We went to weigh in's for the county fair January 15th....and had a mild panic attack when we realized he weighs 838 lbs. We think about it, regroup and move everyone around into new pens, kicked some outside, and figured out what we were doing. We had 8 months to county fair at that point, and obviously, Tank needed to go on a diet while Huey and the other calf needed to be pushed, seeing as they only weighed 600 lbs.
So a heifer came in to stay with Tank (to keep him company) and we sort of coasted along the last month and a half.
Beef Expo is coming up, and we thought that just for kicks we would weigh Tank last Sunday.....
....and the sucker weighs 1019 lbs. Seems he is such a feed hog - he pushes everyone out of the way and eats all the feed. We thought Smokie (the heifer we put in with him) would be more aggressive, but apparently not. So her butt got kicked outside with the rest of the heifers, and Tank is now flying solo in the barn. He wasn't very happy about it the first night, and there were even some tears on Jessie's part thinking he was lonely...but taht sucker is enjoying it now.
The new game plan? Monitor his feed intake, switch feeds and show the daylights out of him. Hopefully by showing him 6 or 7 times between next weekend and the end of May, it will slow him down a little bit. I'm not counting on it cause nothing fazes this calf but....we can always hope:)
So now I've had to buy all new feed (we didn't need shredded beet pulp for Punx, who had to put on weight, not hold him) and Tank is not a happy camper:) And I'm learning all over what feeds you feed to put on weight, and what feeds you feed to hold and fill him up! While Tank does not like shredded beet pulp in the least little bit, it has no nutritional value and will only fill him up - not put any "real" weight on him......
It's only March and it's getting interesting here with all the feed......
3 comments:
That's so weird - everyone is telling me the opposite about the beet pulp! They say that if I want my goats to gain weight, to feed them beet pulp. Does his have molasses on it?
Is there a weight at which Tank is too big to show? Or is it just too dangerous to have the kiddos handle him when he's that big?
hmmm poor Tank. I think I need some shredded beet pulp for myself! I could join him.
We "stress" our chubby steer by tyin him up w others(we ty all ours every feedin, more handling) and giv him bare minimum to keep gut workin, usually they worry wt off tryin to get to others who need weigh, we ve also took heavy steer completely out of sight of others n stalled them to suck wt off (again stress) Good Luck holdin him that long ;]
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