KINSELLA, Alta. – Cows fed almost half their traditional amount of feed
increased weight and maintained body condition during a two-month
feeding trial, said an Alberta Agriculture beef specialist who helped
design the trial.
Not only did the cattle eat 35 percent less feed than they are
traditionally fed, but one trial saved an average 25 cents a day per
cow in feed costs. In a year when feed is scarce and expensive, the
savings are dramatic, said Trevor Yurchak, beef cattle specialist with
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“This is the winter where you get paid for your management,” he told
farmers touring the University of Alberta ranch in Kinsella.
With an average 200-day winter feeding period, those kinds of savings
can translate to more than $50 a cow. For a 150-cow herd, the savings
can add up to more than $7,800 a season.
“We’ve got significant savings,” Yurchak said.
During the summer, when it became evident straw and hay would be hard
to find, a study was designed to show how a ration based on little
roughage could be fed and still maintain healthy cattle.
In the trial, 75 bred cows were divided into five groups: a control
group fed a ration of 26.49 pounds of dry matter feed per day, and
groups fed rations based on .50 and .75 percent of their body weight in
hay or straw. In one trial the feed intake was reduced to 17 lb. of dry
matter feed.
“We wanted to get a grasp on how much we can reduce the intake,”
Yurchak said.
A ration of .75 percent hay meant a 1,000 lb. cow was fed .75 percent
of its body weight, or about 7.5 lb. of hay per day. A cow fed .50
percent straw would be fed five lb. of straw per day, which is about
one-third of the hay or straw normally fed to cattle.
“The amount of hay and straw was significantly less,” said Rod Carlyon,
a business development officer with Alberta Agriculture.
In the trial, whole corn was used to replace fibre lost because of
reduced hay or straw. Fibre is needed to allow the cow’s rumen to work
properly.
The cows fed on the .50 percent hay ration received about 17 lb. of
total feed per day, still gained 30 to 40 lb., and only dropped body
condition score from 2.8 to 2.7.
“These are content cows. There’s not a big stampede to the feed,”
Yurchak said.
The ideal body condition score at calving is 2.5 to three out of five.
Cattle fed the .50 percent straw ration took longer to adapt to the
ration and were almost pulled from the project. The animals finally
adjusted and gained 22 lb., although their body conditions dropped to
2.6 from 2.8.
The cows fed the .75 percent straw ration seemed to do better than cows
on the .50 percent straw ration. The researchers believe the larger
amount of straw allowed the animals more time to ruminate.
The results surprised the Alberta Agriculture staff, who believed the
trial would work but needed to build proof before they could spread the
word.
“I had to build a comfort level myself,” Carlyon said.
Having farmers look at the cattle on test gives them the comfort level
to feed their animals less roughage, he added.
Carlyon thinks few farmers will push their ration to the .50 or .75
percent roughage level, but demonstrating that the cattle are in good
condition gives the farmers comfort to reduce the amount of hay and
straw.
“It shows how comfortable farmers should be at one percent,” said
Carlyon, who added farmers always like to err on the side of
overfeeding, not underfeeding.
“They don’t want their cows to look hungry.”
Yurchak said he doesn’t expect producers to mimic these rations at
home, but with the help of a nutritionist and a feed test, they can
adjust the way they traditionally feed to save money.
“With some producers with little feed, the new research may be able to
save part of their cattle herd,” Yurchak said.”We’ve got some data that
will save money and will save some of the Alberta cow herd.”
