Steer has a low convertion

[FLSteer]

Our fair is in March and our calf needs to be 1000.Beginning weight 609 He was eating 18lb daily 12% feed plus calf manna and coastal hay but was only at ADG 1.3.  We changed feed to purina show chow and his gain is up to 2.1. He has been wormed and re implanted 3 weeks ago. We have added liquid fat and a daily probiotic. He is currently at 850. We have 39 days to gain 150 lbs. calf will not eat more then 20lbs per day(some days less). Any suggestions to get the daily gain up when the calf will not eat more feed?

 

[Spencer10218]

Sullivan's has a product called appetite express
I have been looking into supplements like you are needing and if the product does what they claim it's suspossed to do then it should help you out
I have not tried any yet

 

[cowman 52]

Does he have a bunk mate? Any thing to make him compete for feed may help as much as anything.

 

[OH Breeder]

What type of growth implant and how much did you use?
We use appetite express and like it.
We also treat with Probiotics frequently. You may want to get some probiotic gel at TSC and treat him a couple days just as a bump.
Having a pen mate always helps. Also, what percentage of total protein are you feeding daily.

 

[FLSteer]

Purina Honor Chow full range 12% protein.  He was also started on alfalfa 2 weeks ago 1 flake per day. In addition to his daily probiotics he gets jump start about once per week. He's had a few tubes of b12 but didn't seem to make a difference. The implant was Ralgro. We have 2 other steers that we put him with from time to time but he takes a few bites and walks away. I will order the AE and see if it helps. Thanks for the advise.

 

[Tyler]

worm him, just make sure you have enough time to meet the withdrawal period

 

[vc]

The alfalfa will not help him finish his feed, I would switch to a grass hay and take away the alfalfa. You might try keeping the hay away from him until he finishes his grain then feed his hay. I would also add some stabilized rice bran to his feed.
You have a steep road ahead of you to make weight, good luck. You need around 4 pounds a day to hit your target weight.
Make sure he is full and has plenty of water prior to weigh in, teach him to drink from a bucket and you may want to take 10 to 15  gallons of water from home to make sure he'll drink prior to weigh in.

 

[RankeCattleCo]

Even if he hits 1000 pounds how much finish will he have

 

[ba]

Is he got a case of acidosis.  Might want to try given him a partial flake of Straw to help get the pH in his rumen and back to normal

 

[FLSteer]

He has a bunk mate but prefers to eat alone. Eating about 18lbs per day. We have added baking soda along with the probotics and increased the alfalfa to 5lbs per day. He has increased to 3.75 per day weight gain and is finally starting to clean up his feed. 25 days to go. I know it's not a favorite and goes against what most advise but the alfalfa seems to be increasing our weight gain.