Some Things Can’t Be Cut
In times like these when every dollar counts, you need every mouthful those cows eat to matter. If you’re depending on hay this fall, consider comments from Dr. Britt Hicks, area livestock specialist with the Oklahoma Research & Extension Center, on research out of the University of Minnesota, which indicates limit feeding of hay to cows (limiting the time they have access to hay) can be very beneficial. The researchers studied gestating Angus cows that were given different amounts of time to round-bale hay feeders and how that affected their body weight, hay intake and hay waste. While cows with 24-hour access to the hay did have heavier body weights, they also ate more and wasted more, and the extra weight may not be necessary anyway. “These researchers concluded that restricting the time cows have access to large round bales of hay to as little as three hours per day will result in acceptable cow performance, depending on hay quality,” Hicks noted. “In addition, limiting time of access will also reduce hay use by limiting intake and decreasing hay waste, thereby reducing feed costs for the cow-calf producer.” Another feeding alternative to consider is using drought-damaged corn plants. According to Oklahoma Extension beef cattle specialists David Lalman and Chis Richards, “Corn plants can be utilized as hay, silage or grazed forage. However, a few considerations are necessary due primarily to the stress that drought-damaged plants have undergone. These include nitrate concentration, alfatoxin concentration, moisture for ensiling and proper drying for baling.” Using ammoniation of low-quality roughages is another option for producers. Applying anhydrous ammonia to crop residues and low-quality roughages from CRP lands, etc. can improve nutritive value, increase digestibility, increase roughage intake and crude protein content of feedstuffs that you wouldn’t ordinarily utilize. Whatever you decide to feed, here are some cautionary tips on drought feeding management from Dr. Dennis Herd, professor emeritus in animal nutrition at Texas A&M University: • Use of salt to limit feed intake may increase water intake 50% to 75%, or approximately 50 gallons of additional water for each pound of salt. Water must not be limited in any way or salt toxicity may result. • Overconsumption of urea-containing supplements by cattle on forage-scarce ranges can result in urea toxicity. Generally, cattle performance on urea-type supplements is also poor whenever energy or forage is in short supply. • Hay cut under moisture stress conditions, especially sorghumtype hays, may contain high levels of nitrate. If in doubt, it would be good to test for nitrate before feeding such hays, especially before feeding large amounts. • Prussic acid or cyanide poisoning can also be a problem in grazing drought-stunted plants such as Johnson grass, sorghum, sorghum hybrids or sudan grass If forage for hay is allowed to sun cure thoroughly for three to five days, bleaching out any bright green color, prussic acid should not be a problem.
It’s times like these when every dollar counts, you need every mouthful those cows eat to matter.
Feeding Alternatives Finally, while cutting back on costs to survive the drought, know there are two places that you simply can’t cut. One is your health program. Gill says as cattle graze on shorter forage, the chances of picking up soil-born pathogens increase. Blackleg, leptospirosis and anthrax are some of the diseases that occur more frequently during drought. Don’t let up on protection against reproductive diseases like vibrio, because nutritional stress affects reproduction enough as it is. His best advice – check with your local veterinarian about the hot issues he or she is noticing. “Even if the ranch has been through drought cycles before, you may not have seen or heard about all the possible problems.” Gill also cautions against cutting back on mineral supplementation, particularly in places where phosphorus is deficient (like Texas), as phosphorus is very important to reproductive performance. The last tip may be the hardest to resist – if you have to sell cows because of the drought, don’t use that money to keep buying more feed for the ones you have left. Gill says, “This practice will leave a ranch broke and without cows in an extended drought.”
• Cattle grazing short pastures are more likely to consume toxic plants. • Alternate-day feeding of protein supplements, like cottonseed cubes, has been recommended to save labor. This practice is still good for high-protein supplements, but should not be used for grain-type supplements. High-energy supplements (grain, breeder cubes, etc.), should be fed daily, especially where 3 to 6 pounds or more may be fed. • Rumen impaction may result where cattle receive inadequate protein (less than 7 percent CP in total diet) and too much of a low-quality, high-fiber forage, such as drought pasture or prickly pear or forage substitutes like peanut hulls, straws or gin trash. Lack of adequate water will aggravate the impaction problem. • Hardware disease can be a problem with hay harvested from vacant city lots, roadsides, etc. Such feed may contain nails, wire, or other foreign objects which can pierce the rumen wall, resulting in death of the animal.
September/October 2011 • theshowcircuit.com
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