djinwa":1j6fcjuk said:
You can have great genetics which cannot be expressed if on poor nutrition. So without more information, we cannot determine why he lacks muscle.
What have you been feeding him his whole life? Even if a poor start in life, with good nutrition, he should eventually put on some muscle.
The people that we bought him from were bottle feeding him 20/20 medicated MR. We bought the same kind and worked our way from two bottles a day (what they were feeding him) to four. He was tough to get started on calf starter, but it was left available to him pretty much from the start as was hay. Once he took to the starter and hay pretty well, we weened him off the bottles. For a time, because my original plan for renting pasture fell through, he was on a dog cable in the barn lot and ate yard grass, hay and grain, but he chose the green grass over the hay most of the time. Once he was moved to established pasture, where he is now, it was the pasture grass and grain, and now that we've had a hard freeze, there is hay and grain.
The grain is 12% protein sweet feed from Rural King or Orscheln (depending on which town I'm in when it's time to buy) and although I didn't measure, which my have been my downfall in calf raising, once he took to the starter and was weened, he'd get about a pound to pound and a half at feeding time. That, of course, increased as he got bigger. Now, I'm feeding about five to seven pounds of grain, spread out for all of them, but with them all eating the hay, I use the grain as a "treat" to add a little something to the diet, but mainly to help me! They (even the new ones) have learned what that white bucket is for and I can lead and load them like the Pied Piper!