18 days till show day - Steer gone wild!!!

[Simmymom1]

  ???    Okay, here is my question to all of you.  My daughter shows her steer for the county show in 18 days and all of a sudden he is acting like a total goofball.  She walks him in our horse arena just about everyday and practices setting him up, well yesterday he went bonkers with her.  He started jumping around and farting and then tried to stick his head, nose first into the deep sand in the arena.  He was acting like he just wanted to play and get some energy out, he did not get loose but he sure did try her many times.  He is kept in a pretty large pen with shavings up to his belly  with misters and the whole deal, but we have not been letting him out except for her walking him daily.  We still have about 20 more pounds we are trying to put on him before the show.  Would it hurt him to let him out in my small horse pasture for a couple of hours (after I put the horses up), or would he be burning off too much of his weight by running around, which is what he wants to do.  Let me know what you think.  Thanks - Lisa

 

[chambero]

We turn ours out every night.  It's not going to hurt him at all.  In fact, if one is slowing down eating, a little more exercise usually helps.  He's not going to eat enough grass to hurt him either.  Their just like kids, they get to feeling good this time of year and want to play. 

 

[fluffer]

I agree.  Let him out for a little bit.  We let our show cattle our every night to run.  Sometimes if I didn't have a show for a while and it was a grey day I would turn my heifers out all day on occation.  It is better then him hurting your daughter.  It will probably make him eat more too.

Good Luck!
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[knabe]

i would want to get out and run around if i slept on a pillow that catwoman would envy.  feels good on the bones. i'd probably stomp my feet a little bit too, just to get the kinks out.

the nose in the sand thing is what cattle usually do in new environments to do something like soaking up the scent, rubbing their chins all over it, or seeing whose there before. people underestimate the sensitivity of cattle's noses and sense of taste.  they are more touchy feely with the tip of their nose and tip of their tongue than any 5 year old.  i love the way bulls do the flehmen behaviour so they can resmell stuff.  i compare it to cleansing the pallet with wine so one can retaste the meal over and over.  i've said before, you can actually hear this in some bulls.  when i was at ohlde's years ago, me and two of his hired hands joked endlessly about this and one of the AI techs who made this sound for shy bulls when he was collecting them.  his name was lyle, and we used to joke that huuuuuulyle was coming today to collect bulls.  silly males.

 

[doubled]

I agree let him out to frolick-

 

[sawboss]

Sometimes this does backfire.  We let our heifers out every night to exercise and they really enjoy it.  This caused my oldest son a problem at Houston this year, his heifer had been tied out for four nights without her romp.  When she hit the huge arena there she went nuts and made a long circle through both arenas, and then returned and ducked her head at his feet.  It was as if she was saying okay now I am ready, but it was too late.  She did the same thing a week later at our county show, it is okay though she has been sent to the pasture to run all she wants.

 

[fluffer]

I was showing some calves in GA ontime and the facility had some round pens.  I took my calves out the night before the show and turned them out for about a half hour.  Just enough for them to blow some energy.  And the pen wasn't really big enough for them to get crazy it.  Sometimes too we take the long way to and from tieouts to give the cattle a little exercise.  I would go nuts too if I were tied up for several days, not to mention a long trailer ride 

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