to finish or not to finish

[Alaska]

Well its time to make a decision. 22 mos old angus steer. A very fat and happy camper. Just started feeding the cattle some hay as we already have a start on our next draught.
has grown up on mostly diverse natural unimproved grasses.
We like grass fed beef and wild game.
How important is it to finish him, for how long, and suggestions on feed (not corn)

[oregon woodsmok]

It's November. Do you have any grass left? If the grass is gone and he is fat, then I would go ahead and butcher.

I feed grain every day, so I don't have any experience with pouring grain into a cow for the last month. But if it is put fat on the cow and yours is already fat, I can't see too much use for it.

[Dusky Beauty]

I'd consider him "finished" if he's as hefty as you describe.

[Alaska]

Hes nice and full across the back and rump and almost looks as pregnant as the cows.
Not a lot of grass left due to lack of rain we have not had a frost here yet. At least there is good hay at a fair price available this year.
Hope to get a cooler built in the next couple of weeks and the weather to cool down.
Guess we will stick with hay and cubes

[Oakshire_Farm]

I don't finish cows. I never have, when they are ready to go I pull them off the pasture, toss them in the trailer and haul them to the processor! I have always felt graining is a waste of money and it takes away from the flavour of the meat. But that is Just my opinion

[myheaven]

My boys holstine were finished on just hay and pasture. Very nice marbling. Wasnt expecting the amount of marbling they had. If he's fat eat him. My boys weren't fat but I did get 900lbs of meat. Good enough for Me and my crew

[arnie]

If he's fat off the grass he's good to go you can improve the beef with grain but prime beef is very expencive because corn is very expencive for most the cost of moveing the quality of the meat from choise to prime is'nt worth the expence .even a couple of weeks of corn feeding will help firm up the fat on a beef and improve the flavor of the meat .my own calf will go to the butcher at arount 700 pounds on grass and milk being from my brown swiss cow and an angus bull the meat will be tender though leaner than if grain fed most of the extra fat would be waste any way cattle won't reach the prime marbleing in the meat till they are 17 months of age or older.

[Sparkie]

If he's fat now he's finished

[arabian knight]

Originally Posted by Sparkie

If he's fat now he's finished

I agree, should not need anymore feeding at all.

[oregon woodsmok]

If you are going to wait 2 weeks before you are ready to butcher, it wouldn't hurt to give him some grain for 2 weeks, especially if the grass is gone and you have to buy feed anyway.

[Sparkie]

Why ruin a good thing? The meat is healthier as it is. I'd just feed plenty of hay till slaughter, especially since he's already fat.

[ramiller5675]

I've finished steers on grass in the past when we had wetter summers and some good grass to put them on for the last month or so. I had a pasture that I was stockpiling for the cows to winter on and I'd stock the steers at about 10-15 acres of good tall grass per head so they could eat as much as possible. I'm my worst critic, and I thought they produced some great beef.

Then the drought hit a couple of years ago and I didn't have enough good grass left when it was time to finish those steers and the quality of the beef went way down in my opinion. Since I can't guarantee the quality of my beef unless it rains a lot, I quit selling beef and just butcher a couple for my family.

Because I want beef to taste like beef, now I supplement the steers I intend to butcher with either sweet feed or corn for a month or so as insurance to give me a quality steak eating experience. Spending $50-100 for corn doesn't seem that expensive to me if it means that steer tastes better.

If my beef doesn't taste like beef should taste, I don't see the point of butchering a $1200 steer instead of selling him at the stockyards while also paying the butcher $500 for some mediocre meat. I can buy a lot of good steak for $1700.

And, when I want lean meat, I eat venison.

But that's just me.