Dexter Cattle For Sale Discussion Board

If a 26 month old steer is being sold as "ready for finishing" would he require extra feed even at this time of year? What would you do differently to "finish" this steer that you would not do for the rest of your steers? How long would you expect it to take for him to be ready for the butcher?

I would expect any dexter to finish well on good grass as long as it was healthy and free of parasites but I would prefer a mix of grass and clover. How long depends on his condition now but maybe one to four months?

Stephanie

To me, a Dexter doesn't need finishing, you just need to keep him on a level plain of nutrition and wait till he's ready. At 26 months he should be there or thereabouts now. Finishing is really a reference to the last few months where cattle are fed up to put on extra muscle and especially extra fat, but a Dexter if forced like this, as most traditional breeds, may just do the latter. Slowly, slowly is the key IMO.

At this time of year it can be difficult depending upon your leys. If you have nutritious leys, particularly if they have modern rye grasses / modern clovers in them, then you will be able to just let them graze their last few weeks/months. Failing that, then hay or silage can be good but again, like the leys, the forage can be anything from almost useless through to highly nutritious.

What probably isn't a good idea is to put stock out on old poor quality grass leys (which may look good) and put bales out to help them because, if they're anything like my lot (sheep as well), they'll eat the poor grass in preference to the forage and may actually go backwards. IMO best to pen them up and forage feed them if that is situation, or put them on good leys with plenty of growth.

PS. If I were buying him to finish and he isn't near ready now at 26 months, I'd move on a go for something either better finished already or something younger that I could do slowly myself over the summer or next 12 months.

Much the same opinion as the other 2 replies. At 26 months he should be just about finished, if hes not and you are looking to but him then don't. There are lots of steers out there to buy at 9/12 months old so you can take them on yourself. My average kill age is 22/24 months and that is total grass fed animals, suits me fine and the weights and grades are good.
Don't forget a lot of the beefiness of an animal is about his breeding as well as what he is being fed.