Raising a Dairy beef for FFA

[sonador5075]

HI, im jesse. last year i raised a dairy beef feeder calf for the fair. i had a contract with these pl that i worked on there farm in exchange for the steer. well they tricked me so i wouldnt do good at the fair cause that was my first year. so this year im doing it by myself. im buying my steer in january cause they have to be born between jan 1st and march 1st to be shown at the end of august. so after i buy my calf what do i do? how long do i keep it on a bottle and when can i start it on grain and hay and getting it dehorned, vaccinated, casterated and all that, how much does it generally cost? i need some serioous help. if you could help me please do. i will take all the help i can get. and hopefully this year i will do better without being tricked.

 

[kerley]

Jesse, :welcome: to Cattle Today. I am sure you will get all the help needed here to be successful with your project. I hope you did not work very hard or long for the first dairy calve. You wont be tricked here.
Tom

 

[sonador5075]

thanks tom
unfortunently i did work extremly hard. i milked every morning and night for 6 months almost. and to only find out that they taught me everything that you werent supposed to do so i would look like an idiot in the show ring and they barely fed my steer so he was the lightest one at the fair.
but thanks for being nice and willing to help me

 

[dun]

Don;t you have a 4H/FFA advisor?

 

[greatgerts]

I would do as Dun suggested and talk to the 4-H/FFA advisor. I think it is horrible that someone would do this to a youth. I am working on a project to bring more youth in, and hearing something like this does not go too well.
Not to sound nosy, but if you would let some of the board members know where you are from, they probably know someone in your area that could help you.
Good luck! And :welcome: from Missouri!

 

[talldog]

I would do as Dun suggested and talk to the 4-H/FFA advisor. I think it is horrible that someone would do this to a youth. I am working on a project to bring more youth in, and hearing something like this does not go too well.
Not to sound nosy, but if you would let some of the board members know where you are from, they probably know someone in your area that could help you.
Good luck! And :welcome: from Missouri!

Great Advice---Take Heed and ---Good Luck !! :tiphat:

 

[ToddFarmsInc]

That's too bad. Back in the day, when our farm used to raise hogs, we would sell hogs to 4H members. We were careful to select nice hogs for the kids, and they would even on occasion get grand champion with our hogs.

I think it's entirely possible that maybe you weren't so much as tricked as the people who you were working for were just a little incompetent.

 

[options]

thanks tom
unfortunently i did work extremly hard. i milked every morning and night for 6 months almost. and to only find out that they taught me everything that you werent supposed to do so i would look like an idiot in the show ring and they barely fed my steer so he was the lightest one at the fair.
but thanks for being nice and willing to help me

For what it is worth to you, I have never seen any dairy man or women that had the first clue how to feed holstein steers. The young men and women you were competing against probably had a good understanding the type and amount of feed needed to produce a good animal. Ask a man named Larry Shoat on here for help it has been many years since I have fed milk replacer I'm sure alot has changed over the years.