cumminspuller
Active member
I dropped off my first 3 steers at the processor yesterday morning. We've been back grounding calves for a few years but never have finished one. These were calves we raised out of some plain commercial Hereford and Angus cows. I get a lot more out of this page than I contribute. I read a lot of posts and tried to take advice from those on here who have done this a lot more and a lot longer than me. The plan was to put these in a small lot and feed them free choice 1st cutting fescue/orchard grass hay and grain for 120 days. Between the time I needed to get them up and haul them back to my house to finish and when the weather would allow me to they ended up being on feed/hay for 105 days. We had a lot of 90*+ and a few weeks of 95*+ days in June and July. That was unusual for us. Normally its not that hot until late July/August. For the first 68 days they stayed on the same 13% feed that I background everything on. Over the next 7 days I moved them to a finishing feed. I'm not 100% sure on the protein level but it is around 50-60% cracked shelled corn. The last 30 days they were on 100% finishing feed. When I penned them up they averaged 866#/hd. By day 66 of being penned up they averaged 1,073#/hd. I knew I had one that was noticeably bigger than the other two. That held through the whole time.
No tag black - live weight 1,220# - hanging weight - 728#
#26 baldie - live weight 1,140# - hanging weight - 665#
#28 blondie - live weight 1,060# - hanging weight - 660#
The picture of all 3 was taken on August 7.
The second picture was taken on August 22.
I failed to get a picture yesterday. I thought about it when I got them in the trailer but wasn't going to unload them to get one.
The me the black steer did not look done. The other two were a decent bit closer.
I'm by no means saying all of this is right or wrong but its what I did. Maybe it will help someone else. We are planning on killing 4 more the end of January.
No tag black - live weight 1,220# - hanging weight - 728#
#26 baldie - live weight 1,140# - hanging weight - 665#
#28 blondie - live weight 1,060# - hanging weight - 660#
The picture of all 3 was taken on August 7.
The second picture was taken on August 22.
I failed to get a picture yesterday. I thought about it when I got them in the trailer but wasn't going to unload them to get one.
The me the black steer did not look done. The other two were a decent bit closer.
I'm by no means saying all of this is right or wrong but its what I did. Maybe it will help someone else. We are planning on killing 4 more the end of January.