Steer finishing advice

[Fen Farm Dexters]

the one near the feeder

steer1a - 1-7-2013.jpg (91.01 KiB) Viewed 9766 times

These two long leg steers are 24 months old. How much longer do they need, or do they need supplements to finish? We've only had one short leg done last year and we don't think he was fat enough.

[Rob R]

It depends what market you're aiming for? I don't like them fat, but plenty of butchers seem to, and as such I 'finish' everything off grass or forage alone. They may not win any prizes in carcass competitions but it does pay the bills, which is the most important thing to me. The only trouble this year is that just about everyone has been supplementing with grain after the terrible winter we've had. Steers in general are in short supply but grass fed steers seem to be non-existent.

[Broomcroft]

We do same as Rob except we like quite a lot of fat. I'd take them to more like 27-29 months myself. If you can see bumps either side of the tailhead (which I think I can see in the photos, not certain), then that means they are carrying a good covering of fat.

Put it like this, if you under-finish a steer, then that's not good really. But if you over-finish, it's not such a problem, if a problem at all. I sold some heifers to someone last year and when I saw them they were overfat. The owner then took them on for another 6 months, and I had some of the beef, it was delicious and not over-fatty.

If you do take them on further, just keep them well-fed which could be just good grass, or grass with a little feed, or if inside hay plus a bit of feed if you want. I wouldn't worry about grass-fed, because although it's what we like, you can't do it every year. Grass only just started here really.

Nice steers.

[Rob R]

Put it like this, if you under-finish a steer, then that's not good really. But if you over-finish, it's not such a problem, if a problem at all.

Conversely I'd say the exact opposite, maybe because I prefer lean beef, but also because the amount of time, extra feeding and having to pay to dispose of the excess fat makes an under finished beast a better return for me, butchering our own. We get a lot of customers coming back to us because of the amount of meat they get, whereas I guess we lose any that prefer it fatty. A lot of people I know are put off eating lamb because it's 'too fatty', but I think that has more to do with the industries over-finishing of lambs in general, rather than the nature of the beast.

[Fen Farm Dexters]

Thank you for the advice.
Presumably a field of grass that's growing back nicely from first grazing in May is better for finishing the steers than grass that has not yet been grazed and now gone to seed heads?
Or doesn't it make much difference at this time of year?

[Rob R]

In theory the once grazed stuff will be better for finishing as it'll be leafier & have more sugars. Ours are not on their second circuit of the farm, although the yearlings will shortly be going off to some conservation grazing that we can only turnout onto on 1st July.

[Broomcroft]

FFD, As you probably know, grasses vary considerably ranging from little feed value through to higher sugar rocket fuel. I've got fields of "old" grass, low in nutrition where it would be hard or impossible to finish, and other fields of mainly rye-grasses and clover where finishing is easy. Even within a particular type of grass, there are huge variations. Cockfoot is low nutrition for example, but new varieties are much better, same with rye-grasses and all sorts. You need to know what you've got or just judge how good it is by how well the animals do on it.

Yes, agreed Rob, you've got to go with your market / customers.

[Broomcroft]

Put it like this, if you under-finish a steer, then that's not good really. But if you over-finish, it's not such a problem, if a problem at all.

Conversely I'd say the exact opposite, maybe because I prefer lean beef,

I think what I was trying to say is that if you are finishing off grass, within 25-27 months, it's quite hard to seriously over-finish but fairly easy to under do it. Depends on the grass and the animals of course.

[Rob R]

Put it like this, if you under-finish a steer, then that's not good really. But if you over-finish, it's not such a problem, if a problem at all.

Conversely I'd say the exact opposite, maybe because I prefer lean beef,

I think what I was trying to say is that if you are finishing off grass, within 25-27 months, it's quite hard to seriously over-finish but fairly easy to under do it. Depends on the grass and the animals of course.

That's true. In the past we have run on most steers to almost 30 months but with the forage situation & good demand for beef we managed to send away most of ours for this year on lucerne silage before turnout, mostly between 22 - 26 months, unfortunately that meant the cows didn't get much of the lucerne & were struggling a bit come turnout. Easy to see with hindsight but on the other hand I don't think we'd have done differently with foresight - it was just a very difficult year all round.