Steer feed

[Hodgie76]

My son purchased a 5.5-6 frame Char. Maine- Angus -Hereford steer. Today he about 550 lbs. What is a good grower ration? How many lbs of this ration do we feed?  We do not want him too heavy at Weigh in Jan 1st. Our 4-H fair is the last week of July.  WE have shelled corn, oats, beet pulp, cotton seed hulls,soybean meal and grass- alfalfa hay available. I wish he could get grass hay but it is hard to find. Shortly before Jan. 1st we will slowly switch over to a ration similar to the AAOK Ration.    We have a hard time finding lighter steers.    In Iowa a lot of people calve in Mar. so they are done with calving before corn planting  season.    This is the best steer we could find in our price range.

 

[AAOK]

I think you could build many suitable rations with what you have, and do well to hold your steer by feeding 2% of body weight daily. Play with 10 - 13lbs per day and weigh often to estimate where he will be in Jan.

 

[5PCC]

I understand that a lot of folks don't feed their steers hard until after the winter weigh-in dates, but in my opinion, you would be better off to feed the steer according to what weight you think he will finish at and when the show date is in July.

We weigh-in in February and July gets here a lot faster than you think when you're trying to push a steer to a certain weight. In February, steers in our county will weigh anywhere between 650 and 950 roughly. I live in Northeast Missouri.

 

[GoWyo]

If you weigh in early January and show end of July, that gives you about 200 days on feed after weigh ins.  If your animal needs to be upper 1300s to be finished (let's use 1375), and if he gains 2.5 to 3.5 lbs per day (I have found wide variation in rates of gain in clubbies) then he will need to weigh somewhere between 500 lbs and 700 lbs less than 1375.  If we use 3.0 lbs per day as the rate of gain, then he should gain 600 lbs in 200 days.  To me the steer needs to weigh 775-800 on Jan. 1.  I would start pouring the coals to him and maybe just suck him back for weigh ins in January.  He doesn't sound like a little pud frame wise, so you might have to push him some to get him finished.  This will be even more true if he is a hard feeder and won't gain 3.0 lbs per day.

 

[5PCC]

I definitely agree with GoWyo!

 

[OH Breeder]

GO Wy is not far from the mark. You have to remmber as the calves get towards the end of their feed cycle they tend to drop off on weight gain. We fight heat and seasonal temperatures here. Our ssummers are extrmemly and greatly effects our weight gains. I would be on a 11% ration that has some grow but will put some cover on.

 

[vc]

Even if he converted 6-1 he would gain about 2.5 pounds a day or around 180 pounds off of 15 pounds a day. He will drop a few pounds in the trailer, if you fed hay only the night before, held back water after 6 pm ( I'd give him about 3 gallons then) on the 31st, he should drop about 50 pounds or more by your weigh in. This would but him around 680 on the first. I would feed him and just monitor his gain over the next 2 months.
I would rather hold one later then hold him early and then have him hit a bump in the road later and never get caught back up.