Hay for Show heifers

[aplusmnt]

If feeding some young Show heifers is there anything wrong with offering them free choice on hay or should you only give them a flake a day or so? They are getting all the feed they will eat of a show ration also.

 

[TxCoUnTrYbOy]

I give mine free choice. Well, once in a while they will run out for a little while, but most of the time they have the choice at all times. Except for the bull, once in a while he will dump his feed and eat up all of the hay, but that isnt very common.

But yeah, they have a round bale outside and use hay nets inside the pens.

 

[certherfbeef]

Donald,

There is some discussion on the hay theory further down the page. I'll see if I can find it.

PM Jeanne, she does the best job of explaining the free choice hay.

My calves are tied up durning the day. Grain twice. Then turned out to a round bale of good grass hay.
Theory is the more hay they eat the more grain they will also eat.
Works well for me.
Give Jeanne a holler.

 

[Scotty]

Donald,

There is some discussion on the hay theory further down the page. I'll see if I can find it.

PM Jeanne, she does the best job of explaining the free choice hay.

My calves are tied up durning the day. Grain twice. Then turned out to a round bale of good grass hay.
Theory is the more hay they eat the more grain they will also eat.
Works well for me.
Give Jeanne a holler.

I agree. I think it keeps the rumen healthy and thats the most important thing when growing cattle. Or one of the most.


Scotty

 

[certherfbeef]

Here is Jeanne's post. The link to that thread is below.

We feed "full choice" good quality grass hay. Unlike what most people think, the more hay they eat, the more grain they will be able to eat. You have to feed the good bugs in their stomach. Lots of hay also builds a good "size" to the rumen. If you feed mostly grain (condensed feed) their stomach does not need to get stretched out.
They should start out eating no more than 1% of their body weight in grain, increasing slowly to a max of 3%.

http://cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic. ... hlight=hay

 

[kaneranch]

I give my heifer as much as she can eat. SHe doesn't go through that much because her feed has roufage (sp?) in it. She only picks at the hay when she is hungry right before I feed her.
THanks Kaneranch

 

[showme]

We have about 1200 square bales in the barn this year between 12 show calves and 3 horses we feed that free choice. But I guess it depends on the amount of hay you have in your barn.

 

[TheBullLady]

Free choice hay here as well. We supply a good quality coastal round bale in the pen with the heifers. I would love to get some good red top cane, but haven't been able to find any good stuff close by. We generally buy it at the shows when it's available. They love that stuff!

 

[aplusmnt]

Thanks for all the replies! I was wondering if any of you would change in regards a show steer? If was a steer would you also supply free hay or with him just give a flake a day?

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

certherfbeef - thanks for the vote of confidence - how the heck do you find a previous post like that!!! :shock:
Anyway, I'm not sure how the real steer jocks feed their steers for show. I do know that they need a good amount of hay in order to consume a large amount of grain. Once the steer is up to the weight (or close to it), they back off on the volume of grain, so don't know what they do with the hay. You would want volume, but not soggy gut.
Quality of hay is VERY important. Best is good grass hay put up nice & soft. I'm sure not an expert. My husband was a nutritionist, and I've heard his "speel" a number of times. Works for us for heifers & bulls.

 

[horse507]

I know a guy that can help you with that, I will see if I can get him to post here.

 

[Circle C Ranches]

We feed about 5 to 10 different types of hay. In show cattle you want to make them look as full as you can. I use Jigs 60% of the time.