How do you fatten up show steers but not to fat and make them keep their long hair?
As you increase the energy (increase the amount of corn) content of the ration, cattle will fatten. This creates a layer of fat and therefore insulation for the animal. The animal’s response is to increase the ability to get rid of body heat so that it remains cool. Therefore, they shed the hair because they need less of it. You wll need to increase the grain portion of the ration to get the animal to fatten. To keep the hair, it will be difficult, especially as we approach spring and summer and the environmental temperatures increase. Possibilities solutions to keep the hair: Rinse the steer a couple of time a day. Run a fan on the steer This will give the steer the false inpression that it needs to keep the hair to help it stay warm.
