Prospect steer question?

[Jovid]

If you had a prospect steer today that you were going to show it's final show the first week of March in your opinion what should he weigh today?

The reason I ask is we just checked in out prospect steers at our county fair tonight. The weights ranged from 600 lbs to 985 lbs with most being 800 to 850. Based on those weights most of those steers will weigh 1,400 to 1,500 pounds by March. In my opinion that is way too much for ideal carcass grading. A steer that big will have a hard time even grading select. If that is the case what are we teaching our kids about the beef industry?

It would appear we are saying raise you a big fat steer to show and it doesn't matter what he looks like when you take the hide off.

Would love to hear your opinions.

Yes my granddaughters steer weighed 600 lbs but that means he will weigh 1,200 to 1,250 when it's time to slaughter him in March and I know he will grade at least choice.

 

[Snider_Angus]

It all depends how much you put in him. i think 600 now to 1300 then is ALOT to gain. he will need to be pushed

 

[Colorado2008]

If you had a prospect steer today that you were going to show it's final show the first week of March in your opinion what should he weigh today?

The reason I ask is we just checked in out prospect steers at our county fair tonight. The weights ranged from 600 lbs to 985 lbs with most being 800 to 850. Based on those weights most of those steers will weigh 1,400 to 1,500 pounds by March. In my opinion that is way too much for ideal carcass grading. A steer that big will have a hard time even grading select. If that is the case what are we teaching our kids about the beef industry?

It would appear we are saying raise you a big fat steer to show and it doesn't matter what he looks like when you take the hide off.

Would love to hear your opinions.

Yes my granddaughters steer weighed 600 lbs but that means he will weigh 1,200 to 1,250 when it's time to slaughter him in March and I know he will grade at least choice.

I see where you are coming from and in my mind you are partially right. Industry standards do not want a steer that big on the rail but where I don't agree with you is that som of these steers NEED to be that big in order to be properly finished. And also some of these steers that are weighing upwards of 900 lbs. these kids could be taking these steers to some other prospect shows between now and then to where they need to be be a bit larger to compete. I have done this many times. Our county fair is in the first part of August and we have also showed at the prospect show in January at National Western. We wanted the steers to go to denver at a bout 700-750...and that is on the smaller side of what people bring in. Then after Denver was over we would take them down off the cooked corn and we would stop pushing grain so hard until about end of April begining of May when more jackpot shows come up.

Thats just my two cents worth.

 

[SKF Show Cattle]

My daughter's steer is weighing a little over 850 and our fair is the first week of March. He's right were we want him right now he needs to be about 1275 by March. I would rather be a little bit on the heavy side now because my daughter will be hauling her steer a lot because she does a lot of prospecting with him. It is easier to hold or have to take weight off then it is having to push one. Last year her steer weighed 600lbs at this stage of the game and he ending up being a picky eater and at one point and time went off feed and she was never able to get him where he needed to be. We've been showing for eight years now and all our heavier steers did much better in the end then one we had to push hard. What is your steer's frame score? That makes a big difference about how much they should weigh now plus if you do a lot of prospect shows before your fair it helps to have some extra weight.

 

[Jovid]

Well I asked the OSU extension agent about this and here is what he said. They want the steers to weigh between 750 and 950 at this time. Then they will grow them to 1400 t0 1500 or even more and then they will start cutting them back and shrink them to around 1200. At that time they will start feeding them again to put some cover on them and hope to have their show rate around 1275 t0 1350. He said that is the only way they they can get the club calves to have the appearance that they are thick.

So I then asked him what that does to the carcass. He said that a few of them will still grade choice but the yield grade won't be very good. He then went on to say that they are not raising these cattle for the meat they are raising them to SHOW. He admitted that if they were raising them for the carcass we would be showing steers that are 14 to 16 months old instead of ones that are 18 to 20 months old and we wouldn't be shrinking them and then feeding them again.

Well I will continue to raise my steers for carcass and not for show. all of our steers have either graded high choice or prime and yes my 600 lb calf will be 1200 to 1250 by March. Will he win? No. Will his carcass grade high? Yes

On a side note we had our show yesterday and I have to applaud the judge as he picked the 2nd lightest steer for grand and the 4th lightest one for reserve. He said that those steers were where they needed to be at this time and several of the others were probably a little too big for this stage of the process. :tiphat:

 

[SKF Show Cattle]

Our steers will never see 1400-1500lbs and have to be shrunk down. I will feed them straight though and they will come in where they need to be. We have won the carcass contest before. Our calves get hauled around a LOT and our climiate stays hot year round so they don't gian as well as cattle in the colder states. So for us we want our calves heavier then some people in other states would want them at this time. We raise for carcass and show. We are always concerned about carcass quality because I don't want someone to spend good money on one of our calves and not have a good carcass. Where we live getting a Prime carcass is very difficult we haved had choice. Last year we took our 4h club to the slaughter house for a field trip they explained to us that in Florida it is hard to get a prime carcass and that they order prime beef from out west. So where you live does make a difference when raising steers.

 

[Jovid]

Our steers will never see 1400-1500lbs and have to be shrunk down. I will feed them straight though and they will come in where they need to be. We have won the carcass contest before. Our calves get hauled around a LOT and our climiate stays hot year round so they don't gian as well as cattle in the colder states. So for us we want our calves heavier then some people in other states would want them at this time. We raise for carcass and show. We are always concerned about carcass quality because I don't want someone to spend good money on one of our calves and not have a good carcass. Where we live getting a Prime carcass is very difficult we haved had choice. Last year we took our 4h club to the slaughter house for a field trip they explained to us that in Florida it is hard to get a prime carcass and that they order prime beef from out west.

So where you live does make a difference when raising steers

.

You are absolutely correct. But here in Oklahoma from now till March it is real easy to put 3 pounds of gain a day on a steer.

 

[SKF Show Cattle]

We live in south Florida and it is hot and humid all year. Last year it was so hot even in the winter months that we had a hard time with weight. This year we are having lots of rain so it is a little cooler so the steers have been gaining real good. When ever we buy calves from Ok. they are much bigger to start with then Florida born calves.