Penned steer, sweet feed only?

[Anonymous]

Our steer is penned and is going to the butcher in another month. I've been feeding him sweet feed and corn, but for the last few days he doesn't seem to be too interested in his food. There are a lot of flies in and around his dish, so I've tried giving him smaller amounts in his food dish so that food doesn't sit too long, and he does seem to be eating more. Also, can I give him a little hay once a day? A friend said it's not a good idea. Help! We're new at this and need all the advice we can get.

 

[Larry Sansom]

Sure - give the steer some hay - he needs it, cattle are ruminants and hay will keep rumen working. Might also bring in a "buddy"- the cattle are herd animals and do not do well on solo acts - competition will make them eat better. Also consider adding a probiotic like Conklin Fasttrack - if he has gone off feed and no roughage- the "bugs" in the rumen might be low. We finish cattle on grass only - never give them grain. 30 days and you loose all the benefits of omega 3 to 6 ratio, the lower CLA's, and vitamin E etc. If this steer is for your own consumption - go to http://www.eatwild.com and spend some time before you loose all the health benefits your family needs. Also sweet feed is probably the highest cost you can give them. If you are just finishing for 30 days and want to cut some cost plus get a better carcass - just feed whole shell corn, second best is tohave it cracked - not ground fine.

 

[Cindy]

I too have fed a steer out in 30 days and I feed alfalfa and cob Corn,Oats, Barley mix its cheep 5.00$ a bag.I feed all the hay he can eat and what is left behind I feed to the horses. I give him the best there is and feed 2 coffee cans a day of the grain.He has finished out really well he will go thursday so then I will have a weight.The breed is beefalo.
I also use a horse fly sprayer on him after I groom him. He is pampered as he will feed me this year!!!.He has salt and a little pasture.And he is buy his self. Good Luck Cindy

 

[TXBobcat]

If you are just finishing for 30 days and want to cut some cost plus get a better carcass - just feed whole shell corn, second best is tohave it cracked - not ground fine.

Why do you say "not ground fine" on the corn. It seems to me it would be more digestible that way.

I am currently feeding out a Longhorn steer for 120 days. He has been in the pen for around 90 days so far. I started him out on around 6-8 lbs of sweet feed per day, and now he is up to around 18 lbs a day. For the last few weeks, I have added some ground corn into his ration. The corn is about 1/3 of the 18 lbs of feed a day. He also gets 1 flake of hay in morning and evening - just enough to keep his rumen working.

As far as not eating, I have noticed there have been days when my steer didn't eat as much either. I don't worry about it much, unless he seems to have some kind of sickness. I don't know what type of pen you have your steer in, but always make sure they have access to clean water and if it's hot, a little shade helps. The heat also plays a part in appetite loss.

 

[dun]

Why do you say "not ground fine" on the corn. It seems to me it would be more digestible that way.

Numerous studies have found that there is only a 6-7% difference between whole corn and cracked corn as the digestibility and another
6-7% between cracked and ground.
Ground corn filters out of the feed ration and has a tendency to blow away.

dun

 

[Craig-TX]

Just to clarify which is best, cracked is more digestible than whole.

Craig-TX

 

[TXBobcat]

Ground corn filters out of the feed ration and has a tendency to blow away.

dun

I have noticed that for sure. Whe pouring it over the fence, the slightest wind will blow it away.

 

[hillbilly]

I like rolled corn.
I think they soak it before they roll it.
Seems softer, more digestable??
Hillbilly

 

[dcara]

Below is a link to a Steer Feeding presentation out of UW. The upshot is that the ideal amount of roughage intake is a function of the animal weight. The lighter/younger the calf the higher the percentage of DMI roughage should be and for animals over 800 lbs there should be little to no roughage.

The other interesting thing was that the results reported here show an ADG of 2.7 for cracked corn and 2.8 for whole corn. Yet I know I have another research paper somewhere comparing various corn rations which indicate the better utilization of cracked over whole corn. I think it may have concluded that steam flaked corn had the best utilization. I'll post its link when I find it.

Here's the UW presentation link

http://www.uwex.edu/ces/animalscience/b ... cs2002.ppt

 

[dcara]

I finally found that paper comparing different corn rations. Its hard copy only though since I had OSU staff mail it to me because they didn't have an electronic version. Anyway I was flat wrong thinking Steam flaked was better. In short, whole shelled corn produced better daily gains, and has higher F/G efficency than high moisture or steam flaked rations. The reason is that the digestive site is shifted to intestinal (i.e.post ruminal) yielding a reduction in the loss of heat and methane from fermentation in the rumen and an increase in ration energy transfer of up to 30%. One downside is the reduction of energy for microbial growth in the rumen and lower microbial protien supply to the intestine. There is also an increase in fecal energy loss which is easily observed.

Thats the jest of it anyway. The paper was publised in 1980 and is titled "Corn Processing Method and Phase Feeding of Steers"

Inc ase I forgot to sign-in
Doug