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Cattle
producers continue to be faced with decisions on what to feed this fall
and winter. As a
nutritionist, it is my responsibility to assist you in making the best
decision for your livestock. This decision is based upon meeting the
nutritional requirements of your animal at the least amount of cost to
you, the cattle producer.
With
this statement in mind, I am often asked how you can justify the
differences in cost between an ingredient and a complete feed. As a rule of thumb, an ingredient is an individual component
of a complete feed. A
complete feed combines several ingredients to furnish your cattle a
complete and balanced diet.
I
am often asked the differences in a complete feed that is 13% crude
protein, 68 Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN) and an ingredient that is
13% crude protein and 68 TDN. There
are several types of protein that make up a crude protein percentage. Digestible Protein, Soluble Protein, Undegradable Protein,
and By-Pass Protein are the types of proteins that your cattle require
to maintain rumen function and overall peak performance.
A complete feed is designed to provide your cattle with each type
of protein at the percentage required to meet the daily requirements for
that protein.
An
ingredient will provide you protein, but will not provide the type and
percentage of proteins that your animal will require. The same can be said for TDN. A complete feed combines
sugars, starches, and fats to meet the total needs of your cattle for
energy, while an ingredient will normally provide most of its energy
from either starches or fats but not both.
The third benefit of a complete feed is that it will provide
additional minerals, vitamins and other performance enhancing
ingredients that an ingredient will not provide.
After
explaining the crude differences between a complete feed and
ingredients, I am still asked, “How can I feed a complete feed for
$160.00 a ton while an ingredient will cost me $120.00 a ton?”
Let’s look at this question in more detail.
As
a producer, you must ask yourself one question.
Am I feeding to meet the daily requirements of my cattle, or am I
feeding just to be feeding? There
is a huge difference in these two situations.
As
a cattle producer, you should feed to meet the daily nutrient
requirements of your cows. If
you fail to feed to meet the nutrient requirements of your cows, then
your cattle will experience such problems as weight loss, depressed
weight gain, lost milk production and reproductive failures.
The
most efficient use of your cattle is to feed to meet their daily
requirements. Let’s look
at some examples of a complete versus ingredient feeding program to meet
the requirements of your cattle. After
feeding hay, let’s say that you still need to provide an additional 10
pounds of energy and two pounds of protein to meet your cow’s daily
requirement.
You
have two feeds to choose between. An ingredient for $120 a ton that is
10% protein and a TDN of 65% and a complete feed that is $160 a ton with
13% protein and 70 TDN. To
meet the additional requirement for proteins and energy when feeding the
ingredient diet, you would need to feed 20 pounds of feed to meet both
the protein and TDN requirements of the cow. At $120.00 a ton, that
would cost you $1.20 per cow/per day plus an additional 6 cents in
minerals for a total cost of $1.26. To meet the additional requirements
for protein and energy when feeding a complete diet, you would feed 15
pounds to meet the additional protein and energy requirements.
At $160.00 a ton, it would cost you $1.20 per cow/per day plus an
additional 3 cents in minerals (complete feed will furnish most
minerals) for a total of $1.23 per cow/per day.
This example used soyhulls against AFC 13% with Bovatec.
From this example, you can feed a complete feed that meets all
the requirements for nutrients, provides the additional benefits of
Bovatec for less money per cow/per day.
I hope this example will provide you with some answers to the
question of feeding a low cost ingredient versus a complete feed.
Another
question, I would like to address is, can you justify a new creep feeder
to creep feed calves? A new
3- ton pull creep feeder will cost you around $3000.00 through your
local Co-op. A good creep
feed will cost you $160.00 a ton. The final piece to this puzzle will be
that research has proven that calves will wean 70 pounds heavier than
non-crept fed calves. Research
also proves that 13% with Bovatec will put a pound of gain to every 6
pounds of feed that calves consume during this time.
Let’s
now justify the cost of the creep feeder.
A $3000.00 creep feeder will depreciate out to a net cost of
$2000.00. If you have 40
calves that weigh 70 pounds heavier at weaning, that is an additional
2800 pounds of marketable beef. The
feed consumed for the additional 2800 pounds will be 16,800 pounds of
feed for a total feed cost of $1,344.00.
The difference between a calf at 500 pounds ($1.12 a pound) and
570 ($1.09 a pound) will be an additional $60.00 per calf for creep
feeding. When you look at
the additional $2400.00 from heavier calves minus the $1344.00 for feed
cost = $1056.00 extra each year. With these figures, you will pay for a creep feeder in 2
years.
By
creep feeding, you will also get the added benefit of less stress on
your cows as well as on your grass and hay.
This will be an excellent way to help reduce hay use during a
drought year such as this.
I
hope these two examples will provide you with some information to
consider when making decisions on how to get the very best return on
your investment. If I can
ever be of any assistance, please feel free to contact me.
I hope that each of you have a Happy Thanksgiving filled with
many blessings and I look forward to talking to you in the days ahead.
Jimmy
Hughes is AFC’s animal nutritionist. |
