Olson Family Shorthorns said:
I don't think feeding more yeast would hurt. We feed it by the handful to our show calves daily and have never had any problems.
We feed just straight grass hay, alfalfa can be a little rich, plus if their belly is new to it, I've seen it get compacted in the rumen and cause trouble (but that doesn't happen very often in my experience).
A neck sweat sure wouldn't hurt on him, I would put it on him during the day. Do you have him under fans? If you don't then he could get pretty hot with it on, keeping him cool during the day will keep him eating too. Take it off at night when you turn him out, you don't want him to get it hung up on anything when you're not there to help him out.
Good luck!
Ditto on the grass hay. Alfalfa is richer & it wont scratch the rumen nearly as well as the longer stemmed grass hay will. Also, longer stemmed grass hay will help to prevent bloat & Alfalfa can actually cause bloat. I'd feed a fleck of grass hay per day minimum, IMHO and if it was me, I'd feed 2.
I think that I would keep on feeding the beet pulp... I think it would help him. It along with the grass hay will help the rumen work better & will help add guts. If wetted with cool water it will help the hair & beet pulp packs more punch than grass hay.
I'd personally give him some type of oil supplement to help add some cover. Up to 4 oz. of corn or other oil would work (don't start at 4 or they could get loose), but I like Natural Glo (ADM) or Max-E-Glo (Manna Pro) in the pellets (feed up to 1 lb.). It will actually help his hair too. You can get more cover on one faster with oil than you can with corn or barely. I agree that barely will lay a harder fat layer on & it can also make them appear thicker too. I'd slowly start adding some barely. When the cover gets closer to where you want it, you may want to back the oil off a little bit.
RE the tail head... use your clippers & get "creative" with the hair in that area & it will look better. Find the highest point of the tailhead & take it fairly tight (you don't necessarily have to skin it though). Right now that hair at the highest point is much taller than the tailhead... get it shorter... then try to grow the hair behind it & in front of it, taller so that you can make it look better. Wish that I could show you, rather than try to explain it. Basically fill the lows & chop the highs... that's the best way to explain it. The main thing is that you need more hair both in front & behind the highest point, IMHO.