How do you think my daughters 1st show steer is coming along?

[SandyB]

This is my daughter's first cattle project and my first one in 28 years. Boy have things changed but most of the basics are coming back to me. He is not show clipped yet, this is just a rinse and blow. Their first show is this weekend. We weighed him the other day and he weighed in at 910#. At one point he was gaining 3.5#'s a day, so we slowed him down as the fair we pan to show and sell him at is Labor Day weekend. We have not increased his grain in awhile. He is at 18 pounds a day plus a pound of beet pulp twice a day. He is still gaining just over 2.5#'s a day. He is also fed a pasture grass hay. I could push him for a mid June fair but most peoples advise is that its easier to hold them. What do you all think? Also any advise for my daughter this weekend?

 

[Tallcool1]

Sandy....he looks great!  Exactly how I hoped he would progress when you got him last fall!

My advice for this weekend is pretty complicated but I'm sure she will understand. HAVE FUN!

Good job!

 

[BogartBlondes]

Great steer! My advice would be to pull the hair down around the flank to make it look more consistent as he is a touch weak flanked. Great job though!  (clapping)

 

[Warrior10]

Looks like you guys are doing awesome! Congrats!

 

[SandyB]

Thank you guys! He is a great first steer for my daughter. Very laid back and easy to handle. We do not have a grooming chute yet but he ties at our horse wash rack like a horse while she does her washing, blowing and grooming.
Thank you for the advise on the flank area. He used to be deeper there but he is growing again and we need to be cautious on weight gain since we still have so far to go until fair. We do not know a thing about prepping for the show ring, but thanks to Trausch Farms we have a groomer lined up to clip and help us groom him this weekend. We plan to video, take notes and learn all we can.
Is there anything we can feed him or supplement him with that will help fill that area before a show?

 

[doc-sun]

This is my daughter's first cattle project and my first one in 28 years. Boy have things changed but most of the basics are coming back to me. He is not show clipped yet, this is just a rinse and blow. Their first show is this weekend. We weighed him the other day and he weighed in at 910#. At one point he was gaining 3.5#'s a day, so we slowed him down as the fair we pan to show and sell him at is Labor Day weekend. We have not increased his grain in awhile. He is at 18 pounds a day plus a pound of beet pulp twice a day. He is still gaining just over 2.5#'s a day. He is also fed a pasture grass hay. I could push him for a mid June fair but most peoples advise is that its easier to hold them. What do you all think? Also any advise for my daughter this weekend?

i would add a cup of rice bran, a cup of corn oil and a pint of cooked corn to his feed twice a  day and increase his beet pulp to 2 lb twice a day. increase his feed to 25 lbs a day. if you don't do this he will get too big and not enough volume. if he gets to fat turn him out a week to two weeks on a round bale with just enough feed to keep him eating. get him fat quick to slow down frame.

 

[SandyB]

This is my daughter's first cattle project and my first one in 28 years. Boy have things changed but most of the basics are coming back to me. He is not show clipped yet, this is just a rinse and blow. Their first show is this weekend. We weighed him the other day and he weighed in at 910#. At one point he was gaining 3.5#'s a day, so we slowed him down as the fair we pan to show and sell him at is Labor Day weekend. We have not increased his grain in awhile. He is at 18 pounds a day plus a pound of beet pulp twice a day. He is still gaining just over 2.5#'s a day. He is also fed a pasture grass hay. I could push him for a mid June fair but most peoples advise is that its easier to hold them. What do you all think? Also any advise for my daughter this weekend?

i would add a cup of rice bran, a cup of corn oil and a pint of cooked corn to his feed twice a  day and increase his beet pulp to 2 lb twice a day. increase his feed to 25 lbs a day. if you don't do this he will get too big and not enough volume. if he gets to fat turn him out a week to two weeks on a round bale with just enough feed to keep him eating. get him fat quick to slow down frame.

To clarify, we should be feeding him 25 pounds of his grain a day PLUS, rice bran, corn oil & cooked corn and upping his beet pulp?
How does getting him fat slow down his frame? I would think it would be the opposite, the more you feed him the larger he will grow. We still have 168 days until his terminal fair and that much feed scares me. I am so confused as I have had people tell me to cut back on his feed and I have had others tell me to pour the feed to him.

 

[obie105]

I would push now when it is cooler and coast when it's hot. When the heat of summer hits many steers won't want to eat. Plus if you start going to jackpots everytime you leave home he could lose weight. High fat will make them fat without adding frame. You can hold one 30-60 days usually pretty easily. Guys on here might even be able to have you hold him longer. Good luck! The first show should be about having fun!

 

[Tallcool1]

This is my daughter's first cattle project and my first one in 28 years. Boy have things changed but most of the basics are coming back to me. He is not show clipped yet, this is just a rinse and blow. Their first show is this weekend. We weighed him the other day and he weighed in at 910#. At one point he was gaining 3.5#'s a day, so we slowed him down as the fair we pan to show and sell him at is Labor Day weekend. We have not increased his grain in awhile. He is at 18 pounds a day plus a pound of beet pulp twice a day. He is still gaining just over 2.5#'s a day. He is also fed a pasture grass hay. I could push him for a mid June fair but most peoples advise is that its easier to hold them. What do you all think? Also any advise for my daughter this weekend?

i would add a cup of rice bran, a cup of corn oil and a pint of cooked corn to his feed twice a  day and increase his beet pulp to 2 lb twice a day. increase his feed to 25 lbs a day. if you don't do this he will get too big and not enough volume. if he gets to fat turn him out a week to two weeks on a round bale with just enough feed to keep him eating. get him fat quick to slow down frame.

To clarify, we should be feeding him 25 pounds of his grain a day PLUS, rice bran, corn oil & cooked corn and upping his beet pulp?
How does getting him fat slow down his frame? I would think it would be the opposite, the more you feed him the larger he will grow. We still have 168 days until his terminal fair and that much feed scares me. I am so confused as I have had people tell me to cut back on his feed and I have had others tell me to pour the feed to him.

You should be confused...it is confusing!

I will try to help clear this up, but I am making NO claim to be an expert!

Yes you are being told to increase his feed intake.  A really good rule of thumb is 3% of his body weight.  obie105 is advising that you get him as close to fat as possible while the weather is nice.  I agree with that advice.  Be prepared for the possibility of him slowing way down when it gets hot. 

As far as slowing down frame size by feeding one hard......I don't really believe that is possible.  Personally, I believe that they are going to get as big as mother nature says they are going to get.  I DO however believe that by feeding one hard, you will keep them proportioned as they grow.  What you don't want is to walk out one morning, and realize that he is 52" tall and looks like a race horse!  When that happens, it is very challenging to catch up and get him back into proportion......ESPECIALLY when you factor in what obie105 was telling you!

So, now I am going to give you the RIGHT answer!  (That is a joke, don't be hatin' on my humor or you will wreck my entire weekend!)  You bought that steer from some of the best in the business.  When they helped you choose that steer, they did it for a reason.  Pick up the phone and call Chris Wilson @ Trausch Farms.  Send him that same picture.  Be prepared to answer a LOT of questions because Chris is going to ask them.  He is really the best person to talk to because he knows how the steer is bred, he knows what the cow looks like, and he knows why he felt that this steer would be the right one for your daughters first project! 

Opinions are a dime a dozen because you are getting them from people that have no real vested interest.  The only two parties that have a vested interest are you, and the guy you got him from.  You two formed a partnership the day you bought that steer.  Stay close to your partner!

 

[vc]

Are you weighing him full or empty, at 2.5 a day for the next 172 days he would weigh 1330 at your fair. I would have him on full feed watch his weight weekly if you can.
The thing about monitoring his growth early is if something happens and he goes off feed later, it is hard to catch back up. I would rather hold one late then early, to many variables come in to play for me. As stated if he jumps up to fast you can hold for a week or to and then start again. It can be hard to get a good finish on some of the Char X's, another reason to get it on him now and cost later.
He is a nice steer that should do well, hard to tell his frame size, what do you think he will finish at, it is very easy to weigh a 1400 pound steer in at 1320 witch is only 6% shrinkage, if you really hit one hard and with no weigh-back you can weigh a 1420 in at 1300 fairly easy.
I like to weigh weekly at the same time of day so I can get a true reading on ADG, calves tend to drink and eat at the same time each day, by weighing them at the same time each time you weigh, you get a more consistant average.
I have weighed a calf in the morning after they came out of the run and then weighed them in the evening prior to kicking out, there was a 60 pound swing most of the 60 pounds was in the ceder rest.
We weighed the calves every Sunday evening prior to kicking out for the day, that worked for us.

 

[SandyB]

Thank you! OK, we began an increase in his feed tonight and will go back to doing what we were(increasing his feed every few days) and see what happens.

We usually weigh him mid day and since I don't have a scale, we have to haul him out. He does not stress too much about the trailer rides. He loads and unloads like a horse. He is a mellow guy.

I sent a picture and a message to Chris from Trausch Farms and explained in detail what we have been doing feed wise, what his gain has been, when our terminal show is. Along with my phone number. Hopefully I will be hearing from him.

Tomorrow we leave for the show. My daughter and I are excited but nervous. Luckily we have a good friend thats done this a few times that will hold our hand through the new experience not to mention we have the groomer Trausch arranged.

 

[SandyB]

Our first show was a big learning experience and a lot of fun. The steer handled the show pretty good but he was stressed enough that he would not drink well even using filtered water and he did not eat as good either, so he got a bit sunken in and gutted up. The first day my daughter and he made a few mistakes in showmanship and the judge did not care for him in the progress class either. On day two Grace made the first cut in showmanship and finished 5th. The steer placed 4th in his progress class and the judge had a lot of nice things to say (balance, attractiveness, flash, neck, fitting job) but mentioned he was lacking rib, depth, muscle and that he was concerned about his soundness cause he toed out some. His hooves are long and we hope to have him trimmed at the show next weekend as their will be someone there providing the service. What was interesting was that in the final drive for Supreme Champion, two of the three division champions all toed out, one excessively. With a couple looking like they were painful walking. So that did not make sense. Regardless, there were a lot of nice cattle, nice people and I loved the family atmosphere. My daughter met new friends and the groomer/fitter was great in not just doing it but teaching us as she went.
Next weekend we are attending a small one day jackpot and then a larger one on April 5th. When I figure out how to resize my photos I took so that I can post them here I will post a picture or two.

 

[vc]

I do not know if you are tying the steer during the day or not, if you are it is a good idea to get them to start drinking from a bucket at home, this way they get used to it. If he tends to only drink from his trough and is free to do so, it makes it difficult at the show. We have a tank in the big pen at night but after being tied in the barn all day they tend to be thirsty so it does not take long for them to learn about the bucket.
Same with feed, we feed in the stall in the morning and in the run at night so they get used to a feed pan and not just the bunk.

 

[Tallcool1]

I do not know if you are tying the steer during the day or not, if you are it is a good idea to get them to start drinking from a bucket at home, this way they get used to it. If he tends to only drink from his trough and is free to do so, it makes it difficult at the show. We have a tank in the big pen at night but after being tied in the barn all day they tend to be thirsty so it does not take long for them to learn about the bucket.
Same with feed, we feed in the stall in the morning and in the run at night so they get used to a feed pan and not just the bunk.

Good advice!

I also think it is important to understand that this is just part of the learning process for the steer.  They just have to go to a couple shows before they learn how it works.  By the time you get to the April 15th show, he will be laying down every time you give him the chance.

It's good to hear that you had a good time!

 

[SandyB]

Thank you! Some good advise with the water bucket deal. We did use his same feed pan for grain at the show, but you are right, the water bucket was different. We water him in a muck bucket at home. I did see several people using those for watering and it would not be hard to pack a much bucket for watering.