Cattle don’t eat all the feed that they’re served during the winter.
But rather than thinking of it as wasted feed, Glenn Barclay believes it would be better to consider it as a soil enhancer.
“It seems a more appropriate description,” said the forage development specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture.
“Plus, in addition to the leftover feed, the cow produces manure, which also enhances the soil.”
Barclay said researchers at Michigan State University who studied feed losses from various designs of cattle feeders found losses between 3.5 and 14.6 percent.
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Hay that is fed with no access restriction is trampled, over-consumed, fouled and used for bedding.
Researchers at the University of Missouri found waste levels could even reach 25 to 45 percent in unrestricted feeding areas. This feed eventually wound up back on the land as nutrients.
“Straw and hay are slow to break down, so the impact of the nutrients will start showing up in later years,” Barclay said.
“Nutrient content in hay and straw can vary a great deal.”
A Saskatchewan Agriculture study in 1998 found the following average levels of nutrients in wheat straw: nitrogen, 0.4 percent; phosphate, 0.1 percent; potassium, 1.4 percent; and sulfur, 0.1 percent.
“These levels are quite low and, because they aren’t as available in the first year as commercial fertilizer, they do not produce immediate results,” Barclay said. “However, the release of nutrients, the increase in the water-holding capacity of the soil and the buildup of organic matter will occur in the future.”
Cattle also supply manure, which is diluted and variable in nutrient content.
A 1,200 pound cow that is seven months pregnant and fed a 50:50 hay-straw ration could produce about 13 lb. of dry matter per day of manure. Just before calving, the same cow, when fed a hay ration with only three to four lb. of straw, might produce 11.5 lb. of dry matter per day of manure. The same cow, when fed hay and six lb. of grain per day when it is lactating, might produce 11.3 lb. of dry matter per day of manure.
“As the digestibility of the feed increases, the amount of manure dry matter decreases. Normally, better quality feed has higher levels of digestibility,” Barclay said.
“If you assume manure is about 50 percent water, although this varies, a reasonable estimate of 20 to 25 lb. of wet manure per average day per 1,200 lb. cow could be assumed in a winter feeding program.”
Barclay has this advice for producers who are feeding bales: “Keep in mind where you want to increase the production and soil organic matter of a hay field or pasture.”
For example, a knoll could benefit from being a feeding area while a low-lying area could lose nutrient benefits through leaching and denitrification because of the water that tends to accumulate there.
Producers can rejuvenate small areas of pasture by making them feeding areas and scattering forage seed on the soil surface.
The cattle’s hoofs will incorporate the seed with the soil while the manure and leftover nutrients will assist germination.
Barclay said rotating cattle in a field can also be a good idea.
“If you are using a four-year reinvigoration plan for a field, you can feed cattle in one corner one year, another corner the next, and so on until the entire field has been covered. Cattle can adapt to snow as their water source, so this can be attempted even on fields far away from a water source.”
He encouraged producers to monitor their fields to ensure excess nutrients aren’t being applied.
“When feeding cattle this winter, keep your land enhancement plan in mind,” he said.
