A steer that doesn't like corn???

[cypressfarms]

I have a steer from last years crop that I'm feeding out, and he's been brought to the front and put in a small paddock to be fattened for butchering. Just bought a couple sacks of cracked corn to give him - thought I'd start giving him a few pounds a day.

This steer comes when called, and runs to the feed bucket. I pour the corn in, and he takes one bite, and then leaves it. It stayed all day. He ate old hay, standing dead grass, but wouldn't eat the corn. Is this guy just retarded? That corn cost me $10/sack!

Seriously, should I slowly start to mix the corn in with other feed? He will eat other types of feed, but I want to get him going on corn to finish him for butchering. I've seen cows that won't eat cubes because they don't know what it is, but when they find out they go at it. (This is fresh corn from the feed store) Still amazing to me, a cow that won't eat corn. What's the world coming to?

 

[buckmaster33]

I have a steer from last years crop that I'm feeding out, and he's been brought to the front and put in a small paddock to be fattened for butchering. Just bought a couple sacks of cracked corn to give him - thought I'd start giving him a few pounds a day.

This steer comes when called, and runs to the feed bucket. I pour the corn in, and he takes one bite, and then leaves it. It stayed all day. He ate old hay, standing dead grass, but wouldn't eat the corn. Is this guy just retarded? That corn cost me $10/sack!

Seriously, should I slowly start to mix the corn in with other feed? He will eat other types of feed, but I want to get him going on corn to finish him for butchering. I've seen cows that won't eat cubes because they don't know what it is, but when they find out they go at it. (This is fresh corn from the feed store) Still amazing to me, a cow that won't eat corn. What's the world coming to?

I'm assuming this is the first time the steer has corn put in front of him? How many days have you been putting the corn in front of him? Just asking because if he's never seen corn before during his lifetime and its only been one or two days...he's still trying to figure what the corn is...esp if he has all the hay he wants to eat....no need to figure out what it is. Trust me, he'll figure it out....the corn's too good to pass up for too long. That is unless you do have a retarded steer!

By the way, hopefully there's about 2.5 bushels of corn in that "sack" you bought!?!?! :?

 

[dun]

He knows what you have in mind for him and is trying to postpone the inevitable

 

[Angus Cowman]

buy a bag of sweet grain and feed him a little for a day or so then add the corn about 1/2 and 1/2

 

[buckmaster33]

He knows what you have in mind for him and is trying to postpone the inevitable

True that, true that. Never fails to amaze me every year when I go 'try' to round up my cull cows for the year...they catch on very quickly and suddenly want nothing to do with me! Sorry, didnt mean to get off the subject at hand.

 

[randiliana]

Every once in a while you will run into an animal that will not eat grain. We have one of about 70 right now that is not and never has been interested in the barley we are feeding. The rest gobble it right up.

On the other hand, if you just started him on corn, it may just take a few days for him to decide he likes it. If you have been feeding him another type of grain that he is used to just mix in the corn for a few days. He may push it mostly to the side for a day or so, but he will soon get used to it.

 

[Beefbusw]

From my experience i would say the animal just doesnt know what corn is... yet... give him time to get used to it. In a few days or weeks he should be fattening up just fine

 

[backhoeboogie]

buy a bag of sweet grain and feed him a little for a day or so then add the corn about 1/2 and 1/2

That is what I do. I used to get a feed called "Baby Beef" that was awesome to feed steers out with. The local feed stores don't have it any more. So I mix sweet feed and cracked corn for two weeks then go to cracked corn only.

 

[cypressfarms]

buy a bag of sweet grain and feed him a little for a day or so then add the corn about 1/2 and 1/2

This is what I'm going to try to do. This is a steer who's eaten anything put in front of him before, and I bring home some weird looking stuff (I work at a wildlife product company that makes among other things deer feed) including green colored feed. All of my cows know my truck well. When I return from work with a 55 gallon drum, they all stand and wait. When the drum gets dumped into several big troughs I have the fight is one - and they gorge themselves regardless of what the daily freebie is.
I think I'll slowly mix the corn in with other feed that he's eaten before. Just seemed almost unbelievable to me. It'd be like putting a medium well ribeye in front of me, me taking a bite, and saying nah - I don't feel like it. Maybe that's a bad analogy ;-)

 

[Jogeephus]

I noticed something similar to this a few years ago while feeding whole corn. Don't know if I'm right but I thought it might have something to do with a new tooth or a bad tooth. I thought that maybe the cow bit down on this new food and got a pain from it since it was the only one that shyed away from the corn. I mixed it with other feed and it still picked around the corn. Only one that did this. But within a couple of weeks it was eating it like it was candy.

 

[Angus Cowman]

culd be Jo
I hardly ever feed cracked corn, I feed steamed crimped

 

[backhoeboogie]

culd be Jo
I hardly ever feed cracked corn, I feed steamed crimped

I need to hear more about this. Had a dude tell me he cooks the corn before he feeds it to his son's show steer. I had that, "You got to be kidding me!" look on my face and he says, "No kidding. We boil it up every night. It does the steer twice as much good."

 

[mnmtranching]

Lot of cattle will start on feed slowly. They are full of their normal feed and slow to get started on strange new stuff. Put the corn in the same bunk as the hay. He will get going at it.

 

[cypressfarms]

Just got back from the steer. I poured some of the "normal" dry feed that he's used to over the corn in the feed tub. He looked at it, ate a a bite, then ate the whole thing down including the corn. This is not the brightest steer in the world, apparently. Hey , I'd rather his ribeye be bigger than his brain anyway.

 

[1982vett]

By the way, hopefully there's about 2.5 bushels of corn in that "sack" you bought!?!?! :?

Quite a bit of difference in the price of corn already dried, bagged and shipped to a store than corn sitting on a turnrow in a pile isn't it. :frowns:

Cypress, sounds like he just didn't know what to do with it.

 

[cfpinz]

We butchered a steer about two years ago that didn't much care for plain corn. I usually mix rolled corn and a commodity pellet about 1/2 and 1/2 when I finish them. He'd eat around the corn from time to time.

We've got a yearling heifer this year that won't eat more than a mouthfull of any type of sweet feed, takes a bite and then walks away. Oh, well.

 

[TexasBred]

culd be Jo
I hardly ever feed cracked corn, I feed steamed crimped

I need to hear more about this. Had a dude tell me he cooks the corn before he feeds it to his son's show steer. I had that, "You got to be kidding me!" look on my face and he says, "No kidding. We boil it up every night. It does the steer twice as much good."

He's only fooling himself although steam rolled or flaked corn is a little bit more digestible.

 

[Angus Cowman]

I can't see how cooking it would benefit it any but I do know that steamed crimped corn the digestability is about 10% more than regualr cracked corn and is alot better than whole corn with it being steamed and crimped versus cracked, the Steam softens the kernel some and lets the acids in the stomach break it down more
When I was in the feed business 20 some yrs ago we had studies on it that showed the actual #s been along time ago and I don't remeber exactly

 

[dun]

http://extension.missouri.edu/adair/liv ... 0Corn.html

 

[Angus Cowman]

http://extension.missouri.edu/adair/livestock/Feeding%20Whole%20Corn.html

I stand corrected