Fall Feeding Management Ideas for Cattle Producers
Once again, cattle producers are faced with dry soil conditions which have prevented expected fall growth of cool-season grass pastures.
Many are now feeding hay, but are hoping for moisture to stimulate some regrowth for grazing. At the risk of sounding like a broken record due to dry fall conditions in the past few years, below are some management reminders to consider when dealing with limited to no fall pasture growth.
One idea is to reduce forage demand. For spring-calving cows, this means weaning calves. Weaning can reduce cow forage dry matter demand by 6 to 7 pounds per day. Supplement inputs can then be put into a saleable product (the calf), rather than used to maintain cow body condition.
There are a variety of approaches to stretching hay supplies. One is to limit the time cows have access to hay feeders. This reduces hay feeding waste, but must be done in such a way that cow body condition does not suffer. Poor quality hay should not be used in this setting.
A second option is to unroll enough hay in the morning to meet one-half of the cow’s dry matter requirement and provide the other one-half of the cow’s dry matter requirement in the evening in the form of a grain mix.
Corn harvest is beginning in some areas, so look for opportunities to graze corn stalks or other crop residues as harvest progresses. Again, dry beef cows are an excellent choice to graze crop residues. Other classes of beef cattle can be grazed as well, but some type of additional supplementation will be needed to meet the nutritional requirements of these animals.
Summer annuals or weeds such as johnsongrass can provide grazing, but be aware of nitrate and prussic acid concerns in some of these forages. Regrowth after rain can be particularly dangerous to graze. In some instances, it may be best to not graze these forages until one- to two-weeks after a killing frost this fall. This will not eliminate a nitrate problem, however.
When dealing with weaned calves, be aware of market signals and pay attention to items such as value of gain and cost per pound of gain. Many ration formulation programs have the capability of calculating feed cost per pound of gain. Other costs associated with backgrounding calves, such as yardage, labor, machinery costs, etc. must also be considered.
Plans should be made to renovate overgrazed, abused pastures. This is often a missing link in recovering farm forage productivity. There are many options and strategies for this step but must be tailored to the needs of specific operations.
These items may require different management than “business as usual”. To help sort through options and issues, contact me at schmitze@missouri.edu or by calling the Pettis County Extension Center at (660) 827-0591.
-- Gene Schmitz, Field Specialist in Livestock, University of Missouri Extension
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