Grain finish schedule

[michelle43]

Hi everyone!

I want to grain finish my 17 month old AngusxHighland Steer. I live in Vermont and I want to send him to freezer camp in late April or early May. He's on haylage for about 7 more weeks and then dry hay from then on out. I need to know how much and when I should start changing him over to grain. Does anyone have any experience with doing this? All advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
Michelle

 

[Royd Wood]

What about keeping him until the end of June begining of July and fill him up with lush springtime grass and if you really must grain feed then a scoop of wetted beetpulp shred with 3 scoops of rolled barley / rolled oats twice a day would work.

 

[herfrds]

Michelle I am feeding out a steer for April butchering.
I started him out slowly with about a gallon of grain morning and night for around a week, then I slowly increased it and now he is getting 5 gallons a day.
Around 120 days before butchering I will have that doubled so he will be getting 10 gallons a day for 120 days.

I know a lot of people like the grass finished beef but to us it gets too lean and not enough marbling.

 

[greybeard]

I'm curious. What age and approx weight was it when you began this schedule and what do you expect the slaughter weight to be in April? Is this in addittion to hay and pasture or grain only?

 

[Cricket]

I hope this isn't a rude question, but what do you folks pay for grain out there. I just paid $11.82 for a 50# bag of 16%. Cricket

 

[greybeard]

I hope this isn't a rude question, but what do you folks pay for grain out there. I just paid $11.82 for a 50# bag of 16%. Cricket

About the same price here, which is easily $1 more this year than last year. Even 12% range cubes are about $10/50 lbs and are getting in short supply already--locally. My nearest feed store was completely out yesterday. Lesser protien content being a bit cheaper--yep-- ya get what ya pay for..

From a reciept I have right in front of me...
12/3/2011:
2 Lone Star range cubes--$19.90.
1 Lone Star creep feed 12% (medicated)--$8.95
2 Lone Star sweet treat mixed grain--$19.75
2 20% range cubes--$23.40
2 Grower brand 15% mixed grain--$23.80

BTW, I pay over $11.82 for a 41 lb bale of coastal hay....Have seen it for $13/bale and a 5 bale limit. The world has gone nuts.
In Sept/Oct I passed on same hay for $7-$9/bale thinking it was highway robbery.

 

[herfrds]

I just started this steer in October, sorry I did not weight him. Guessing he might have been around 1000-1100 pounds. He is mainly there to keep my milk cow company and replace the steer we had just had slaughtered. Now that steer had been fed the 10 gallons a day for 120 days and he was 947 pounds on the rail.
This steer will be 2 years old this spring. He is out on pasture and has access to hay. Also a lick tub, salt block and free choice mineral.

Just bought some cob and bull developer yesterday.

Cob is $16.00 50#
Developer is $10.25 50#

The ground feed barley is some that we raised along with the hay.

 

[Cricket]

OUCH! ($) Thank you for the info. I'd always assumed it was a whole lot cheaper to raise beef where you didn't have snow on the ground for 5 or so months out of the year. Is 'on the rail' what we would call 'hanging weight'? (Gutted, skinned, 1/2'd?). 950lb is HUGE!

 

[herfrds]

Yes.
That steer filled up our standing freezer and we still had a basket of beef have to go to the other freezer.