Feed to Potential

Now that you have your calf has been on a routine for a few weeks let's tweak your feeding to get your calf in tip top shape for both in the show ring and at home.

What time do you feed your calf in the morning? Evening? If your answer is “well it kinda depends when I wake up. Like what if I had a party last night, I wanna sleep”! I’ve been there many times BUT your calf does not care what time you got home all it knows is that you’re two hours late and it’s stressing because it hasn’t been fed and, of course, “I’ll never see my human again!!!”. So right now, get out a piece of paper and write down what time each day you are going to feed your calf, morning and evening. Now, we understand that y’all are busy so if you have to change your schedule for an evening, always feed before the normal time instead of after to keep your calf from stressing. Let's say you have been feeding at 7:00 in the morning and 7:00 in the afternoon every single day (!even on weekends!) That should be the time that you will need to feed on show day then take a step back, go get breakfast for yourself, and let your calf eat. We personally give our calf up to 30-40 minutes to eat and then we go ahead and take it up to keep them wanting to eat.

Good cattle deserve good feed, if you are wanting to optimize your genetics a good feeding program is key. Choosing the right feed to do that can be confusing, even for those that have been doing it for years. A good rule of thumb to follow for nutrional analytics is 2.5-5% fat, 17-21% fiber, 11-14% protein as we develop heifers. As they bloom into their appropriate frame, its important to note that not every heifer is the same. Females will need different feeds, amount of feeds supplements, etc., to maximize their potential. The biggest reason for being a stickler on what you feed, fat especially, is once a female puts fat on, its often times hard to get it off. This can lead to reproduction and longevity issues, as well as concerns aesthetically.

As you can see, feeding heifers is considerably different from feeding steers in many aspects, with the steer being the sprint and the heifer being the marathon. For S.H. Livestock and Services, we do our best work when we actually get to see the animal in order to offer suggestions and feeding recommendations that will help you and your project. The more eyes you get on your calf, the better. This includes ag teachers, feed salesman or breeders — anybody that you trust to give you good advice.