Picking your calf

[Kailee TheKool]

Hey everybody. As I'm starting to look for calves again, I'm curious: What traits do you look for in 6-9 month-old steers that show what they'll turn out as? What do you look for and avoid? How do you know how a calf is going to turn out? How much of a role do the genetics actually play in this if you aren't feeding all of the special supplements expensive feed? Which names always produce good calves?

A steer my friend got this last year (Educated Guess x Yarley Slugger) started out as a basically lame, gangly, the opposite of stout, hairless little gremlin. However, with minimal work, by the time fair came around, he was weighing 1450lbs, was the stoutest steer I've ever seen, sound, and had the most hair I've seen on a steer who wasn't worked basically the whole summer.
Another time, I had a really well bred steer with top names (I don't remember which ones because it was a few years ago lol), correct in every way from muscling to structure, and had lots of hair. He turned out an ok size, but he ended up slightly gangly and tall despite being a few weeks overfinished.

Does anyone have any pictures of steers from the beginning and then when they turned out really good?

 

[mark tenenbaum]

https://www.sconlinesales.com/Bids/AuctionsListing/34278 JIM COMPTON HAS SOME OF THE BETTER SHORTHORN CATTLE IN THE COUNTRY ALONG WITH a BUNCH OF VERY GOOD BLACK X BREDS AND PUREBREDS AND ONE PURE HEREFORD STEER THIS IS A LINK TO HIS SALE TONIGHT THERE WILL ALSO BE A NUMBER OF CALVES AVAILABLE PRIVATE TREATY AND THEY ARE NOT OVERPRICED AT ALL

 

[mark tenenbaum]

Thanks Kailee If it comes up there are still a bunch of steers etc at private treaty and there are some bargains RE the quality of the calves.If you had time to look at the sale-most of those calves were brought along to grow and develop while leaving a lot of gas in the tank. I see a lot of way overdeveloped young calves (or clearly not the right age) on sales recently. That's the absolute dumbest thing you can do to a young calf if you want to look the part next August or even at the late shows.

 

[vc]

This is a Here I Am, we sponsored a few years ago he started out real green, in the end he packed on the weight and muscle and had incredible hair for a steer raised on a dry lot on a dairy in So-cal. We try to find calves that will be fat steers, room to grow, do not look like a finished steer at 600 pounds. You want a good balanced animal with good structure and the skeleton to carry 1400 pounds at the end.
Most calves either work real well as Jackpot calves or Fat steers on the really good ones seem to do both well,