What did I do wrong?

[El_Putzo]

Last June I bought 3 steers from my inlaws to raise for butcher calves. I purchased and started supplementing them with feed on June 10. They weighed 675 (black, HerXAng) 725 (black, HereXAng) and 810 (white, CharXAng). I put them in a 2 acre pasture and started feeding them free choice grass hay and 6lbs a piece of a home mixed 13% feed. In a ton of feed I mixed about 1500 lbs corn, 200 lbs 48% SBM, 150 lbs alfalfa hay, 100 lbs liquid molasses, and 50 lbs mineral supplement. I incremented the feed 1 lb per calf per week until I got to feeding them about 20 lbs a piece per day. They started having trouble cleaning that up so I started incrementing the feed by 1 lb every 2 weeks instead. Well, that worked good until they got up to eating about 24 lbs a piece per day. At this point, I never could get them to eat more than that. Now the disappointing part. We butchered them on December 10, that's 180 days of feed and all the grass and hay they would eat. I didn't get to weigh them live but using 62.5% as an average dressing percent, and the carcass weights of 573, 581, and 668, I estimated their live weights to be about 920, 930, and 1070 respectively. So, for 180 days of feed they gained 245lbs, 205lbs and 260lbs. Thats an average of less than 1.33 lbs of gain per day. What did I do wrong?? I have heard that a good steer on full feed should gain about 3lbs per day. The only thing I can think that I did wrong was that I fed them the whole ration once a day instead of splitting it in half. I did feed them in the evening most of the time too, does that make a difference? The worst part about the whole deal is that I bought these in June when the market was high thinking I could still break even if the market stayed up and they gained like they should. Well, the market stayed up because I sold them for $1.40 cwt but they just didn't gain right. Needless to say the half that I kept for myself ended up costing me about $900 once it was all penciled out. Dang I hope those T-bones taste good.

 

[CattleAnnie]

From what I understand, you've got to limit the amount of roughage when you're trying to finish a steer on grain.

For example, my kidlings are feeding their first 4H steers this year. They are working up to feeding 28 or so pounds of barley a day. Currently, they are eating 16 lbs of grain a day and five pounds of hay. Each.

The neighbour's kids had trouble with getting their steers to finish a couple of years ago, but they made the mistake of having free choice hay available, so the steers never ate enough grain to attain the degree of weight gain that they were supposed to.

Better luck next time around.

Take care.

 

[El_Putzo]

Well, if that is the case then I should have maybe gotten them off of the grass that they were on too. On a normal year, my 3 steers and my father-in-law's steer that was with mine, would have kept the 2 acres eaten down pretty well by Oct or Nov. But this year we had so much rain, the grass never quit growing. I guess I shouldn't complain about that even though it didn't work out for me, it has been great for my dad and his herd, as he has just now started to feed any hay.

 

[dun]

We had two heifers that we turned out onto a grass clover pasture togehter. The were rmped up to around 2% of their body weight per day divided into two feedings. One never finished and didn't gain worth anything, the other finished, actually over finished in 47 days. That was a 13% ration that was primarily corn gluten, some corn and some soy hull pellets. Both the same age, different sires and dams. Even in the feedlots they usually sort them a couple of times, not all steers are created equal. Some will finish more economically then others, some finish heavier, and sadly, some never seem to really finish very well.
Genetics is as much the key as feed.
You can make a sows ear out of a silk purse, but not the other way around.

dun

 

[ollie]

The interesting thing is 700 lb june calves. Do they calve in the fall? Were these the knot heads left over from the year before. If they are consuming 20 plus pounds of the ration you said they should have gained more than that. Somewhere your scales may be wrong.

 

[El_Putzo]

The interesting thing is 700 lb june calves. Do they calve in the fall? Were these the knot heads left over from the year before. If they are consuming 20 plus pounds of the ration you said they should have gained more than that. Somewhere your scales may be wrong.

Well, the 810 lb'er was born Sept. 5th (darn neighbors bull)and the other two were born in Oct. So they were 9, and 8 months old respectively when we weighed them. I was really surprised too but the scale has to be right as it is located in the local hog market and has to be certified yearly. The funny thing is the darn things grow like weeds when they are on the cows and creep feed. I guess those cows have magical milk!

 

[greenwillowherefords]

Got one at the butcher right now, weighed 671 when I put him on feed. Fed him for 120 days with Tindle Superstock 12%. Limited amount of hay, but all the grass he wanted.(Most of the grass was dead the last two months)Gradually worked his feed up until he was consuming 17 pounds per day of the SS, and leveled him off there for the last three months. His hanging weight was 616 pounds. This steer was about 3/4-7/8 Hereford, and was sired by my last herd bull.

Butcher said the ribeye looks very good, and they'll know more when they cut him up.

How far did you have to haul these steers? You can have shrink of up to 10% of weight if I remember correctly.

 

[Wewild]

How far did you have to haul these steers? You can have shrink of up to 10% of weight if I remember correctly.

At 24 hours, half of the shrink might be carcass. The rest would be work in process like rumen fill, manure and urine.

 

[rgv4]

When I put one up to butcher, I put in a dry lot with hay and feed for the first week or so, then after that, it's free choice feed only. Pour a 50lb bag in the trough every couple of days. Most are sent to the locker plant weighing 1000 to 1400 lbs. being on feed for 120 to 140 days. The meat melts in you mouth like butter, have never bought any beef out of a store. Don't even dine out at many steak houses, their steaks just don't taste that great after eating home grown.

 

[greenwillowherefords]

When I put one up to butcher, I put in a dry lot with hay and feed for the first week or so, then after that, it's free choice feed only. Pour a 50lb bag in the trough every couple of days. Most are sent to the locker plant weighing 1000 to 1400 lbs. being on feed for 120 to 140 days. The meat melts in you mouth like butter, have never bought any beef out of a store. Don't even dine out at many steak houses, their steaks just don't taste that great after eating home grown.

I am always criticizing the steaks when I eat out! We had our company Christmas dinner at "The Fountains" in Tulsa, a fairly classy place. The steak was not nearly as good as that from my own beef and grill!

 

[El_Putzo]

How far did you have to haul these steers? You can have shrink of up to 10% of weight if I remember correctly.

At 24 hours, half of the shrink might be carcass. The rest would be work in process like rumen fill, manure and urine.

I didn't haul them anywhere until they were carcasses.

Slaughtered and skinned them early sat. morning and had them to the locker for processing by 11.

I do think they may have shrunk for this reason: I fed them their last full ration of feed and hay on thursday evening. Friday morning my father-in-law was supposed to feed about half a ration and water them so that they would not be full but not starved either come saturday morning. Well, needless to say, he's absent minded and forgot, so the last feed and water they had was thursday evening. I would estimate there last meal was about 38 hours before slaughter. How much would they shrink in that time?

 

[Wewild]

See link for 24 hour study.

http://osuextra.okstate.edu/pdfs/F-3257web.pdf

 

[El_Putzo]

Interesting!! So even though I never hauled them, from what I read, they may have shrunk as much as 75lbs each or more in the 36 hours that they didn't have any feed. I realize that they didn't lose that much carcass weight but still, that was money down the drain for me. I'll know better next time than to trust my father-in-law. At $1.40 a lb carcass weight, that was probably a $200 screw up!!! OUCH!!!!!!!!

 

[denoginnizer]

How did you slaughter them?

 

[El_Putzo]

I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for here but here's how it went.

We had them in a small pen next to the house. We made a small corrall outside of the pen with panels so that we could run 1 out at a time and then shoot them with a .22. No problems with the slaughter, the other's stayed calm while we shot all 3.

Hopefully that was what you were looking for, but what bearing would that have on shrinkage?