Help with hair coat

Okay, this year, the best steer we have is a limousin/angus cross.  Very much limousin.  We have been brushing and bathing him and trying to get some sort of a hair coat on him.  He's under shelter 24/7 but not in an air conditioned barn as we just don't have that option.  We have still be having cool weather - even snow last week.

My question is - is the limo side of him naturally a slick cattle?  He's a slick as my horses are.  I've thought about starting him on show Shag or one of the other supplements, but not sure its worth it.

On the flip side, the hereford steer we have that is kept the same way and getting the same attention - he's fairly shaggy and hairy still.  But he is not the stronger structure wise of the two. 

Thanks for your help.

I would try Hide and Hair we also hose ours twice a day for 10 min keep them in a dark stall with fans. but if they are not breed to have hair it is hard to get it. Good Luck

some calves just don't have the genetics or ability to grow hair

We have good results with calf manna

Look at the hair on the inside and around his ear compared to your shaggy steer... If he doesnt have at least as much ear hair as the other steer then he may not have the genetics for hair...

rf21970 said:

We have good results with calf manna

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How much calf manna do you guys feed at each feeding?

Thanks for all of the replies.  I will start him on some calf manna. 

So if he doesn't grow hair, how big of a deal is it on a little local county fair?  Are the judges going to kill him for it?  He's only a junior and this is his second year with steers.  Last year he only took one and we never got the poor boy finished - so we expected and took last.  But this year, I think the steer is really nice and is on his way to finishing out really nice.  I just want to help him set his expectations if the hair coat is going to kill him.

I've seen more slick haired Angus than Limousin. Shouldn't need to worry about the hair. If he has Limousin muscle you shouldn't need the hair to create the illusion of muscle.

2# per head. Will make whatever hair you have look better even if you don't have "hair" genetics.

Very cool.  Our local Walmart carries the calf manna - and cheaper than anywhere else in town.

We never got hair like a cool box, just better hair than most the other steers without a cool box.
We fed calf- manna, stabilized rice bran and used grow and shine.
The biggest part was working the hair you do have, steers are rinsed twice a day, used Kleen-Sheen in the evening
Hair is worked after each rinsing and then worked just before they were kicked out at night. We washed with soap once a week and poured cream rinse on them once a week (if we used soap on Sunday we poured the creamrinse on them on Wednesday) We used a rice root brush and a roto- brush on the leg hair.
Get the hair to go forward, even with a little hair they look far better than a steer with hair that just lays flat .
We usually had the third best haired steers at our county fair, the top 2 had cool boxes, we beat the cool box steers a couple of times. If the animal is good it is good, if they are close, the haired steer will win, if your steer is better it will win.

Work the hair often, the more you work it, the better it will look. If they you work it 4 times or 5 times a day, do it.