Need steer to gain 280 by August 5.

[mightyarrowsfarm]

My daughter recently got her steer for Feb. 2018 fair. He currently weighs 370lbs. He needs to be 650 by Aug. 5. She is feeding him unlimited hay and 9lbs of feed daily. The protein is 13%, 4% fat.

Is this doable? What else should we add to the feed?

 

[tater74]

Less than 2 pounds a day. That should not be a problem. I will let someone more knowledge help you with the ration.

 

[MRRherefords]

Most of our steers put on three pounds a day without special stuff, this should not be a huge issue.

 

[Son of Butch]

280 lbs in 160 days = 1.75 lbs per day = piece of cake

 

[Kingfisher]

What sort of steer is that?

 

[mightyarrowsfarm]

Thanks...a friend told us to add Calf Manna to his feed to help. He gets hay also.

He's still a bull, we need to get him cut or banded soon. We are not 100% on the breed, they said MaineX.

 

[TexasBred]

Thanks...a friend told us to add Calf Manna to his feed to help. He gets hay also.

He's still a bull, we need to get him cut or banded soon. We are not 100% on the breed, they said MaineX.

Might be hard with that calf. With all due respect, that is not a high quality calf and he certainly doesn't need Calf Manna. He needs some extra energy. A good quality, high energy feed in the 11% crude protein range would put some weight on it.

 

[Douglas]

To start out i would think a calf that size needs 14-15% protein from the total intake to start with going down to 11 by the end

http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare ... 974web.pdf

 

[TexasBred]

To start out i would think a calf that size needs 14-15% protein from the total intake to start with going down to 11 by the end

http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare ... 974web.pdf

Not necessarily. Depends on the quality of the feed. There is more to feed than crude protein. A calf will get more protein out of a high energy, highly digestible 11-12% feed than it will from a 14-15% crude protein feed with low digestibility. There is crude protein and then there is digestible protein.

 

[Nesikep]

My big question.. HOW OLD IS HE?
if he's 350 lbs and 7 months old, his track record for gaining weight is miserable..
On the other hand if he's only 10 weeks old he's well on his way, being a growthy animal naturally.

 

[Bigfoot]

That calf looks young in one picture, and older in the other. Not sure what age it is. His over all structure is not screaming growth oriented. Does she have a 4h agent, or ffa advisor that could possibly look at the calf in the very near future? I'd hate to see you guys get heavily invested in facilities for a calf that may not make the show. Nothing wrong with having a calf that's not destined to win (success has many ways of being measured). That calf may not ever make it to the show ring.

 

[mightyarrowsfarm]

This calf was born in late September, possible October. We aren't sure on the breed either.

We weighed him again yesterday and he was 392. We shaved him down, to lose the fluffy hair and then sprayed him down. We are changing his feed and he seems to like the new feed better. We will weigh him again in a week.

He's a budget steer, not a show steer...we can't afford the unrealistic prices for a market animal. The goal of the project is to learn how to raise a steer, keep it healthy, maintain control and then auction it off for a profit. The kids that bought the clubby calf steers this year, were in the hole with money...not a good business decision.

 

[Bigfoot]

This calf was born in late September, possible October. We aren't sure on the breed either.

We weighed him again yesterday and he was 392. We shaved him down, to lose the fluffy hair and then sprayed him down. We are changing his feed and he seems to like the new feed better. We will weigh him again in a week.

He's a budget steer, not a show steer...we can't afford the unrealistic prices for a market animal. The goal of the project is to learn how to raise a steer, keep it healthy, maintain control and then auction it off for a profit. The kids that bought the clubby calf steers this year, were in the hole with money...not a good business decision.

I like that mentality.

 

[greybeard]

The goal of the project is to learn how to raise a steer, keep it healthy, maintain control and then auction it off for a profit

I'm glad to see that part of FFA has not changed. There was lots of emphasis put on the record keeping over 40 years ago when I was wearing that blue and gold jacket, so you would know how to make--and IF you made, a few $$ on your project.

 

[jkwilson]

My strategy when growing a market animal on grain is usually 15 or 16% protein in a well balanced feed to grow their frame until around 700lbs , then move to about a 12% with more energy to finish. What I generally do since I have a bulk bin is to fill the bin with the 12% and use that to feed the big steers, and add oats or soybean hulls to it to feed the younger ones.

 

[TexasBred]

My strategy when growing a market animal on grain is usually 15 or 16% protein in a well balanced feed to grow their frame until around 700lbs , then move to about a 12% with more energy to finish. What I generally do since I have a bulk bin is to fill the bin with the 12% and use that to feed the big steers, and add oats or soybean hulls to it to feed the younger ones.

jk those oats and those soyhulls won't raise the protein on that feed at all for those small calves. Really just mellows it out and lowers protein and energy a bit.

 

[jkwilson]

My strategy when growing a market animal on grain is usually 15 or 16% protein in a well balanced feed to grow their frame until around 700lbs , then move to about a 12% with more energy to finish. What I generally do since I have a bulk bin is to fill the bin with the 12% and use that to feed the big steers, and add oats or soybean hulls to it to feed the younger ones.

jk those oats and those soyhulls won't raise the protein on that feed at all for those small calves. Really just mellows it out and lowers protein and energy a bit.

Absolutely right. I misspoke.

The calves do get more protein because of the oats, but the feed % doesn't go up. They get more feed because it isn't as high energy, and the protein in the oats is digested better. Most of the % protein gain comes from the soybean hulls.

But I really like the effects of the oats on the younger animals.

 

[TexasBred]

My strategy when growing a market animal on grain is usually 15 or 16% protein in a well balanced feed to grow their frame until around 700lbs , then move to about a 12% with more energy to finish. What I generally do since I have a bulk bin is to fill the bin with the 12% and use that to feed the big steers, and add oats or soybean hulls to it to feed the younger ones.

jk those oats and those soyhulls won't raise the protein on that feed at all for those small calves. Really just mellows it out and lowers protein and energy a bit.

Absolutely right. I misspoke.

The calves do get more protein because of the oats, but the feed % doesn't go up. They get more feed because it isn't as high energy, and the protein in the oats is digested better. Most of the % protein gain comes from the soybean hulls.

But I really like the effects of the oats on the younger animals.

Oats are 12% crude protein
Soyhulls are 10% crude protein

 

[jkwilson]

jk those oats and those soyhulls won't raise the protein on that feed at all for those small calves. Really just mellows it out and lowers protein and energy a bit.

Absolutely right. I misspoke.

The calves do get more protein because of the oats, but the feed % doesn't go up. They get more feed because it isn't as high energy, and the protein in the oats is digested better. Most of the % protein gain comes from the soybean hulls.

But I really like the effects of the oats on the younger animals.

Oats are 12% crude protein
Soyhulls are 10% crude protein

Well $%^#! What memory I had seems to be completely gone. I could have sworn the soy hulls were 23% CP.

 

[TexasBred]

I have a brain phart pretty regular jk. ;-)