Straight from the Horses Mouth

Duane A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator, Webster County October 23, 2010 Edition Last week I centered my discussion on taking care of those calves that either have already or soon will be weaned. I also suggested that we should now look at the care of their mommas as we head into the winter season. Every year about this time, cattlemen are faced with a host of decisions they have to make. Most of them focus on how they will manage and care for their herd over the next few months – primarily winter. We need to assume each year that we may have a severe winter, and we all know that we have not had adequate moisture conditions coming into this season and that could prove to create more of a problem. Regardless of where a producer fits in this situation, I think we need to take a look at structuring the decision making process with two primary issues in mind – improved performance and improved profits. Our main goal here is to develop and utilize a system by which the producer can prioritize the tasks at hand by implementing decisions that will improve cattle condition, performance and profitability. To accomplish our goals there are a lot of things we will need to take a look at. This will likely take more than one article. Let’s get started with this topic. Where Are You Right Now? The first thing you need to determine is what the status is today of your operation and the components that make up your operation. This may include forage inventory, brood cow body condition, grain or feed prices and available options and so on. Let’s take a look at these components individually and see how they tie into our management program. The saying goes that “an army marches on its stomach”. The same is true of a cowherd. Research has long shown us the importance of nutrition on a cow's performance. Cowboy economics has long shown us that the need to provide this nutrition also needs to be done in cost effective manner. And finally, because of how the Good Lord designed a cow, she derives the largest portion of her needed nutrients from forages. All this said, as cattlemen, we've known for years that the optimal way to provide the nutrient needs for our cowherd is to produce adequate levels of good quality forage. Unfortunately mother-nature doesn't always cooperate so we have to make allowances most of the time. We can’t predict the future for weather very accurately but we can come pretty close in taking inventory of what we have. Because we live in an area that has a pretty good supply of corn, grain sorghum stalks and soybean residue, we need to ask ourselves “Do we have access to enough of this forage source to get us to the time where we need to look at supplemental feeding?” The most commonly used stalks come from corn, so let’s take a look at that. The residue that remains after corn harvest can be effectively utilized as cattle feed, with an average total dietary nutrient concentration of 50-55 percent and a crude protein concentration of 4-6 percent. Although these values are low, it important to recognize that after weaning, the nutrient requirements for cows are also very low, and can nearly be met with cornstalk grazing alone, assuming that there are no outside barriers that could limit intake. No matter what feed is used a 1400 lb cow needs 33 pounds of dry matter each day and adjust from there. So please take that into consideration when determining your needs. The most palatable parts of cornstalk residue are the husk and the leaf, so naturally these portions will be consumed first with the remaining stem and cob being less desirable to cattle. Therefore, one important consideration is the amount of husk and leaf that are available. The University of Nebraska devised a formula to determine this amount based on corn yield. The formula is: Pounds of leaf and husk per acre = ([bushels per acre corn grain yield X 38.2] + 429) x 0.39. Let’s say you estimated your corn crop average at 175 bu/acre. Using the formula, this would result in about 2,775 pounds of leaf and husk per acre. About 50 percent of this will be lost due to trampling and other factors, so about 1,380 pounds will be available for grazing. This amount of residue is enough to feed a 600-pound steer for about 80 days, and feed a 1,400 pound cow for about 40 days. So you can figure how many acres of good stalks you need to get to the point where you can start feeding other forages. There are of course other considerations like snow cover, mud and condition of stalks that we have to consider when figuring the longevity and practicality of utilizing this “cheap cost” source of forage. Inventory Stored Forages: Now we need to determine how much hay or other forage stock that you have produced and what is available for feeding? How many round or square bales have you put up? What do the bales weigh on the average? What is the quality of these forage sources. It doesn’t hurt to get some tests done for nutrients. You may want to weigh the hay bales you have put up to get an idea of how much you have. I am a lousy predictor of round bale weight and I would bet that many others are in the same boat. The weight of hay bales is also affected by a lot of variables. These include moisture content of the baled forage, type of forage, baler settings, operator experience, storage methods, etc. If you put up silage you need to figure how much is needed and how much you have on hand. You can figure how much you need with a simple rule of thumb. Figuring 65 percent moisture in your pile, to get 10 lbs of dry matter per head you need to provide about 28.5 lbs of silage (actual) per head per day (10 lbs/35 percent Dry Matter or 10/.35 = 28.5). You will then need to determine how much silage you have in a pile. You can do that by using formulas for the type of silage storage you use. I have several software programs in my office that will help you with this if you should need them. Just give me a call. We are going to look at some other steps that we need to take in the next issue. The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster County in Red Cloud, (402) 746-3417 or email to: dlienemann2@unl.edu or go to the website at: http://www.webster.unl.edu/home