Working steer nutrition

[dominiquer60]

Hi All,

I am curious to know how others feed their young cattle teams, from weaning right up to maturity. Two rules of thumb that I have in my mind are: all of the good quality forage that they will eat until they are a year old, no need for grain after nine months. Some folks suggest waiting until 9 months to castrate Milking Shorthorns because they mature slower, does anyone find that they require a little more high test feed longer for the same reason? I am interested to hear what others have experienced and how you all feed just to get a feel for how I can/should proceed. Any pasturing info about these growing years would be helpful too.

I think that I am doing at least a fair job of feeding my shorthorns, they seem happy and growing taller every week. They get all the good first cut that they want, some second cut when it can be kept separate from other cattle at night and they each get 2 12oz tin cans of a 19% pellet a day (one of those little wide as they are tall tropical fruit cocktail cans). I also give a mineral salt and kelp regularly. They are currently 6 leaning towards 7 months of age and about ~450#. I look forward to turning them out in some odd shaped and sized grazing pieces that we have all around here.

Thanks for sharing in advanced.
Be Well,
Erika

[Tim Harrigan]

Erika, it looks like you are on the right path, no need to make it complicated. If they are on pasture the hardest thing will be to keep them from getting fat as they get older. You need to decide how fast you want them to grow. In the first year they can pasture free-choice and eat all they want and they will put it all into growth. They will do that as well in the second summer for the most part, but it will be a good idea to begin managing their access. It is easier to keep them in condition than it is to take excess weight off them later. It seems like you will be like most of us, looking for an opportunity to work them, so you can’t count on work to keep it off. Mine are on pasture and I have always (after they were 2) tried to restrict their access to new growth by moving to small paddocks on a daily basis. That way the quantity and quality stays pretty consistent. I found that if I turn them loose in a larger area to graze for a week they will eat 80% of it in the first 2 days.

There are regional issues with selenium and other trace minerals that you will want to be aware of, cattle folks or extension in your area would know about it if there is. Minerals, salt, water, drop a magnet in their reticulum, no rapid change in diet, you know that stuff.

Our pasture is grass/legume, no alfalfa. Feed grass hay in the winter. When they are growing I like to kick up the protein a little in the winter because I am sure it is low in most of the grass hay. I like to mix 1/3 extruded soybean meal with 2/3 cracked corn. That is about 20% CP with a little extra energy in the corn it provides a way to give a little extra to the young ones if they are in with older cattle that just need an average grass hay. They get round bale free choice in the winter. I would have to think about how I would do it if I had to feed alfalfa, tends to have excess protein and potassium for older steers.

For example, for your steers I would probably be thinking about 15 lb of medium quality grass hay, 1.5 lb of cracked corn and 3/4 lb of SBM and adjust from there. Steers are really pretty easy as long as you cover the basics. Like I said, if they are on pasture your biggest challenge over the long haul will be to keep them from getting fat.

[dominiquer60]

Thanks Tim,
I know just what you mean about the pasture. Last year I had my beef team on grass as much as possible, they are runts and they certainly grew well on the green. I was always careful to move them often but not too often if they were on lawn mowing detail tethered to equipment. When I had an area large enough I would fence the perimeter with a single strand of hot wire and use net fence to give them a new small portion of the field every other day or so. I really liked this method, I adapted it from a sheep farm that I used to work on.

We have Selenium deficient soil so we give all of the cattle a mineral salt with Se in it already. The only straight alfalfa we have on the farm is mixed into the chicken feed. We have one field that was straight alfalfa 15 years ago, but you know what it looks like now, orchard grass haven, but all of that gets sold to horse hay customers. Much of our hay is timothy, brome and red clover, that is what we seed under our oats in the rotation every year.

I did have a good scare last week when my hog of a roan calf was found consuming a large quantity of the the dairy pellets that I feed them. He laid down most of the night, completely uninterested in his brother’s pellets at feeding time, and was fine and “deprived” the next day.

I am certainly glad to find that I am not overdoing the feed. The cattle here mainly get fed grain in the creep and small amounts for training purposes and ease of handling. To the Dale and his father the amount that I feed seems like a lot, without weighing it, I would guess that they are getting about 1.5 pounds a day (19% CP dairy grower pellet). I don’t need them to be huge, but I would like them bigger than the beef at their age (beef are 2yo now and ~850, got to love my runts). Looks like I am heading in a good direction.

Thanks,
Erika

[Tim Harrigan]

@dominiquer60 25514 wrote:

Thanks Tim,

I did have a good scare last week when my hog of a roan calf was found consuming a large quantity of the the dairy pellets that I feed them.

I am certainly glad to find that I am not overdoing the feed. The cattle here mainly get fed grain in the creep and small amounts for training purposes and ease of handling. To the Dale and his father the amount that I feed seems like a lot, without weighing it, I would guess that they are getting about 1.5 pounds a day (19% CP dairy grower pellet).
Erika

Be careful with that, they are observant and know where the grain is. Best to put a lock or latch on it that they can’t open. A lot of animals have been hurt by that trick.

Maybe it seems like a lot, we have a tendency to be more generous with working steers than market steers. I would expect it to be moderate growth, maybe 1.5 lbs per day. I put a weigh tape on them on the first of every month to check their growth rate. You will probably see them up to 3+ lb per day on good pasture. You might want to weigh a can of those pellets just to see, for my mix a coffee cup makes about 1/2 lb.

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