Cattle may be eating more than they need to.
Duane McCartney, an Agriculture Canada research scientist in Lacombe, Alta., says producers could save themselves money if they fed their animals only what they require.
“It’s a cost saving measure in times of low beef markets,” he said.
McCartney and other researchers set out to check the accuracy of winter rations and weight gain predictions in beef cattle as calculated by computer models.
Researchers gathered years of data from prairie feedlots, including the Western Beef Development Centre in Saskatchewan and Agriculture Canada research centres in Lacombe, Alta., and Melfort, Sask. All cattle were fed a low-cost cereal straw-based diet supplemented with barley silage, minerals and protein supplements.
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They looked at weather information, feed intake and weight gain and compared that with calculations made by computer models developed by the National Research Council in 1996.
“We found variations in how well we could predict,” McCartney said.
The NRC model, which incorporated the latest in beef cattle nutrition research and feeding recommendations, used largely American data and weather conditions to calculate cattle rations.
A better model for Canadian conditions is the Cowbytes program from Alberta Agriculture, which McCartney called a good method of calculating feed requirements.
It is widely used by livestock specialists and larger feedlots but less often in smaller herds.
“The majority of people feed their cows with a hayloader and feed truck and really don’t monitor how much feed goes into cows,” he said.
McCartney encouraged farmers to use the program and compare how well their cattle do against what Cowbytes predicts while continuing to seek help from livestock specialists when needed.
