steers losing weight

[Diamond G]

My 2 angus steers have been losing weight. both are 10 months old, dewormed every 2-3 months (rotating between dectomax and safeguard) they got Ralgro in sept. they get free choice 13% beef blend by Southern States and coastal hay. They are consuming approx 200lbs of pellets a week

Any ideas?

 

[Ms Ray]

how much do they weigh and are they each eating 200 or is that combined?

 

[vc]

How much have they lost and over what period of time?

 

[Diamond G]

I haven't weighed them since august (have to haul them to a scale). At that point they were 340 each(they were bottle babies so have always been behind in their growth rate from the rest of the herd). They got nice and fat but within the last few weeks they look like a brood cow in winter. The 200 pounds of feed is combined. THey always have feed in the trough (old feed gets tossed). They eat less when its warm and more when its cool. They don't eat much hay. Only comsumer maybe 1 flake of horse quality coastal daily. Give them anymore and it just sits.

So much for the competition thing have 2 together in the same pen as far as eating.

They switch back and forth as far as one getting bigger then the other.

 

[TYD]

I was always told that you do not want to leave feed in front of them all the time that you want them to be hungry when you feed them.In our experience they tend to pick at the feed a lot more and are not as good of eaters maybe try it but that's just my opinion everyone seems to feed different and there does not seem to be a lack of 1260 to 1340lb steers out there

 

[obie105]

Have they grown in height? I have learned that they seem to lose a little bit of their belly and that fat look when they grow up and then they regain it. It makes them look like they are losing but they are really just growing.

 

[Diamond G]

yes they are getting taller. they are growing like a horse - getting gangly. 

 

[GoWyo]

They have to grow some frame at some point in their lives.  As bottle babies they will probably have an abnormal growth curve anyway.  Just keep feeding them all they'll eat and they should bloom out again once they grow their frames.

 

[vc]

Sounds like they are growing, not loosing weight. They hit a growth spurt, I would guess in the next month they will start to add body to catch up to the frame. Most calves go through those awkward stages. Just keep feeding them and stay up to date on the worming (we go every 45 days).