How long to put on finish?

[blueshorthorn]

I have an April 2011 shorthornxAngus steer that weighs 1100 pounds. His average daily gain for the last week has been 2 pounds. He is getting 25 pounds of 12% feed per day. His last two ribs are not covered and his flank and pins do not have fat either. How long would you guess until he is totally covered?

 

[vc]

I am going to guess 2 to 3 months, if the heat continues, longer. I would get him on 2 pounds of Stabilized Rice Bran ASAP, it will help lay down a nice layer of finish and is not hot like adding corn to the his diet. I would also add some grain hay to his diet, in my opinion it helps drop the flank, other products will do it as well, I just thinks the grain hay helps with the flank and they gain weight off of it as well. We fed the hay at night when they were in the runs, a flake a day and the grain twice a day at 6 and 6, what ever grain was left at night when we kicked them out it went with them.

 

[blueshorthorn]

I forgot to mention he's getting 2 flakes of hay per day also.

 

[ploughshare]

It all depends on the amount of energy in the diet.  He should be on a finishing diet now, rather than a grower.  The energy content of the diet should be 3.16 and 3.45 Mcal/kg of dry matter and he should be eating at the very least a total of 27.5 lbs per day and more would be better.  Check your feed tag if you are feeding a complete feed.  Gain should increase with energy, but there are problems feeding your show calf a hot diet.  I could go on, but according to your info, he will reach market weight in 75 days, finished or not.  Adding fat will help with cover and carcass, but will also decrease intake.  VC has some good suggestions. When is your show?

 

[blueshorthorn]

When you weigh on a scale, do you weigh in the morning before you feed when they are empty or a few hours after their first meal? What time of day gives the best representation of how much they actually weigh?

 

[ploughshare]

I prefer to weigh shrunk, meaning empty.  When is your show?

 

[blueshorthorn]

It is in 45 days. Should I start increasing feed?

 

[vc]

We weigh the calves after being tied under the fans all day, just prior feeding them for the evening, they are pretty empty. If you weigh in the morning there is no way of knowing how much water they have consumed, so even if they have not eaten they can be carrying 40 to 60 pounds of water. Our calves get used to drinking in the evening and again in the morning, so we weigh them before they take their evening drink.