My friend Bob Kinford was discussing feed recently and asked the obvious question – why process feed? As industry we look first to processed feed to solve problems when maybe we just need to get more creative first. These drought conditions are when a person really needs to start herding their cattle. You can place them on forage they won’t go to on their own.In any case, here is an entry from his always interesting blog which you can access by clicking HERE.
Several years go I ran into a situation where the owner of the operation I was on made several errors and was behind on feed. At the same time, a neighbor ran into a problem where he could not get his milo harvested. I managed to get a short term lease for 700 steers and ran them on the milo for a month after the prussic acid levels were down. Because the cattle were eating the stalks as well as the grain, I had no bloat problem. The cattle had over a 3 pound ADG. Do the math…Which has the lowest input cost? A 3 pound gain on feed that has been combined, baled, mix & ground before being delivered to the cattle, or having the cattle harvest it on their own with no equipment? Should be a no brainer to figure out!
Sometime the obvious is hidden by conventional wisdom. We spend countless hours and dollars growing hay and grain, then harvesting it with costly equipment that is burning through $8 worth of fuel an hour. Then we use more equipment to mix and grind the feed to put it in a feed truck or trailer to feed it to the cattle. If we aren’t feeding a grain ration, it still takes a lot of fuel, equipment and man hours to feed hay. On the other hand, how much does it cost to let the cattle do their job and harvest it on their own? With the right forage and cattle management many operations could do just that.
Several years go I ran into a situation where the owner of the operation I was on made several errors and was behind on feed. At the same time, a neighbor ran into a problem where he could not get his milo harvested. I managed to get a short term lease for 700 steers and ran them on the milo for a month after the prussic acid levels were down. Because the cattle were eating the stalks as well as the grain, I had no bloat problem. The cattle had over a 3 pound ADG. Do the math…Which has the lowest input cost? A 3 pound gain on feed that has been combined, baled, mix & ground before being delivered to the cattle, or having the cattle harvest it on their own with no equipment? Should be a no brainer to figure out!