Beef Cattle Nutrition

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Beef Cattle Nutrition

• Feeder and Stocker Cattle

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Market Beef Lifecycle
Calves
Yearlings
Weaning
Harvest
Age of animal, months
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Preconditioning

• Nutrition guidelines
• Creep feed and bring feeder into feedlot
• Palatable diet, not dusty
• Feed long-stem hay and topdress grain for a few
  days
• Feed in a bunk to get used to it

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Preconditioning

• Free-choice watering system
• Loose free-choice salt
• Increased mineral needs prior to shipping
• Avoid silage or fermented feeds-smell will drive
  them off
• Caution with lots of grain acidosis, bloat,
  founder

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Stocker Cattle

• Weaned calves that are forage-fed for a period of
  time before being sold to enter a feedlot
• For spring born calves bought in fall
• Winter on high-roughage diets in drylot
• Winter graze on wheat/winter oats, or fescue
• Winter on stocks (corn or milo) until gone, then
  feed silage with CP (legume/supplement) in feedlot

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Other Feedstuffs

• High energy supplementation, but need low starch
• Soy hulls
• Wheat midds
• Brewers grains
• Fed up to 6 lbs/day to 500 lbs calves
• Protein supplementation
• Limited by energy, so CP may not get response
• Balance between expected performance and cost of
  supplementation (FeedGain 51)

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Bar F Cattle Company

• Stocker cattle and preconditioning operation in
  north central Arkansas
• 1200 head at a time
• 9000 head move through in a year
• Calves range from 400-650 lbs at start
• Calves from TN, AR, NC, KY, MO, GA, AL

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Backgrounded Cattle
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Transition Rations

• First time calves into feedlot-goal is to
  minimize disease and death loss
• Get them eating!
• Medium quality roughage free-choice
• Plus protein supplement if needed
• After 2-3 days-add grain at rate of .5 lb/100 lbs

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Market Cattle Requirements

• Generally 2-3 of BW for DM intake
• CP-between 9 and 14
• Feedlot cattle average 12-14
• TDN-65-85
• Calcium-0.3-0.6
• Phosphorus-0.2-0.4
• Considerably higher with byproducts
• CaP ratio of 2 (or greater)1 to avoid urinary
  calculi

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Backgrounded Cattle

• Weaned calves placed in drylot or pasture with
  more emphasis on growing than stocker calves
• Fed grain roughage
• Target finish is 800 lb
• Move straight to finishing ration

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Growing Cattle

• Growing calves in feedlot until switched to
  finishing ration
• More roughage than concentrate generally
• Phase 1 feeding-50-60 concentrate from 450-800
  lb
• Traditionally mostly silage diet now stalks, hay
• Phase 2 feeding-gt75 concentrate over 800 lb
  (mostly grain diet)

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Finishing Cattle

• Target is to increase marbling-improve quality
• Concentrateroughage ratio of 8515 or higher
• Faster gains on higher concentrate diet
• Increase in TDN by 10 may decrease intake by 10
• High concentrate diets can lead to problems like
  acidosis, founder, and liver abcesses

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Feedlots in Iowa
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Feed Additives
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Feed Additives

• Non-nutritive ingredients added to the diet
• Examples commonly used
• Medications
• Flavorings
• Colorings
• Growth promotants
• Antioxidants (preservatives)

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Antibiotics

• Inhibits growth of some (not all) microbes
• Continuous inclusion-in diet all the time
• Coccidiostats
• Short-term inclusion-used to cure/treat a disease
• Examples Tetracyclines, Tylan, Penicillin
• Should antibiotics be utilized in livestock
  feeds?
• Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics
• Super bugs, antibiotic treatment becomes useless

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Ionophores

• Commonly fed to cattle, kill certain rumen
  bacteria
• Beef cattle (cows and feedlot)
• Changes rumen bug population so can improved feed
  use
• Considered an antibiotic
• Examples Rumensin, Bovatec
• TOXIC to horses!

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Ionophores

• Commonly used
• Ralgo, Synovex (S,H), Compudose, Revalor
• Active for 60-100 days after insertion into ear
• Increased gains
• Steers 8-12 and heifers 6-10
• Increased efficiency (feed to gain)
• Steers 5-8 and heifers 4-7

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Hormonal Effect Additives

• MGA-fed to feedlot heifers, to suppress heat
• Acts like progesterone in female cattle
• P4 is pregnancy hormone- MGA tricks body
• Increases gain because heifers will go off feed
  during estrus- riding, etc
• Approved for use to synchronize estrous cycle in
  breeding females
• Feed continuously and then withdraw--gtestrous

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Questions?