Ditto on that! It depends on how much time you have, but you might have to spend a month (in that pen) letting him get used to you. When time allows, you should let your calf decide when it is ready for a halter, not you!
Get him in a sizeable pen...one where he is unsure of you, but he will still eat (his grain). Each day just sit on a pail or something off in the distance (in the pen). Get closer and closer until he is uncomfortable (stops eating grain). Then just back off a BIT and let him get back to eating. The next day repeat. Always get closer and closer while letting him be comfortable enough with you that he will still eat. You may be able to progress to a much smaller pen....say 20x20 feet. Stand in this smaller pen and do the same as with the pail. Get closer and closer. NEVER push the calf so that he is crazy/uncomfortable/charging!! If he is, then you have to go back to that larger pen.
In the small one, step closer to him sideways. To cattle, the smaller you appear, the less threatening you are. Otherwise (to them) you look like a predator attacking them.
For example, you get to the point where you are in a 20x20 pen. Put him in there, put his grain in the middle and let him start eating it. Stand off to the side of the pen and let him eat a few bites. Then....oh, also, NEVER look them in the eye....looks like a predator attacking them. Then...slowly apprach him in a calm manner stepping sideways. If he is ok, step closer. Inch by inch his flight zone will decrease. If he becomes uncomfortable and steps away from his grain, then you step back just a few inches/feet as well (you have entered his flight zone). He will go back to his feed. Stay wherever you were when you took that one step back, and talk to him, reach your arm out. Make suttle movements/talk to someone so that your steer gets accompanied to your voice/movements/sounds.
This alone may have taken 1/2 an hour. ALWAYS leave on a good note, NEVER push the steer so much that he is climbing up the walls cause you will have to start back at square 1...where you are now. Work on him for 15-30 minutes at a time. They are like youngins, they have a short attention span. Say 15 minutes in the morning feeding, and then maybe another 15-30 after school/work, then another 15 later. Depends how he is feeling or how he is progressing.
When they get really nervous they urinate or poop frequently cause cattle cant sweat! And they sure as heck dont get butterflies in their stomach. You must realize that if you mess up and push him to the limit it takes 20 minutes for their heart rate to go back to normal, AND you almost always wreak everything you have done, and have to start all over.
Cattle really vary, I have done this whole process in 1 day, and sometimes it can take over a month, even more.
Anyhow, you will get to the point where he is comfortable with you scratchin him (start at the shoulders/withers) as this iswhere they are most comfortable with you touching them, and you can prevent gettin kicked from here. Spend time scratching/touching him all over his body. Spend lots of time doing this. The more you spend here, the less you spend fighting with him on the halter, cause he will already be a big puppy dog. The first time you put the halter on, just let him get used to the feel and weight of the halter, and take it off. Dont try leading him til about the 5th time you have put the halter on.
OK, I have a second part to this whole scheme, but I will type it tomorrow. If you dont even want to go this route, then tell me and I will save the time.