Feed Help please

[mightyarrows]

We need help getting our daughter's market steer to gain weight.  He's 730 and a slow gainer.  We have a Feb 2018 fair and would like to see him over 1000lbs.  Any recommendations??  Right now our feed is 14% protein 2.5% fat 23% fiber and we add soybean meal and cotton seed meal.  The feed is from a local feed mill. 

Anyone have experience with Show-Rite?

 

[WT]

Assuming a show date of February 15th and a show weight of 1,100#, you have 171 days to gain 370#. That's less than 2.2#/ day. Unless he's absolutely not converting, I'd say you're right on track. Has he had a dewormer? What about a probiotic? Good quality hay?

Just guessing since there are others here that I look to for feeding advice (GoWyo, AAOK), but I'd back off on the soybean meal and up the fat. My main concern would be where he needs to finish instead of just reaching that 1,000# mark.

 

[cowman 52]

  Is he eating by himself?  A little competion at the feed bunk is usually a good way to help. 

 

[GoWyo]

Can you post a picture of the steer?  Would help to get an idea of his current body condition and frame size.  Also, do you have any information as to sire and dam?

 

[mightyarrows]

Show date is Feb. 9.  I really don't feel he's converting well.  I think his fiber is too high in his feed.  Going to switch his feed over the next week.  He's been wormed, but he's due again here soon.  I will get that and have my daughter do that next week.  We've been giving probiotics in a tube, we bought from Tractor Supply. He gets good hay everyday, twice a day.

I can eliminate the soybean meal (49% protein)  The reason we are aiming for 1000lbs is b/c in order to share, we have to be there or she will get sent home with him.

I have no clue who the sire or dam are, bought from a cattle broker. It's our first year doing a steer and we are learning lots.

 

[vc]

He should be eating around 21 pounds a grain a day, plus his free choice hay. You might be better off spending a little more and going with a sacked show feed. I would start him on a pound of stabilized rice bran a day, and work him up to 2 pounds (1 pound a feeding). I would make sure he is on a solid schedule, feeding him at the same time each day about 12 hours apart, along with his daily grooming routine, try and be consistent with a schedule, calves seem to do better when they are on a good consistent schedule, they tend to be calmer and eat better as well as gain better, the least amount of stress the better.

when changing the feed take your time, start by taking 1 pounds of the old feed out and add 1 pounds of the new each feeding, wait a few days and a another pound of the new, do this until he is completely switched over. Watch to make sure he does not get too loose in his stool or start to show signs that he is going off his feed, bloating, or things like that.

 

[looking4champions]

730 lbs × 0.02 (2% of Body Weight) = 14.6 lb/day

21 lb/day is like 2.8% of body weight/day.  Thats a good bit of feed for a 730 lb steer.

First, get with an experienced feeder and determine how you want your steer to turn out at his end point. Keep in mind, you want your steer to grow. The goal at this point is growth, not to get him conditioned.  You should not have problems getting him conditioned since you won't be fighting the summer heat, so save that for later.  Feeding your steer 2lbs of STABILIZED rice bran per day will put on conditioning in a hurry.

Tweaking your ration, and making certain it is balanced can probably solve your problems.  All steers dont perform well on free choice hay either.  There is no "cook book" way to feeding a steer when it comes to feeding him to look his best at his end point. There are methods to managing a steer to optimize results based on their natural instincts, typical behaviors, and body make up (digestion, rumen function, etc.).

There is a lot of information available these days.  Research the different feedstuffs and learn the advantages/disadvantages of feeding each. Learn about energy, TDN, protein vs. fiber, feeding mineral, etc.

My advice to you is;
1st - analyze, study your steer and get a visual of how you feel he should look at his end point

2nd - study your ration (with help) and see if its balanced correctly to "grow" your steer. If not tweak it, or select a commercial ration that will do the job.

3rd - one you get your ration squared away, feed your steer what he can clean up, and watch his manure..... A good feeder pays attention to that.... Hint.... Hint...  Gradually increase over time as he starts to consume more.  Feed a good mineral, good hay and clean water.  Instead of free choice hay, maybe controlling how much is the ticket.

4th - Once he is eating consistently, then supplement your ration as needed when needed, with his endpoint in mind.



Good Luck

 

[GoWyo]

vc and L4c have great advice.  I like to have rumensin pellets, but I know plenty of folks get along fine without it.  On bunk management, don't just dump feed and leave -- give him 30 minutes to eat grain and then clean up what doesn't get eaten.  This part is really important.  Then manage your hay.  Mine are on free choice grass hay, but there seem to be a few steers that load up on hay and won't eat their grain, so you have to be aware of what is going on and limit feed their hay.  If their manure smells rancid, they are getting acidotic and may need backed off a little on grain and top dress some probiotics and baking soda to keep his rumen balanced.  If they don't go off feed then they will stay consistent on gaining weight and finishing.  I like stabilized rice bran for adding calories without overdoing the grain.  Also have found flax seed meal is really good too and gives their hair a really glossy shine.

 

[captain7781]

Without going into a lot of detail, you are feeding a very high fiber diet (23%).  I assume that includes the soybean meal and cottenseed meal you mentioned.  If not, then you or I neither one know exactly what you are feeding.  Find out first, but at first glance I would reduce the fiber down to about 12-15% and increase the fat content to about 3-4 %.  If you are trying to build guts or have a very early maturing calf this might need to be tweaked but it would probably get your calf back on track.  Find someone that you trust to assist you with evaluating your steer, your goals and your feed plan.  Infinite different calves and types and ways to accomplish same goal.  Just need to find one that works for this particular calf.

 

[vc]

Here is a link to Purina's Honors feed, the info in it on feeding is pretty spot on whether you feed their feed or another, the basic info is quite helpful.

As far as the 3% we always shot for that percent on the calves from 600 to 900 once we hit around 27 pounds 25 feed and 2 pounds supplements we pretty much stayed there depending on the calf. uping or lowering the fat and protein depending on the calf and where it was at. if you are shooting for 2.5 to 3 pound ADG you have to feed them enough to hit that goal. Unless you have a calf that stays around 7/1 or better conversion rate, you will not hit that with a 2% feed program.

Every calf is different, like I said we shot for 3 and depending on the calf we adjusted.
2 pounds of SRB a day would raise the fat content on your feed to around 3.85%. The feed we fed from start to finish was 11.5 protein, 4 fat and 12.5 fiber. We supplemented with Calf-manna or STB or both all depending on the calf.  Figuring them out is the hard part but once you do it things will go better.

Everyone has a method and theory on how to feed, figuring out what works for you and the calf is all you can do. Keep it simple and make changes and adjustments over time and never rush things. 

 

[doc-sun]

We need help getting our daughter's market steer to gain weight.  He's 730 and a slow gainer.  We have a Feb 2018 fair and would like to see him over 1000lbs.  Any recommendations??  Right now our feed is 14% protein 2.5% fat 23% fiber and we add soybean meal and cotton seed meal.  The feed is from a local feed mill. 

Anyone have experience with Show-Rite?

a high fiber ration is ok but it has to be high fat. i would take out the sb & cs meal and add enough corn to get it to 60% of the ration and add the rice bran as suggested. this should lower the protein to 11 or 12% and increase the fat to 5%. you can increase the flavor by cooking corn in a crock pot and add a pint of wet cooked corn a feeding. feed 3% of body weight a day plus 2 good sized flakes of grass, not bermuda or alfalfa, hay at night.  go from 22 lbs now to 36 lb when he gets to 1200.