My son has a steer that he will be showing at our county fair the first week in August. The last time he was weighed in was April 1st and he weighed 1045 lbs. at 2 lbs a day I am guessing he weighs pretty close to 1140 lbs as of today. Our maximum weight at fair is 1500 lbs to compete for Grand Champion. We have 78 days til fair from today. He will get weighed again on June 8th. To make a long story short if it comes down to it what are some suggestions to holding him. Rolled oats, some type of power fill, beet pulp and if these are some suggestions how much are we looking to substitute his daily ration with. I sure appreciate any and all suggestions that are provided!!! <cowboy> ???
Holding Steer
- Thread starter Quello
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rackranch
Well-known member
Honor Show Chow: Full Control
12lbs a day with enough hay to make him look and feel full...G-Luck and let us know how he turns out.
12lbs a day with enough hay to make him look and feel full...G-Luck and let us know how he turns out.
If you can't get the Purina product, you can also use cottonseed hulls (my preference) or beet pulp to hold them. I use the squarish plastic feed scopes that hold just under 3 lbs per scoop of a finisher feed. I'll feed one 3 or 4 scoops of hulls or pulp (they'll weigh half or less of what a scoop of finisher would) + a scoop of my normal feed. Plus all the hay they want night (preferably prairie hay or another low protein grass hay). We used to feed oats back in the day when holding also, but in reality oats are high in both fat and protein and if you give them too much they'll keep on growing.
Why would you want to hold him? If he is 1140 today and gains 2 per day for 80 days, it puts him at 1300. Sounds like he needs to be pushed to get to the upper 1300s and then shrunk back under 1350. I would be pushing all the way.
To push depends on steer's body condition. If he is already fat, then probably needs a little increase in protein to grow. If not already fat, then add fat such as vegetable oil or stabilized rice bran (Max-E-Glo) or something like that. Generally the challenge I have is getting ours fat enough. Ours are about 1250 lbs. and show same time as yours, but we will keep them on full feed all the way to the end.
rackranch
Well-known member
6lbs am 6lbs pm of full control only... as mentioned you can add pulp or hull if you feel like you need more filler..
Quello said:
Bradenh
Well-known member
not to hijack the topic but lots of good stuff on here! we have our show in 2 weeks and my steer is 1390 empty (still looks good however) and 1420 full. We have his feed under control but does anyone have any ideas for at the show, that will suck some off of him without loosing his look
*we do have texas may/june heat on our side, but should we be more worried about it?, these ideas are just for a "worst case scenerio"
*we do have texas may/june heat on our side, but should we be more worried about it?, these ideas are just for a "worst case scenerio"
ChristaCheatham
Well-known member
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Not wanting to barge on either, but I was thinking about the same thing when rinsing my steer today. The last day of March he was weighing 1100 lbs, and the show is the first week of August. He's a big framed steer and still looks good to me. If I wanted to change anything it would be deepening his flank. Any suggestions?
rackranch
Well-known member
Start him on Refresh two weeks out..start slowly because it can scour them. I use a 600cc drench gun and give 1 galllon after pm meal daily..I would use this in combonation with Depth Charge...G-Luck
Show stopper 95 said:
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