Feeding a show steer

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Kgreen99

New member
Joined
Mar 4, 2020
Messages
1
Hello everyone I am new to the show steer world but my wife grew up doing it. Our daughter showed for the second time this year and we did alright. I have many questions about feeding our steers for next year. I have been using Purina Full Range on this last steer. I was wondering if anyone had any tips on better feeding programs to maximize the steers growth potential? Any tips would much appreciated.
 

looking4champions

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 8, 2015
Messages
80
Location
Southeast
In my opinion, Purina Full Range is a good feed.  So you are off to a good start with that.  It's good to have a solid base feed that you can add to with supplements or whatever to help you get to your desired endpoint. 

There is some skill to feeding a steer as well.  You have to know how you want your steer to look at it's end point, manage the feed program and have real expectations for achieving your goal. 

There is no such thing as instant gratification either.  Results don't show overnight, and you have to do something consistently (over a significant period of time) before you can see what is, or what is not yielding favorable results.

Some things you can do;

Read the recommendations for the feed you are using.  I know Purina provides useful information and guidance for all of their feeds. 

Control the steer's protein intake (adds muscle mass and increased muscle expression over time)
  - straight from the sack (different brands and types of feed have different protein percentages)
  - add a supplement to the feed to increase protein intake

Control the steer's roughage intake (helps to keep the rumen working properly, adds depth of body, boldness of rib)

Control the steer's energy intake (helps with rate of gain, finishing (fat cover), appearance (hair, coat))
  - adding corn, rice bran, rice bran oil, soy bean oil, corn oil, etc. 

Each one of the item's mentioned above has a direct impact on the appearance, conditioning and sometimes temperament of your steer.  It's all about balance also.  Too much of one at the wrong time can be harmful. 

There is so much information online these days compared to back in the day.  These days you can get better results with research and patience than ever before. 

Good Luch
 
 
 
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