Optimizing Resource Utilization In Beef Cattle Operations: Reducing Hay Waste, Improving The Value Of Roughage, And Preserving Integrity Of Rations

Abstract

Rising prices of roughages and grains lead producers to constantly re-evaluate their feeding methods. Feed waste during storage, transfers, diet mixing and delivering is often underestimated or ignored. Concurrently, forages and forage quality are important to achieve production objectives, and sufficient profits. Feed costs are associated with forage quality because typically the higher the nutrient value the more expensive a feed source is. Reducing input costs, maintaining healthy livestock all while making a profit can be a challenge for many livestock producers in the Midwest. Thus, three different experiments were conducted to optimize resource utilization. The first experiment was conducted to evaluate forage waste when beef cattle were fed using three feeding systems. Systems evaluated were pull-type self-feeder, conventional bale ring and fence-line bunk. In this experiment, using a pull-type self-feeder led to less feed waste than feeding through a conventional bale ring or fence-line bunk. Experiment 2 was a backgrounding study with lightweight steers to evaluate growth performance effects of dry lot feeding corn stover untreated (CON), corn stover treated with an alkaline treatment (calcium hydroxide; TCS), corn stover hydrated with water (TWS), or grazing cattle on a cover crop (radishes and turnips; CC). Dry lot treatments were fed for 49 d followed by 64 d during which steers were fed a common backgrounding diet. Cattle grazed a cover crop for 29 d and then were fed the same backgrounding diet for 85 d. Following the common backgrounding period, cattle from all treatments were fed for 176 d on a common finishing diet. Feeding TCS resulted in intermediate rates of gain that were similar to those of cattle fed TWS or CON. In situ determination of DMD led to observations that, numerically, TCS had greater DMD (43.49%) and NDFD (54.82%) than cattle fed CON or TWS at 48 h (31.02%, 39.50% and 18.99%, 22.17% respectively). At harvest, cattle fed CON had larger (P = 0.03) LM area than cattle fed either TCS or TWS. Cattle fed TWS tended (P < 0.06) to have less 12th rib fat depth than cattle fed TCS. There were no differences in other carcass characteristics between treatments. Results from this experiment demonstrated that treating corn stover with only water may be used to enhance low quality roughages albeit at higher DM intakes. A third experiment was designed to determine the effect of supplement type precision and accuracy of delivery. Findings from this study demonstrated that supplement form affected concentrations of DM, CP, Ca and Cu delivered to the bunk. Concentrations of DM and CP were closest to reference values when LS was used but those of Ca and Cu were closest to reference values when DS was used. Results from this study demonstrated that concentrations of Zn moved further away from the reference value as the mixer approached the end of delivery sites. Through this short-term study, we have demonstrated that supplement form and, for micro-minerals such as Zn, delivery order may impact nutrient concentrations in bunk samples.