prize with this steer. It's about an almost year long project my son has worked his backside off on. To him the prize is the privilege of getting to show for the first time at a major show. That's it. There are some very experienced feeders on this site and I was just looking for some advice on holding a steer. Not an opinion on whether or not we should show the steer.

Keep the rice bran drop grain to 10 lbs free choice medium poor grass hay. Make him feel full.

I would have him on 3 pounds oats, 6 pounds of beet pulp, 1 pound stabilized rice bran and 1 pound calf manna, twice a day a with free choice grass hay. The STB and the Calf manna help keep the cover and freshness with out the calories from the grain.

I would also get a weight on him full and empty, figure out what weight you can weigh him at fill him up and still be within the 5 percent and still look good. If he weighs 1433, and you shrink him to 1370 for weigh in he can go back to 1433 and still be fine, or shrink him to 1350 and fill him back up to 1410 monitor the water,add Refresh and lots of filler. You have some time to play with the weight and feed and water to see what works for the animal.

Good luck

Thank you for your advice. Very good plan, I just hope I can get my husband on board with it. We have never had to hold one. The weather here in Texas is crazy and keeping them eating is a full time job. We are always pushing to finish. I started adding beet pulp against my husband wishes because we have never had a steer that would eat it. Heifers yes, steers no. He didn't miss a beat. He will stand there and eat a whole pan of dry beet pulp. He has a cast iron stomach and has never been below 3.5lbs a day. Always at the gate of the barn looking for more to eat. Wish they all ate like that.

What weight are you wanting to show him at, and how long is it before that show?

I don't know the steer's personality, or the distance you will be hauling.  You will get an easy 50-75 pounds of shrink just from the trailer ride.

Depending upon how long you have to hold him, you might not be all that far off!

Good luck, and I am with vc.  That is the guy that helps me when I get one out of whack.

Im hoping we get enough shrink from the trailer ride and staging. It's a 3 1/2 hour ride and we will be staging all night and moving in the next morning. Not sure how it's going to go, never been to San Antonio before just Houston and Ft Worth. We are wanting to show him around 1380 and it's still two weeks away. He has the best personality and will eat anything no matter what it is or when you put it in front of him. We feed a bagged complete show ration and I'm trying to find a balance by adding the fillers and reducing the grain that lets him feel full but keep his finish. He is super fat. We let him run up this high with the plan of using optiflexx the last 20 days but he started having trouble with his left pastern being stiff so we decided not to use it.

You are in good shape!  Actually, I know a lot of people that would tell you that you are maybe even a little behind. 

Do what vc told you to do, and hopefully he will weigh about 1450 when you leave home!

Thank you for the feedback. I bought the oats and more beet pulp today to start adjusting his ration. Honestly this is much easier than trying to push one!!!

Make sure you keep him on the Rice Bran and a source of protein, calf-manna or something like it. This  helps keep the condition and freshness, while you try and slow down the gain. If you are able to weigh the steer prior to the official weigh in you are in good shape, bring him in shrunk and fill him up to the weight you want to weigh in at, just make sure you keep him within the 5% range. if he weighs 1440 full and you weigh him in at 1380 that give you a 9 pound buffer.
Best way to bring them up is with water, if he comes of the trailer at 1350, you have 30 pounds to put on him give him 3 1/2 gallons of water and you are at or close to 1380.
Good luck

vc said:

Make sure you keep him on the Rice Bran and a source of protein, calf-manna or something like it. This  helps keep the condition and freshness, while you try and slow down the gain. If you are able to weigh the steer prior to the official weigh in you are in good shape, bring him in shrunk and fill him up to the weight you want to weigh in at, just make sure you keep him within the 5% range. if he weighs 1440 full and you weigh him in at 1380 that give you a 9 pound buffer.
Best way to bring them up is with water, if he comes of the trailer at 1350, you have 30 pounds to put on him give him 3 1/2 gallons of water and you are at or close to 1380.
Good luck

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This is really good advice.  Where it gets tough is when we shrink one back MORE than the 5%.  We had a steer at State Fair last year that we pulled back almost 7%.  Three nights in a row, we would have weighed out, but got it all handled by show day. 

I'm so glad we don't have to actually weigh our steers in anymore. It's way easier just turning their weights in and just staying within the 5% range.

He is a pain to get a good picture of but here he his this morning.

By the look of him and the amount of days you have left I think you could feed him hay, beet pulp, rice bran and a protein source and he would be fine going into the show. He is ready and I doubt he is the type to fall apart when it comes to cover, most meat wagons don't.

Good luck

Have you had his feet done recently? If you have two weeks, I would have someone take a look at them. He looks good. Your son has done a good job feeding. Good luck!

He's going for a mani/pedi today. This guy is a no frills, nothing fancy, what you see is what you get meat rack.

rrblack78 said:

He's going for a mani/pedi today. This guy is a no frills, nothing fancy, what you see is what you get meat rack.

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Good deal. He looks like a good solid calf.

[size=14pt][/size]Shearing in progress!!!