I believe you said your feeding your calf with about 20 other head? If its possible he needs his own feed, and by that I mean you need to know exactly how many pounds HE is actually getting. That is the only way you will know his daily rate of gain. If he needs a buddy to eat with pick out a smaller calf that likes to eat too to stall him with. I personally have found that a goat is the best way to feed a calf if you only have one. (they need a little competition to make them eat well) The goat eats very little and it keeps the calf company too. Do you have an advisor? County Extention agent or FFA teacher? If you do, you need to use them! That is what they are there for. IF they are not familiar with show cattle THEY need to help you find someone close by whom can help, hopefully with some hands on stuff...I believe you have the drive and ability to do well on your own but to suceed and excel you really need some hands on help especially with a project this large. Purina had a video out once about feeding and grooming show cattle, I actually watched this dvd and that was my first "teacher" from there I was lucky enough to get an extention agent whom was a show cattle guy and I learned everything I could from him. Would someone please help this young lady find an advisor?
MY MARKET STEER ( UDATED PHOTOS)-(UPATED PHOTOS 2)
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taylor tay
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I think that he has a good thick rump, long neck, adequate bone, strong pasterns, trim middle. He also has a good string of rib, He is wastie in the dewlap and brisket and can use more muscle.
beefmaster said:
Hey Beefmaster, you had questions about getting into judging online. STEER AWAY FROM IT. If you want to learn to evaluate livestock, you need to do it on live animals with a knowledgeable coach. I am by no means trying to be condescending, but as reserve Colorado 4-H livestock judge and 3 time All State team qualifier, I believe I have some room to talk. You contradicted yourself a bunch up in that post. Long necked calves are rarely "wasty" in the brisket and dewlap area. Your body parts are fairly accurate however, and that's an awesome start. Throw rump out. Perhaps replace it with a term such as "quarter". Now, I will give you my honest to God opinion on this calf. Relative to the world, he has decent bone, good rib shape/depth, and is perhaps adequate in muscle. But as far as a show steer, you need to keep him on the county level because he is frail boned, narrow based, cow hocked, and light muscled. He's got a decent front end and shoulder on him. The structure issues you can forget about fixing, but to help fill him out, get him grown up a bit more, and then start moving him to a higher % corn ration. The more fat you have on him, the better. Now a good judge will look through fat, but it sure helps cover a lot of holes. I am also looking at a few pictures and haven't seen the calf in person, but that's my overall impression. That said, you're starting out with a much better calf than I did and are arguably armed with far more knowledge. If this calf does win, more power to ya, and by all means, prove me wrong. But if you two have a rough time at the shows, dedication is more than working hair every day. It's taking what you learned, improving your feeding, hair care, and calf selection, and going back and doing better next year. It's a long, work intensive process that is extremely tough and extremely rewarding. Best of luck.
cornershack
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concentrate on showmanship, and the rest will fall into place. also get involved with the judging team. hes a good calf to start with. look into stierwalt on youtube there are also several other good clipping videos on youtube. this is your first steer and you seem to be competative, which is always a good thing. if he won't move his foot back by pushing on it try making him move it period by pulling on his dewclaw. he will at least pick it up and get his weight off it making it easier to get him to move it back. walking him into position always helps but you need to be able to move all of his feet if you have to. practice having him in position within 5 secs. use a signal of some sort to let him know he should set his feet where you practiced. have some one practice being the judge. Most important Have Fun! my daughters have all come up against judges that like to test your resolve. they will put you way down on the line to see how you handle it. then move you higher.
taylor tay
Well-known member
He isn't cow hocked in life, it may be because he isn't set up correctly. I am new to livestock judging and last year I didn't do as well as I would have liked. I went to a beef show and I had all day to practice judging and I did very good and picked allot of animals that won there classes.
taylor tay
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Jive Turkey
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beefmaster said:
Still looks the same, you need to get rid of that gut IMMEDIATELY!!
fordkindagirl
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Have you dewormed him yet? Looks like he needs to be, I've seen deworming make a significant impact on how a calf looks.
taylor tay
Well-known member
How do i get rid of the gut? yes he is wormed.
fordkindagirl
Well-known member
With what wormer?beefmaster said:
If I was you I would get an Iver-on or similar pour-on ]/b]and do a power deworming, deworm with a pour on three days in a row, then one day a week after, knocks pretty much everything out.
Also was reading your previous posts on this thread- get him eating by himself or with one other calf (separate containers), he needs all the feed he can get.
taylor tay
Well-known member
I am not sure what kind of wormer, but he is wormes. Okay, he is fed with other calves and i hope soon that he and two other calves will be the only other animals with him so he could eat how ever he wants. So also we are walking but now he is being lazy and doesnt want to walk. what should i do?
Bradenh
Well-known member
if you want him to walk better. get a buddy to follow him with a hotshot for about two days. solves your problems on the spot 
showsteerdlux
Well-known member
Walking? More like running. ;D ;DShow stopper 95 said:if you want him to walk better. get a buddy to follow him with a hotshot for about two days. solves your problems on the spot
On a serious note try to get somebody to walk behind you with another calf. On the belly issue, he looks like he has hay available all the time to him. That will make calves that age gutty, so cut him back on that. He is green as a gourd and as a previous poster stated he needs the feed poured to him. When is your show? I'm also going to say as others have that he needs wormed with something good. Give him extra, on our show calves, we'll worm every 6-8 weeks. This steer needs alot of work, and all the previous comments seem to be spot on about his weight and condition. How many times a day is he fed? From the looks I'd almost wonder if he is on an automatic feeder or something of this nature.
taylor tay
Well-known member
So I tried to get my friend to walk right behind him with her steer and beside but he doesnt walk very good. He actually does have unlimited hay and eats as much as he wants. So he has hay belly? What do u mean “ Green as a Gourd”? My show is in July 29th this year but I would like to go to the Badger Kickoff Classic. What would you suggest as a dewormer? I am not sure what the breeder wormed him with. I am not sure what he weighs, it is just a good guess by both me and the breeder. Do you think that he will get good muscle? Once the rest of the calves are sold and picked up he will have some one on one feeding.Yeah he gets fed with about 15 other calves now and I feed him twice a day, he feeds the calves 2 1/2 5 gallon buckets and he can that until they are finished. He is not on automatic, he gets fed in the morning and in the after noon and gets unlimited hay and pasture
cornershack
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depending on how moiste the feed is 2 1/2 5 gallon buckets weigh about 60 to 65 #s divided that is about 4 1/3 #s per steer he should be getting 3% of his body weight. more like 15# if he gets cut back on hay he will want/eat more grain. do they also have a good cattle mineral available to them not white blocks.
showsteerdlux
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Sorry just realized by math was on 5 buckets total per day at twenty pounds per bucket. Either way we both agree he isn't getting enough.cornershack said:
taylor tay
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Okay how much buckets should he be getting?
cornershack
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all that does is teach him to be afraid of someone behind him and get her run over. maybe even teach him to kick. definitely does not need to learn that!Show stopper 95 said:if you want him to walk better. get a buddy to follow him with a hotshot for about two days. solves your problems on the spot
taylor tay
Well-known member
cornershack said:all that does is teach him to be afraid of someone behind him and get her run over. maybe even teach him to kick. definitely does not need to learn that!Show stopper 95 said:if you want him to walk better. get a buddy to follow him with a hotshot for about two days. solves your problems on the spot
I am not into getting kicked
PaFFA Proud
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With teaching our dairy beef to lead, i used tugging motions with the halter.....if u just pull and dont release at all it will become a tug-a-war game. I also used a dressage whip(horse whip that is about4' long) to tap them on the butt when I was beside them..at first I would click to him while giving a sharp tug on the lead after 3 times if he didnt move I would give him a pop on the rump with the whip same time clicking and tugging on lhe lead to tell him to move.. did this for like 3 days and from there on my steers followed us everywhere, I never had an issue with them kicking or running away. I used this method all the time to halter break foals and it worked with cattle! <party>
