MOOSE JAW, Sask. – Economic conditions have pushed cattle producers to manage their herds far differently than they did 10 years ago, producers attending a livestock conference heard last week.
Bart Lardner, senior research scientist at the Western Beef Development Centre, said change is happening everywhere, particularly over the last several years with BSE border closures, skyrocketing feed costs and poor market prices.
Producers are looking at winter feeding options and how they can save or make money, he said.
But they have to be mindful of the result of those decisions.
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“What’s the impact on that mother cow?”
Its ability to calve the following season is critical. Traditionally, cows come off pasture in the fall and spend several months in a drylot.
Studies at the beef centre have found that it’s much cheaper to winter feed in the field instead, grazing the cattle on swaths, bales or straw and chaff.
The savings can be about 45 cents per head per day. As well, there is no cost of cleaning out pens. But Lardner also said field feeding can mean cattle are consuming lower quality feed at a time when they need the nutrients.
“The beef cow is an inefficient user of feed,” he said. “They retain only 10 to 15 percent of nutrients consumed.”
That means the cow is excreting a lot of nutrients. He estimated that 124 pounds of nitrogen, 34 lb. of phosphorus and 77 lb. of potassium are excreted each year by a 1,000 lb. beef cow.
Lardner calculated that between 20 and 40 cents per day is being left on the soil in those nutrients, depending on the soil type and management style.
Over the past five years the beef centre has done several studies to evaluate winter feeding methods, the impact on cow performance and the effect on the following year’s crop or pasture from nutrients deposited.
Researchers have found that cow body weight is not affected by the different feeding systems. Cropland and pasture benefited from manure, but areas that were bale grazed showed higher available nitrogen.
Given the increasing commodity prices, Lardner said the economics of feeding cattle will keep changing. Producers are likely to get more money growing barley as a grain than as a feed, he said.
“We need to look at annual crops like millets and perennials,” he said, adding mixed tame grasses could be swath grazed.
More information on the studies is available at www.wbdc.sk.ca.
