help with feeding my steer

[HT]

I have a GF Kadabra X Angus steer that i bought in may, he weighed 420lbs, he was on light feed and grass all summer about august i moved him in. I think he  is gaining weight too fast the first weigh in was about 58 days ago and weighed in at 720lbs. Now he weight 1010lbs and is gaining about 5 lbs a day on about 18-20lbs of feed.The feed is a 16% grower ration, coastal hay, pasture, and about 1/2 lb of calf manna. Theres still 116days till the show and i have him finishing about 1300lbs based on genetics, frame and siblings. I was wondering if you guys could give me any pointers on how to feed him.
Thanks,
HT

 

[TottenClubCalves]

well first things first make sure your scales are right and if possible maybe ask to haul him to the fair scales because those are the one that matter. Second if he is gaining 5 pounds a day cut his feed back to 15 pounds or so feed him that for a couple weeks and figure out his average daily gain

if you have 116 day till fair and ideally want him at 1300 pounds then you need to gain roughly 2.5 pounds a day so if he is gaining 5 pounds then you need TECHNICALLY need to cut your ration in half BUT I would suggest pulling him down to 15 pounds and slowly adjusting from there till you reach that ADG of 2.5

 

[ghostrider]

The 5# adg is high, but his actual weight is right on target, IMO.  I'm afraid if you try just to meet your adg goal by reducing your current ration you'll end up not finished, even at your target weight.  The first thing I'd do is switch from that 16% grower ration to something around a 12% finisher.  This alone should slow him down somewhat, as the lower protein, higher energy ration will be less conducive to growth and more to fattening.  Weigh him again 30 days or so after you've switched him over and see how your adg is - if you still feel it needs slowing down more, then you can replace a portion of your ration with cotton seed hulls and/or beet pulp.

Also remember that in most cases if you want to show a steer at 1300# then he needs to weigh more than that full.

 

[Jill]

Agree with pulling his protien down, but I wouldn't cut anything off the feed, 5ppd is really high and I would be suprised if he keeps gaining at that rate.  It has been my experience when you try to hold one you generally end up screwing yourself up, I would let him get to the 1200 range before I would even consider holding, you can always take pounds off, it is really hard if you hold now and don't have enough to put them on later.

 

[vc]

We always weigh the calves at the same time and when their empty. We weigh on Sunday right before they get kicked out. Calf has been in the barn all day so he is not been fed since the morning feeding, has had minimil water. This gives us an idea of what we are working with plus we can gauge the ADG, if you pull them out of the pen and weigh there is know way to know if the calf is full of water or not. Each gallon weighs 8+ pounds so they can fluctuate 80 pounds each time you weigh. I have weighed in the morning prior to putting them in the barn and then weighed in the evening prior to kicking out and seen a 55 pound difference. 15 pounds of feed and 30 pounds of water. I also agree make sure the scale is accurate, so many times you hear kids get to the fair and complain that the calf lost 150 pounds or so, when in fact they probably lost 40 and the scale they used was off the rest.

the more I look at your steer gained about 2.3 the first four plus months you had it, you started feeding at 720, there is allot that could be growing on growth spurt, I bet he starts to slow down back to around 2.5 to 3 ADG and that would put you close to your target weight. If you look at his over all ADG since you purchased it would be between 3 - 3.25 witch is average. Change him to a finisher slowly and monitor his gain it should start to slow.

 

[TottenClubCalves]

The 5# adg is high, but his actual weight is right on target, IMO.  I'm afraid if you try just to meet your adg goal by reducing your current ration you'll end up not finished, even at your target weight.  The first thing I'd do is switch from that 16% grower ration to something around a 12% finisher.  This alone should slow him down somewhat, as the lower protein, higher energy ration will be less conducive to growth and more to fattening.  Weigh him again 30 days or so after you've switched him over and see how your adg is - if you still feel it needs slowing down more, then you can replace a portion of your ration with cotton seed hulls and/or beet pulp.

Also remember that in most cases if you want to show a steer at 1300# then he needs to weigh more than that full.

Totally agree, my bad I tottally glanced over the 16% grower, my mistake. You should def switch him over to a finishing feed now and like ghostrider said weigh him in thirty days and adjust from there.

 

[CMB]

Why would you want to use 16% feed at all on beef cattle? I know that you go to the mill and the starters are hi protien but I don't know of any premixed show rations be it startes or growers that are anywhere near that. The high protien pushes the frame growth like crazy and I wouldn't know why in a beef situation you would want that. I have a very good friend who is a nutritionist and he has never recommended anything that high. Just a question? Thought maybe I was missing something here.

 

[HT]

Thanks guys. I weighed him again and I know he was empty because he was tied up the majority of the day in the barn. He weighed 1015lbs. I was told that the Maines usually mature faster and he will probly start slowing down soon.. I hope he does.. Thanks for all your advice.
Thanks,
HT