Dairy feeder calves

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Farms

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Aug 11, 2016
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My kids show dairy feeder calves at the county fair. Was wondering what people are feeding to get so match definition and muscle on them.
 

LD

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Sep 2, 2015
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2
Just need to feed them hard.  Whole corn and protein.  None to very little hay.    The muscle will come with time.  Theres no secret to it.  Gotta start with a small to moderate frame calf with some natural muscle.  Only a small percentage of dairy calves will develop the muscle and definition for the show ring on the dairy beef side.  There bred to be milking cows.
 

RyanChandler

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Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Messages
3,457
Location
Pottsboro, TX
Great reply above.  Some of these hard doing showier bred (beef) cattle need to be fed with this same approach.  They call it a "calf fed finishing ration."  Both Moorman's and Kent feeds have a protein supplement that has rumensin/ monensin in it and that is designed to be fed at 20/80 ratio with WHOLE corn- the 80% being the corn.  As stated above, feeding a low energy feedstuff like hay is going to make it very difficult for you to get your desired results. 
 

FriedgesCharolais

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Joined
Feb 7, 2011
Messages
241
Location
Decorah, IA
The Kent products are as follows: for calves less then 500lbs it is No Roughage Calf 150R. Once they are above 500#s they  can be switched to No Roughage Beef 40-25 300R 90T. The reason there are two different products for calves below 500 is that there is no non protein nitrogen in it. Once they reach 500+ lbs. they are able to utilize nitrogen as a protein source so it is a cheaper form of protein. Holsteins do great on these feeds.
 

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