Opinions & advice on show steers

[RuffoniSistersCattle]

Here we have two show steers. The plan for these guys will be jackpots for the next 7 months and then their end show will be a slick no hair county fair in late july/early august.  Advice is needed these calf are on the smaller end of what we normally get. We want to put them on hair supplents yet worry that if we do so we could sacrifice fat/cover. Is that something we should even worry about? We were thinking of feeding 2cool a hair supplement. Would these calves benefit from stabalized rice bran along with the hair supplent? the minimum for the county  fair ist is 1100lbs



We just blew the calves out and took some pictures this morning.  Im posting two pictures of each calf to help get a better over view look of them. Hopefuly you can get a good idea of what they look like- as i am not a livestock photographer LOL
Steer 1-- eating 12lbs a day of grain. Free choice grass oat mix hay . Weight 11/11/12 550lbs   Out of heatwave/HooDoo  may born

Steer 2-- eating 12lbs a day of grain. Free choice grass oat hay mix. Weight 11/11/12 538lbs   Out of heatwave/Alias.  May born

Thank you in advanced!!

 

[goodnight]

Here we have two show steers. The plan for these guys will be jackpots for the next 7 months and then their end show will be a slick no hair county fair in late july/early august.  Advice is needed these calf are on the smaller end of what we normally get. We want to put them on hair supplents yet worry that if we do so we could sacrifice fat/cover. Is that something we should even worry about? We were thinking of feeding 2cool a hair supplement. Would these calves benefit from stabalized rice bran along with the hair supplent? the minimum for the county  fair ist is 1100lbs



We just blew the calves out and took some pictures this morning.  Im posting two pictures of each calf to help get a better over view look of them. Hopefuly you can get a good idea of what they look like- as i am not a livestock photographer LOL
Steer 1-- eating 12lbs a day of grain. Free choice grass oat mix hay . Weight 11/11/12 550lbs   Out of heatwave/HooDoo  may born

Steer 2-- eating 12lbs a day of grain. Free choice grass oat hay mix. Weight 11/11/12 538lbs   Out of heatwave/Alias.  May born

Thank you in advanced!!

Nice looking calves. Those calves should finish at 1300-1400, in my opinion based upon the picture and the genetics. To get to 1300 pounds, you will need to gain just about 3-3.2 pounds per day. They will not get there with the amount of feed you are feeding them now. I would focus on stepping up their gain now, and start rinsing, blowing, and working the hair. If you need a hair supplement, then start them on that after you get them cooking on feed. I would follow AAOK's program. You have plenty of time to get there, but those calves need to have lots of good days, and very few bad ones. Getting a routine now will reap rewards come mid-July when you are holding, instead of pushing.

 

[grandchamp58]

In my opinion those are two very nice and very similar calves. I would not feed any hair supplements at all- let the winter weather, rinsing, combing, and brushing take care of that! That way they will gain more weight and finish out nicer and heavier. Thanks

 

[AAOK]

I you believe your calves are behind where expected, rather than add a Hair Supplement, why not ease a little (1/2lb) Stabilized Rice Bran into the ration on a permanent basis?  This way you get the extra Fat, sans burn, plus the hair conditioning.

 

[RuffoniSistersCattle]

Okay, thank you. Well get them on some stabilized rice bran and hopefully that will help us out. Any opinions of the calfs, positive or negatives i would love to hear opinions

 

[vc]

Of the 2 the second looks more balanced at this time, both look like they will power up and do well for you. Like Goonight said they need to be eating more feed, 550 and 538 they should be eating around 3 pounds of grain per 100 pounds of weight, I would work them up to 15 pounds of grain and 1/2 pound of the Stabilized Rice Bran, with a good grass hay about a flake each a day.
With calves that are needing pushed you need to make sure they stay on track, we feed the probios in the powder form daily when upping the feed and then about twice a week after that, I prefer to try and keep their guts on track then trying to fix them when they go off track.

To increase the feed I would add about a half a pound per feeding for a week and once they get used to it add a half pound more for the next week until you get them where they need to be. Just keep on top of them, if they seem to a little to loose or back of the feed, pull the grain back and wait a couple days and start over.

 

[RuffoniSistersCattle]

VC: thank you for your suggestions, we've been giving them pro bios every now and then and i never thought of giving it to them the duration of changing feed nunbers. Thank you!