help..steer off feed

[Cowgurl101]

My steer has only 40 days til fair and he has been off feed for a week or so. I feed him morning and night about 8lbs each time, but lately im lucky if he eats 5lbs - usually he wont eat at night  if he ate in the morning. He has free choice wheat straw and mineral. If he gets too loose i give him probios paste, and have tried giving him some all natural electrolyt paste. He has kind of a dull look to his eyes,but is full of energy when i work with him or walk him.He was a little behind already as far as finish, and now he looks like he's definatly not gonna make it. I need some advice on what to try. Thanks so much!!

 

[kanshow]

Why are you feeding him free choice wheat straw?  If there is no good reason -  I would gradually remove that -  there is no nutrional value in wheat straw but it is a great filler.  As you decrease the straw, increase the grain.  If you have to have a hay in the diet, use a good grass hay. 

 

[Cowgurl101]

I dont feed any hay- i use wheat straw just to have roughage in their diet. They only eat a small amount every day - probably about 5-7lbs.

 

[Davis Shorthorns]

we had a bull calf earlier this year that would do the same thing.  We ended up putting cooked sugar beat pulp in his feed as a roughage and one feeding a week.  Usually sunday morning we wouldn't feed him.  After a few days of the new feed he was eating better.  Also I have had friends that said to put some milk replacer over the feed, just enough for a different taste, like a half cup or so as a top dress.  Have you tried giving him some competition?  We put a smaller heifer in with a steer of ours and the competition really helped get a larger appitite on him.  Hope that some of this helps.

Matt

 

[linnettejane]

when i used to feed steers we would do that one day a week no grain thing...usually on sunday....seemed to keep them going, come monday morning they would knock you out of the way to get to the feed bucket....

also have topdressed with a little sweet feed when they werent eating as much as i liked....