Feed & Nutrition

With spring rapidly approaching and the calving season well under way for most, it’s never too early to make decisions to maximize the value of your calf crop.

Use of total mixed ration (TMR) mixers mounted on wagons or trucks is on the rise due to greater returns to feeding and cow-calf operations in spite of greater feed and grain prices.

In the winter of 2010-2011, 312 cattle were fed at Fairleigh Feeders, Scott City, Kansas, through the National Hereford Feedout. This was the seventh year for the National Hereford Feedout, which allows producers from across the country to test Hereford or Hereford-cross steers and heifers.

One of the most common questions we get during this time of year is whether or not to temporarily increase feed levels for the cowherd, and if so, by how much.

Effective trace mineral supplementation of ruminants during critical periods can increase the efficiency of production. Poor immuno-competence, poor reproduction efficiency, lack of calf vitality (ill thrift) and other poor to sub-optimal trace element-dependent functions in ruminants frequently occur.

It is generally accepted that adequate supervision at calving has a significant positive effect on reducing calf mortality, which has been of increasing importance with the use of larger beef breeds and cattle with larger birth weights.