Walking steers

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Cowgurl101

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Do you guys think exercising steers is benificial to them? i have a steer who is a little straight in his design and wondered if walking him would help him not to get stiff. if so , when do you start and  how far do you go? Thanks!
 

knabe

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pull on his tail and get him rocking.  watch a horse therapyst.  if you pick up their feet when they are young, you can stetch them when the are older, just like a horse.  course people will look at you funny.

for the record, i am not teasing with this post.  I do it, have done it, and it works.
 

minimoo38

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we walk our calves everyday once we put them in the cooler. we get up at 5:30-6, when it's cool, and walk for 1-1.5 miles just around our yard. we do the same thing at night at 8:30-9. if you do start walking, start them out slow, like a few laps around the yard, then work up to 15-20.  (dog)
 

Jill

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They do need exercise, just make sure you aren't walking the fat right off of them, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
 

BRdoc

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Knabe is right. I am a certified animal chiropractor. I work on horses, bucking bulls, and show cattle only. You would be amazed at the difference stretching makes on cattle. Exercise is essential. It has always amazed me how much time, energy, and money horse people spend making sure their horse taken care of in all aspects of health. Show cattle are fed well, properly medicated and all. But, the amazement is how few people stretch and exercise their show cattle. I could count the number of show cattle on both hands that I could pick up their feet and stretch without resistance. I have treated alot of show cattle that walked crippled before treatment and left sound as ever. Not proping myself. It just works.
 

dagrate1s

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How would you go about stretching a 1100 lbs. steer? He is getting a little stiff in his movement but not real bad.

Craig
 

chambero

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I've always thought a lot of the "structure" issues were really calves that were almost muscle-bound to use an old term.

We used to walk them a mile every day back in the 80s, but honestly that's too much now.  We need them fatter than that.  We make sure to turn ours out into large enough runs at night they can buck and play and be "cows".

I don't doubt the stretching/chiropractor treatment, but I don't know anyone in our area that does it on cattle. Lots of them for horses though.
 

BRdoc

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An 1100# steer is no harder to stretch than a horse. just hurts your back more!! front leg extended out forward and held for 20 sec. motion the forelimb above the knee to move the scapula (shoulder blade) around. grab the tail ( not tail head) and just lean back. calf will get used to this and will love it. it may take some time. hold for 20 sec. motion rear legs. Those are good easy ones. beyond that call your chiro.
 

knabe

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at the risk of losing another karma point, it's akin to stretching tightness.  you hit the thumb on the muscle (nail on the head) when you said some may be too muscled up to walk.  pulling on their tail will loosen the tightness that you can see in concentric rings around their tailhead to about mid distance between hooks and pins.  i talked earlier about the bunchy muscle on my heifer, and how it was also in the total package bull calf.  think of your back and knots.  with a good adjuster, chiropracter, they can easily, well, they have to burn calories to do this, but find where the bunching is that leads to where they need to be loose.  you can actually see the muscle in my heifer clearly, not so much in the calf, he's too young.  this is why i almost think it's a least penetrant double muscling or some mumbo jumbo thing going on.  the tail head will just settle in nicely when you do this.  also, i noticed this dramatically in my draft pick steer last year, that he was really tight on one diagonal, and was almost dragging a rear toe when he was really fat.  bear in mind, i got him realllly fat, almost about 3/4".  we stretched him and adjusted him and he would be fine for a few days.  one time we did it and he took off like a bolt of lightening, kicking his heels real high, tail straight out, came right back and tried to rub on us with his shoulder.  really amazing.  i highly recommend doing this, and i know it's sounds goofy, but you really can pick up your animals feet.  gives you a lot more confidence clipping on them down there too, knowing that they know to be bothered down there beforehand.  in horses, there is a double muscling gene just over this area.  i think mr. san peppy was a carrier as his son peppy's pep up had it, and threw it.  i guess it became popular for a while, then disappeared.  the muscle was over the hooks to pins area, and not the rear, like in cattle, and in a more dramatic form all over.  or it could be something else.  who knows.  but the thing is, the animals respond to it.  i would definately do it on some of the bloodlines that seem to throw shorter striding but otherwise decently made skeletal made animals that for some reason, even though they look like they should stride but they don't.  you can get the same effect by doing this with cats.  you know when you sit on the stool, and all the cats come wanting attention sticking their tails in the air, you pull on them, letting the tail slip through, they come right back for more.  if you put that in a youtube video, people would think you are weird, not like everyone doesn't think i'm already weird (or crazy!)
 

diesel

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where would i find someone in iowa that could do that and is it worth it
 

steermaker

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I addition to the walking it is best to have an exercise area for your calves as well.  May be my imagination, but since we have begun allowing the calves to "roam" it makes it easier to handle them under halter because they don't have as much pent up energy.  Think about what it's like when the final bell for the day rings at an Elementary school, those kids hit the door running.  You could say the same for when that 5:00 whistly blows at work. (thumbsup)
 

ShowinT

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My steer is a little stiff on his back legs and i was wondering how you go about stretching them.  Do you just pick up their back feet and bend their leg like they are walking or just pick it up and pull it foward? And by pulling on the tail will that help with his back legs at all??
 

minimoo38

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ShowinT said:
Do you just pick up their back feet and bend their leg like they are walking or just pick it up and pull it foward?

you could do both. just move it around. any little bit would help.


ShowinT said:
And by pulling on the tail will that help with his back legs at all??

theoretically, yes. pulling the tail helps to stretch out the spine, so it could loosen him up while walking.
 

knabe

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ShowinT said:
My steer is a little stiff on his back legs and i was wondering how you go about stretching them.  Do you just pick up their back feet and bend their leg like they are walking or just pick it up and pull it foward? And by pulling on the tail will that help with his back legs at all??

can you pull on his tail yet or pick up his feet?  it might be good to start there first, as you normally need to do this before you need to do this.
 

Nasc

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I hope you guys are not PULLING my leg with this (lol)

We have a short strider as well.
Walked fine as a calf but now after battling a case of hoof rot he likes to take the choppy steps all too often.

What is frustrating is that sometimes he strides out fine however at other times he is short stepping horribly {in my eyes}.

Here is what we have been doing since April 1st:

Natural Stride Supplement- giving the recommended dosage, vet says every thing listed in it is OK for market animals.

Exercise- we have him in about an acre lot with another calf. Plus we walk him {really more like driving him like you would a hog”} for 15 minutes a day. We plan to increase the time increment as his endurance increases.

Last night I tried some of these stretches with the calf.
Question I have:
How often should this be done?
Should I stretch each leg multiple times a session or is 1 20second hold per leg sufficient?  

Our goal:
The calf weighs around 1075 right now. With his frame we will need him weighing 1275 by the first week of August. “Just a little over a 100 days”.
Putting weight on has never been a problem for this calf but with the increased exercise and the coming hot weather one can only guess what his feed conversion will be like down the road. We do plan to cool room him during the day starting in mid May however if this has an adverse affect on his walking we will sacrifice his hair for mobility. “We are showing at the county fair level.” 

Any help or suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

Hopefully here is a picture of the calf taken about two months ago
 

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red

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what's that white such Nasc? Keep it away! No more!

Nice calf & beautiful girl.

Red
 

Nasc

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Thanks Red

That picture was taken on her last snow day of the season (clapping)

She will be making that day of school up when the weather is much warmer ::)
 

inthebarnagain

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Oct 10, 2007
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Indiana
And people thought I was crazy when our horse chiropractor worked on my daughters steer. 

Beast walked with his back humped up and would not bend his back legs.  The chiropractor popped his back (with a lot of effort!) and then grabbed his opposite hip and pushed his back to bend him.  My husband heard the pops 30 feet away and within a minute the steer had dropped his head and was taking deep breaths with the most peaceful and pain free look on his face.  It works!!! (clapping)The hard part is finding a horse chiropractor that will work on cattle!

2431706153_f050894a71.jpg


Now before the laughter starts, it was her first year, Beast was out of our daughter's cow that she picked out as a heifer from our herd when she was four years old.  My husband had a fit that she wasn't going to show something as bad as him but we compromised that if she would show a heifer that was ours, she could show Beast, ugly or not.

It took our 9 year old to teach us both that the "best steer" didn't have to be the best looking one.  She still had reserve champion Simmental and won Supreme Champion with the heifer that she compromised with us to show.  This picture was taken the day of our auction, needless to say she wouldn't show another steer, it was too hard to sell him.  But all is well, she is more than willing to show heifers and Beast just had a full sister born 3 days ago! <party>
 
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