Umbarger Feed Question

[Cattle7]

The new heifers have been home for about 2 months now. the guy they came from had them on showmaster, when they came home, they were full,fresh, and had the "soft look", that is desired by most in the show ring. They came home and went on Umbarger breeder/grower. Since then we have lost "that" look. They definitely dont have the fill and are losing the "fat" look. We were feeding breeder growing with winning fill and beet pulp on one heifer. The other heifer was on umbarger, & depth charge. Both get a flake of hay morning and night. I talked to the umbarger rep and he said to pull all supplements & give straight feed. Not sure about that. One is a May heifer weighing about 725. The other is a June weighing about 500-520. The june heifer is one we need to drop in the flank a little and belly down. I tried to get showmaster feed and put them back on it ..but its not available in my area. Ive talked to some that have said to put them on umbarger cattle blaster or umbarger show ready. Any suggestions/thoughts?

 

[CAB]

IMO, you should listen to the rep. He knows how the feed is formulated. So many PPL try to add this, add that & on & on. Look @ what you are adding with the Winning Fill & the beet pulp right now, basically fiber and filler, & while doing it you are replacing the energy that they should get to put on condition & protein to make them have a sheen & healthy look. I'm not against supplements, but remember there is no substitute for a good feed ration and husbandry skills. Most PPL that want to feed supplements constantly have their calves messed up intake & diet wise IMO.

 

[mlcattle]

showmasters heifer dev. is darn good, i have fed heifers on breeder grower before, while adding a product like the depth charge you are using. feed them heifers as much as you can to bulk em up and/or get that fat look, i really like using purina's preconditioning/recieving feed for added depth it works and they will eat that stuff. i wouldnt give up on suppl. some of them work, some i think are foo foo dust that just costs you a lot of dollars. lots of feed and hay is what ya need.

 

[CMB]

I would stick with the Umbarger feed. IMO it is the better feed of the two. You might try the show ready depending on the fleshing ability they posses. The only supplement I would recommend is the vita ferm Sure Champ. We add cottonseed hulls, beet pulp, corn cob, etc depending on the particular needs of each calf.