Recipe for raising a steer for beef...

[skyhightree1]

Does anyone have a " Recipe " for raising a good steer for personal consumption ?
Does anyone have basically a guideline for doing such? I want to raise one for my family consumption. I wondered exactly what should be fed to it ? what weight should it be processed? all that type of info basically. I saw books on it and have read on the internet some stuff but honestly I value everyone in this forums opinion more so than a book so I came here for :help:

 

[Alan]

I like to worm them witha good injectable to start with. Give all the free choice hay or grass they want. If they are not use to grain, I start them out slow and work the amount of grain up to the point they are getting a full 2.5 gallon bucket twice a day (what ever that weighs :? 15/18 lbs a day???). Sorry I just start grain them a lot. For grain I mix a 50lb sack of 14% livestock blend with a 50lb bag of rolled corn. I'll grain for 90 to 100 days, make sure you let the slaughter time restriction expire on the wormer, I believe 46 days on ivermectin. Let hang in cooler for 16 to 18 days, I usually start witha nice young healthy steer around 18 to 20 ...... Or so months. In the freezer at around two years of age. Then I apply small portions of freezer steer to hot grill, cook to medium and serve with corn on the cob and bake potatoe, heaven butter and bacon bits and a cold beverage of choice. IMO, you can ROUGHLY figure you will get 60% of live weight for hanging weight and 60% of hanging weight for cut and wrapped weight. A little more if you keep liver, brain, tounge, tail, bones, etc.

Enjoy, just don't let the kids name him .... I may be hard to eat Fred or Sam, or Big Mac etc.

Alan

 

[Jogeephus]

Clean water seems to be the common denominator in what I do cause its all good. Short fed, long fed, 5 weght to 16 weight just doesn't seem to matter. Beef is good.

 

[skyhightree1]

Thanks is there an ideal weight for them ?

 

[Jogeephus]

IMO, the ideal has more to do with the animal, the breed, the genetics and all that stuff. You will here people compalin about a poor cutout but often times they exceeded the animals point of diminishing returns and raised a lot of fat. You gotta cut the fat off so why grow fat? Best thing to do IMO is watch the tail head or the sac on a steer. When these show the animal is finished there is no need in pouring money in it cause it will eat all you can afford to feed it - and more.

The question I think you really need to be asking youself is how little feed can I feed it and still produce quality beef.

 

[skyhightree1]

IMO, the ideal has more to do with the animal, the breed, the genetics and all that stuff. You will here people compalin about a poor cutout but often times they exceeded the animals point of diminishing returns and raised a lot of fat. You gotta cut the fat off so why grow fat? Best thing to do IMO is watch the tail head or the sac on a steer. When these show the animal is finished there is no need in pouring money in it cause it will eat all you can afford to feed it - and more.

The question I think you really need to be asking youself is how little feed can I feed it and still produce quality beef.

Excellent point. Jo around what weight do yours reach before being slaughtered ?

 

[Jogeephus]

IMO, the ideal has more to do with the animal, the breed, the genetics and all that stuff. You will here people compalin about a poor cutout but often times they exceeded the animals point of diminishing returns and raised a lot of fat. You gotta cut the fat off so why grow fat? Best thing to do IMO is watch the tail head or the sac on a steer. When these show the animal is finished there is no need in pouring money in it cause it will eat all you can afford to feed it - and more.

The question I think you really need to be asking youself is how little feed can I feed it and still produce quality beef.

Excellent point. Jo around what weight do yours reach before being slaughtered ?

You'd be better off asking this of someone who has uniformity in their herd. In general anywhere from 1000 - 1300 lbs. Heifers normally around the 1000 mark.

 

[snake67]

My house prefers the older stuff - anything under two years of age tastes like crap

The real good stuff is mature and tender - and yes you can do that

Got to have yellow fat or I get complaints from wife and kids and there better be lots of it. White fat and I get told to sell it.

Cheers

Bez

 

[TN Cattle Man]

Skyhigh... all very good reply's above. IMO, another very crucial step is the actual processing of the beef. At the very minimum, we have our beef hung for at least 21 days in a controlled environment to "Age" the beef. To me, this makes all the difference in the world when it comes to taste (starts to break down all the connective tissues).

With our cattle (mostly Angus X), we like to take them to around 18 months. IMO, this is a very good age and lets the fat marbeling process really stand out. We typically feed ours out for around 3-4 months with a feed mixture that I have mixed up from our local mill. They are all hay and grass fed up to that point.

Brian

 

[skyhightree1]

TN Cattle I agree excellent advice... gotcha I just dont have a place to hang beef for 21 days atleast not whole but Jo told me how to get around that.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Probably the most important thing to know in feeding fats. Is knowing when to hold them, and know when to get them out of the oven, and i'm not talking about cooking them. :lol:
Knowing their limits on feed, and watching them eat will tell you on how much or how little to feed them. If they slick the pan every night you need to be adding some more feed because they need it. If they are leaving some, and their poop looks like a mixture of dirt, mustard, and cream corn then start cutting them back. Watching them eat will save you money, and get the max gains off of your feed, even a cheap-o 9% pro corn mix.
Then figuring out when they are done is your next money saver. Get them to fat you lose yield, and been spending extra money on excess fat. To lean, and you're going to need a BIG drink after eating a steak. Get some nice fat over the ribs, a nice fat chunk on the tail head, and fat started building up where the sack use to be will be a good way of telling you they are ready to put on the grill.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Clean water seems to be the common denominator in what I do cause its all good. .

Forgot about clean water...study from..hum... hhmm...ughm... University said you will lose 1.183148189965 pound per day from not giving clean water everyday. ;-)

 

[skyhightree1]

Probably the most important thing to know in feeding fats. Is knowing when to hold them, and know when to get them out of the oven, and i'm not talking about cooking them. :lol:
Knowing their limits on feed, and watching them eat will tell you on how much or how little to feed them. If they slick the pan every night you need to be adding some more feed because they need it. If they are leaving some, and their poop looks like a mixture of dirt, mustard, and cream corn then start cutting them back. Watching them eat will save you money, and get the max gains off of your feed, even a cheap-o 9% pro corn mix.
Then figuring out when they are done is your next money saver. Get them to fat you lose yield, and been spending extra money on excess fat. To lean, and you're going to need a BIG drink after eating a steak. Get some nice fat over the ribs, a nice fat chunk on the tail head, and fat started building up where the sack use to be will be a good way of telling you they are ready to put on the grill.

Jo told me the same thing basically... is it ok to use 12% sweet feed I normally give them some in the trough every other day out of a bucket

 

[sim.-ang.king]

I saw that after I posted...guess Jo is just a copycat. :lol:

Are you getting the bagged "stocker grower", or "All Stock" sweet feed, or is it custom? If it's bagged there is quite a few cheaper routes that could save a lot more money.

 

[Limomike]

sky.. We normally just take a steer right off the pasture and butcher it. Always had good quality beef to eat. but this time, I am putting an 800lb Limflex bull up, and feed him out for the next 60 days. Around here at our local feed store, they make a feedlot blend that I am going feed him whiles hes up, and see how he does.

 

[alisonb]

Pen animal in small enclosure, animal should not be allowed to walk great distances and develop too much muscle. Give animal copious amounts of beer and massage it for an hour, twice daily - your very own Kobe Sky

 

[Jogeephus]

Pen animal in small enclosure, animal should not be allowed to walk great distances and develop too much muscle. Give animal copious amounts of beer and massage it for an hour, twice daily - your very own Kobe Sky

What if he just drinks copius amounts of beer and urinates in the feed trough? :lol2:

 

[ohiosteve]

I tried something new a couple months ago. Butchered a 9 mo. Old steer right off the teat. Shot him in the field and he only hung for 2 days then we cut him up, we took as many steaks as possible and a bunch of roasts. He was only about 600 lbs so the portions were smaller but quite tender and tasty. He only had about 10 minutes of stress in his life when I cornered him and castrated him. Only thing I would have changed was I wish the grass was greener so he would have had more yellow fat, I'm with Bez on that. Yellow fat is delicious.

 

[alisonb]

Pen animal in small enclosure, animal should not be allowed to walk great distances and develop too much muscle. Give animal copious amounts of beer and massage it for an hour, twice daily - your very own Kobe Sky

What if he just drinks copius amounts of beer and urinates in the feed trough? :lol2:

Oh no, the enclosure shouldn't be that small :lol:

Only thing I would have changed was I wish the grass was greener so he would have had more yellow fat, I'm with Bez on that. Yellow fat is delicious.

You just have to feed him yellow corn

 

[skyhightree1]

I saw that after I posted...guess Jo is just a copycat. :lol:

Are you getting the bagged "stocker grower", or "All Stock" sweet feed, or is it custom? If it's bagged there is quite a few cheaper routes that could save a lot more money.

I was looking at all stock sweet feed from tractor supply i normally go there and buy 6 or 7 bags at a time that the fools use a box cutter and cut into the bags and because the bags are open they sell them for 6 dollars for a 50lb bag.