to pen or not to pen, that is the question

[Anonymous]

How many of you pen your steers for finishing. I never have, but put one up today. 30x40 with half in shade. Plenty of room for a round, water trough and feed bunk. For those that do pen, is there a big difference in how quickly they gain? Seems there would be

 

[hillsdown]

If I am grain finishing I pen them. I want them only to eat their TMR ,no green grass . I can also keep better track of how they condition and that they all get their share of the feed .

 

[Anonymous]

That was my main reason for building the pen...too hard to run just one steer out of 11 hd thru to make sure he gets his ration. Plus I'm hoping with not as much walking around he puts it on better.

 

[chippie]

Penning is the easiest. Besides, they get used to you and it is usually easier to load them with less stress.

 

[Anonymous]

True, but I feed the cubes in the crowdin pen just so they all go in there freely. Crowding pen leads to the working/loading chute. Good point tho

 

[dun]

We've done it both ways depending on how many we were messing with at the time. But we pretty much leave them on a decent pasture and grain them twice a day. They get to the point that they don;t wander any further then they need to to fill their bellys on grass after they have their grain.

 

[Gale Seddon]

I will preface this with the belief that I really should be a vegetarian. Get ready to laugh.

I've never penned one up. Not sure what age you process yours, but ours take at least 24-28 months (most places around here won't take them after 30 months or they charge extra). I believe if this animal is going to provide meat for us, I want his life to be as happy as possible (I can hear you guys laughing now :lol: ) since it's going to be shorter. So our steers get pasture, hay, grain, minerals, and company. I overfed one a few years back with a lot of corn and the meat was way too fat. Now I don't do anything extra (I can still hear you laughing :lol: ). The youngsters get a 16% grain up to about 12-15 months (one 1-lb. coffee can), then I back off to 12% (maybe two 1-lb. coffee cans).

I do all the feeding here and with only about 20 animals, I know each and every one. I look them in the eye every day. I don't name the beef steers, but darnit, they seem to know my name and they come running when they see me (okay, quit laughing :lol. I tell myself they only run because they know I have food. I can't help it, but I cry on the way to the processor, yes, I do. :cry2: That animal got on the trailer because it trusted me.

But I don't cry when I bring home boxes of meat. If I didn't like meat so much, I would be a vegetarian. I hate knowing what will happen to them, but I really enjoy feeding and taking care of them. Maybe I should quit eating meat and just raise pets.

Okay, you can stop laughing now and go back to your serious discussion about pen or no pen.

 

[chippie]

Gale,
The same thing applies to one in a pen. He is happy to see me with a bucket. He has a large area to wander about in. He has hay and fresh water, shelter from bad weather and a shade tree to lay under and chew his cud. The ones in the pen have always seemed pretty content to me.

 

[Anonymous]

With all due respect Gale.... :lol: :lol:
It took me. Years to get my wife to "allow" me to get a cow to feed out with the intent of butcher. But that first bite, she was sold. She was at one point a vegan but that was 2 decades ago.
This steer is 20 months and probably real close to 1000# now. 60 days on grain I'm hoping he'll be 1100+. Never seen grain a day in his life.

 

[hillsdown]

Gale my grain finished are 15-18 months old and weigh around 1200lbs . Grass finished are 26-28 months old and weigh around 1500 lbs . I do name mine and when I loaded up Voodoo he even gave me a big smooch on the cheek. :cowboy: I agree that they all need to have happy lives until the very end . When they are penned they sleep eat and play and when they are pastured they sleep eat and play ,just that the grass finished get to live longer than the grain finished.

 

[Dixieangus]

Are we eating booger hook?

 

[Anonymous]

Absolutely dixie! Looking forward to eating some booger

 

[Goodlife]

I worry about my family not wanting to eat what we are preparing to raise. My vegetarian daughter is quite upset at the idea of raising a steer to eat. I will not allow my family to name the calves we are preparing to buy. I am glad to hear others put the animals happiness as a priority.

 

[Crazy Farmgirl]

Every one of mine gets a name and when the day comes I have no problem putting 'em in the trailer and hauling to the butcher.....and that's my story!!

Only ones I finished on grain where market steers for 4H and they were penned and packed on the pounds! For my grass fed I do intensive grazing so they have small pasture that gets moved every few days and they also gain well.

 

[Goodlife]

Doesn't finishing on feed help raise the fat content for flavor (marbling). I'm less worried about pounds than taste.

 

[Gale Seddon]

Well, I'm somewhat relieved to read that you all are concerned about the quality of their short lives.

Chippie and HD, I never really tried penning one, so I will take your word for it that they adjust happily and don't pine for the company of others. (I know when I move a cow from one group to another, she hollers to her old friends for several days.) I think I just tend to baby everything that lives here.

Farmgirl, I wish I had your resolve!

Brad...I mean hook...I guess you convinced your wife that beef is what's for dinner!!! Not sure what "booger" is (name of steer?).

Goodlife, I suppose the taste test is what will convince your family -- that and starting the process by realizing what the purpose of the animal will be and not falling prey to "oh, look, he's taking a treat from my hand" (not that I do that, no, no, not me). I also think it's a bit easier if you're frequently taking animals to the processor and not just once every 18 months or so.

The hardest one was a cow that raised one calf but wouldn't conceive after that -- I had halter broken her, we exhibited her at a couple of fairs, etc., and she was very friendly. We didn't have room in our freezer for all of her, so we donated a half to the local food bank.

 

[Farmerjon]

When I wean, I wean into one group. I feed that group all winter, come summer they go to pasture. Starting in August I start grain and then if I am keeping a heifer or two for replacement I pull them to a different pasture. The rest stay in a small pasture and get grain twice a day until mid November when they get hauled to the processor. It always helped with my daughters that the week we hauled to the processor, we weaned calves from cows. Just like when we raised pigs, there was always a new litter of cute piglets when the others went to slaughter.
Oops, forgot original intent of answer! I don't pen in a concrete pad pen, or dirt lot. Just a small dirt lot with feed bunks and water trough that opens into two different 5-8 acre pastures. With the swing of two gates they get locked out of one into another pasture, my form of rotational grazing. They don't have to walk far, they have shade, feed and water.

 

[chippie]

I worry about my family not wanting to eat what we are preparing to raise. My vegetarian daughter is quite upset at the idea of raising a steer to eat. I will not allow my family to name the calves we are preparing to buy. I am glad to hear others put the animals happiness as a priority.

We name ours, but we do not make pets out of them.

Also, when you go to the grocery store and look at the prices, So & So in the lot or pasture looks tastier every day.

 

[snickers]

we named our bottle holstein calf "Holy" and we had him for 18 months so it was hard taking him to the processor, actually first time we raised one to eat we always sold our calves. Holy was penned and fed grain for 100 days before he was butchered and boy is he good. we now have "holy burgers" , Holy roasts and the grandkids arent bother by it at all they know that was his job to feed us. lol

 

[hillsdown]

Gale you can't pen one by themselves ,it is not fair and they do get lonely. They also will not eat as much if they don't have company .You need to do at least 2 ,so if you are only finishing one then I agree that it is best for them to stay on pasture with their "family" . If I grain finish I usually do 2 or more at a time so they are not lonley .