“Stock cows probably require less feed to get through the winter than most owners think.”
Mary Drewnoski, University of Nebraska beef specialist, has provided several tips for reducing cow feeding costs this winter.
The big differences in nutritional needs are between mid-gestation and late-gestation. “In mid-gestation the calf is not growing much, so the needs are considerably less,” Drewnoski said. “Then they pick up in late gestation and nutritional needs continue higher in early lactation.
“Don’t fudge then if you want cows to rebreed,” she emphasized
The only way to know the nutritional value of hay is by testing it. “Not all brome hay is the same,” Drewnoski said. “Stockmen can guess at its feeding value, but why guess? Spend the $20 to get it tested at a lab. Extension offices have hay probes to borrow for collecting samples.”
Quality must be considered when buying hay. “If price is based on crude protein and total digestible nutrients (TDN), you ensure you’re getting the best deal,” Drewnoski said. “Frankly, this is one area where people waste a lot of money.”
Of course, grazing stalks is still one of the best ways to reduce winter feed costs. For spring-calving cows, mid-gestation comes when corn stalks are usually available.
Research shows that cows supplemented when grazing corn stalks and cows that weren’t supplemented performed equally for calving performance and rebreeding.
“They may need supplemental vitamins and minerals, but they can get all the protein and TDN they need,” Drewnoski said.
When cows graze, they selectively eat leaves and husks, the best parts of corn residue. Baled stalks don’t give them that choice.
Generally, the higher the yield, the more carrying capacity of stalks. “Two-hundred-bushel corn will provide twice as much grazing as 100-bushel corn,” Drewnoski said. “When husks are gone from a corn stalks, it’s time to move, because cows don’t like and won’t cobs.
“We often find that confined cows need less feed than we calculated,” Drewnoski said. “We suspect that their inactivity in confinement further reduces their energy needs, and we fail to take that into account.”
Protein and TDN can be increased in baled corn stalks by ammoniating it with anhydrous ammonia. Crude protein can be bumped up to 9 percent and TDN to 55 percent.
“It costs about $25 per ton to ammoniate corn stalk bales and cows seem like ammoniated bales,” Drewnoski said.
Distiller’s grains are economical feed for beef cows in the winter months. It is a low-cost source of both energy and protein. In fact, it is often lower cost per pound of energy than even baled corn residue.
“A mid-gestation cow could be fed free-choice corn residue and supplemented with distillers’ grains. Right now, low-quality corn residue bales are about $60 per ton and modified distillers’ is around $75 per ton.
So free choice, the cow would eat 24 pounds dry matter of residue but would need 1.8 pounds of distillers’ grains to meet her energy/protein requirement. That would be at a total feed cost of 86 cents per day.
Limit feeding eight pounds residue and 7.5 pounds of distillers’ grains would also meet the cow’s needs, at a cost of 80 cents per day.
“The difference of 6 cents does not sound like much but it adds up. For 100 cows that is $6 per day for a 90-day feeding period. That’s $540 for the herd. This impact is even greater if you look at more expensive hays,” Drewnoski concluded.
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