New show mom needs steer coat color advice

[segersmom]

My son is showing his first steer in the county fair this year, and around here, it's very competitive.  We don't have the facilities to keep him inside during the day, and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on keeping the black black.  Sometimes I use sunscreen on my horses, and I used Black as Knight on a dark bay (if you don't know, that's a coat supplement that works really well), but I don't know if any of those things are safe for use in cattle.

Can anyone help me?

 

[HeiferShower14]

Well what we do is a few days before the show we dye them, it makes the hair really black and it makes it soft and easy to work with

 

[angus showman]

Yeah we dye ours also with young color dye from sullivans supply or they have their own dye or if you don't want to spend too much money go to walmart and buy the cheap stuff. but its worth the money to use the good stuff last longer and gets them black recommend young color or black velvet from sullivans

 

[Bulldaddy]

Try using a mineral with chelated copper.  Some black hided cattle will have reddish hair if the don't get enough copper in their diet.

 

[segersmom]

You guys are awesome.  Thanks for all the suggestions.  You all rock <rock>

 

[segersmom]

I forgot to mention that the calf is black, but he has some white on his belly and in the switch of his tail.  Is there a way to keep the dye off the white parts?  Because I'm assuming that it would work on the white too....

 

[Jill]

Wrap the tail in a plastic bag, thats the easy one.  We coat the white heavily with oil and be very careful when you brush it in around the white area, you may stilll get some graying effect when you rinse, if it isn't illegal at your show to change color coat, just dye the belly with it, but check the rules first.