Looking to buy a steer

[chma4]

I am looking to buy a steer to feed my family. My father wants it to be angus, but I am open. We want to purchase something that will finish out by next fall. Any advice? What should we pay? Where should we look?
I am located in NJ, and have had some cattle before.
Thanks in advance,
Christina

[springvalley]

An angus is going to cost you more to buy than some other breeds. And as long as your going to eat him anyway why bother with the angus, unless your just going for that. Dairy breeds will take a bit longer to feed out in most cases, not always, any type beef breed will taste fine when butchered so buy what you can afford and enjoy the home grown meat. > Thanks Marc

[chma4]

I know that we want strictly a meat breed, as we have had Jersey/herford crosses in the past, and not had much luck with weight gain/time. I do not prefer angus over other meat breeds, but my father seems to think the angus are better? So I think that perhaps an angus or angus cross may be the way to go.

[springvalley]

Something you may want to look into is Belted Galoway, they grow well on grass, but can be fed grain if you want , and they are lower in colesteral. And all the hype about angus being so great is just that, hype. Now granted I use to raise angus, but I sold feeder calves, and had to market what the demand wanted. I use to raise Semintals and I realy like them, but the market did not want them. So go buy a nice calf and feed it out. > Thanks marc

[sammyd]

I'd wait till spring and get a bigger feeder.
any sort of beefer would do, and even a bigger holstein would work well.

[ksfarmer]

Originally Posted by sammyd

I'd wait till spring and get a bigger feeder.
any sort of beefer would do, and even a bigger holstein would work well.

Second that idea, but first a couple of questions. Do you have grass for the steer or will he be completely fed on hay? At the risk of opening the old debate, do you intend to grain feed him? If you have grass, I would wait till spring, then grow him on grass with some creep feed , then about 60 to 90 days of heavy grain finish. As far as breed, there are many good beefers, maybe look at a black baldy cross. Wouldn't even have to be a steer, heiffers are cheaper and fatten out just fine.

[chma4]

Thanks for the advice. I have about 1 acre of high quality grass for him. Will be mostly on hay and grain. Is there a debate about that? I didn't know. Not wanting to start it again though LOL