vc
Well-known member
I notice more and more post on sick, bloated, off feed recently, and things like that. I would guess allot of that has to do with the heat we have had over most of the country in the past couple of weeks, but it also got me to thinking about how important feeding correctly or in-correctly impacts the animal. How the act of feeding also plays a big part in monitoring your animals.
There was a recent post on how a steer had gone off of it’s for several days while the owner was away. Had the owner been there the animal would probably not have gone off of the feed for as long, they would have noticed something was wrong sooner, I’m in no way blaming the owner for doing or going away for a couple of days, I’m just saying that when we feed we also are observing the animal to make sure all is going well. If your steer is standing at the gate every morning and practically running you over for its feed, you would notice immediately that there was something wrong, if he was standing over in the corner and not interested in his feed.
When I was 16 we had a Quarter mare who was a hog, she would practically run you over when you fed her, I was running late for school so I asked my brother to feed the hay for me (The animals were not his thing) He fed them all and off to school we went. When we got home from school the vet was at the house and he was just finishing putting the Quarter mare down. She had gotten stones in her intestine (I do not remember the exact medical term) and they had basically torn her up inside. Had I fed that morning I would have known something was wrong, she still had hay left from the night before.
I think feeding is the most important when it comes to steer projects. Feeding correctly, monitoring intake, appetite, stool, and the feed itself on a daily basis helps eliminate allot of problems. On the feed itself I have seen new bags of feed, have mold, bugs, bad fat, no molasses, too much molasses, not mixed and other things that if missed could have made the animal ill. I always told the boys if the feed looks or smells different do not feed it until we figure out what is wrong. I will say of the 2 brands we fed, both of the mills were very good about fixing the problem, one was local and one was national.
The point I guess I’m trying to make is if you monitor your animal, pay attention to its apatite, health and over all demeanor, you can identify a problem early enough that you may be able to avoid major setbacks. Asking for advice on Steerplanet is great but if you think your animal is sick or may have a problem, call the vet first. It is great to share the information on what was wrong the symptoms, treatment, we can all learn from the information.
We had several people we could call for advice, the breeder, the feed rep, the competition, the vet, I found if I bothered them early with a situation I actually bothered them less than if I waited for the problem to worsen.
What is the old saying “anyone can ruin a good one, it someone who knows how to feed to make a good one a great one.”
There was a recent post on how a steer had gone off of it’s for several days while the owner was away. Had the owner been there the animal would probably not have gone off of the feed for as long, they would have noticed something was wrong sooner, I’m in no way blaming the owner for doing or going away for a couple of days, I’m just saying that when we feed we also are observing the animal to make sure all is going well. If your steer is standing at the gate every morning and practically running you over for its feed, you would notice immediately that there was something wrong, if he was standing over in the corner and not interested in his feed.
When I was 16 we had a Quarter mare who was a hog, she would practically run you over when you fed her, I was running late for school so I asked my brother to feed the hay for me (The animals were not his thing) He fed them all and off to school we went. When we got home from school the vet was at the house and he was just finishing putting the Quarter mare down. She had gotten stones in her intestine (I do not remember the exact medical term) and they had basically torn her up inside. Had I fed that morning I would have known something was wrong, she still had hay left from the night before.
I think feeding is the most important when it comes to steer projects. Feeding correctly, monitoring intake, appetite, stool, and the feed itself on a daily basis helps eliminate allot of problems. On the feed itself I have seen new bags of feed, have mold, bugs, bad fat, no molasses, too much molasses, not mixed and other things that if missed could have made the animal ill. I always told the boys if the feed looks or smells different do not feed it until we figure out what is wrong. I will say of the 2 brands we fed, both of the mills were very good about fixing the problem, one was local and one was national.
The point I guess I’m trying to make is if you monitor your animal, pay attention to its apatite, health and over all demeanor, you can identify a problem early enough that you may be able to avoid major setbacks. Asking for advice on Steerplanet is great but if you think your animal is sick or may have a problem, call the vet first. It is great to share the information on what was wrong the symptoms, treatment, we can all learn from the information.
We had several people we could call for advice, the breeder, the feed rep, the competition, the vet, I found if I bothered them early with a situation I actually bothered them less than if I waited for the problem to worsen.
What is the old saying “anyone can ruin a good one, it someone who knows how to feed to make a good one a great one.”
