The seasonal effect or the nutritional effect? We often hear producers say it’s been a good season when their cattle look good and their breeding rates are up. On the flip side, when it’s been a hard season and cattle are looking a little lighter on than usual, and breeding rates are lower than you’d like, it's easy to blame the tough season. This is where strategic supplementation of breeding cows and heifers can really make a difference and eliminate the ‘seasonal effect’.
Maintaining body condition score and helping heifers to achieve target mating weights throughout the year, and consistently every season, will improve conception rates, given there are no other reasons for low conception rates(e.g. the herd and bulls are pest-free and otherwise healthy). Heifers will typically start to cycle once they reach a certain weight, not once they reach a certain height or size, so ensuring your heifers are well fed in the lead up to mating and you’re targeting a breed-appropriate mating weight is essential.
What do we mean by strategic supplementation? Ensuring you are providing the additional energy and protein, without allowing the cattle to ‘pig out’ and put on extra body fat. Often, only a few kilos of an additional supplement are required, and only during times of the year when pasture availability is low or of poor quality. Hand feeding cattle each day can become labour intensive, so here are some options that we have seen in the paddock that are working well for farmers. They assume that the cattle on these pellets have access to dry pastures and fresh water.
Trail Feeding – Using a “sheep” trail feeder, it is possible to feed cattle a few kilos per day, but only feed them about 3 times a week. A 9mm pellet such as Milne Feeds EasyBeef® or Vitalize® (which has a higher energy content) can be safely fed on firm ground, or on dry pasture, and is great to use in this situation.
Lick (Restricted) Feeding – a low labour system. These types of feeders can be filled up and placed in the paddock to allow cattle to come and go as they please. They often feature a type of grate or plate over the feeding area that can be adjusted to vary how much the cattle can eat. Lick feeders are best used with a smaller 4mm pellet. Milne Feeds Vitalize® comes in a 4mm pellet and is ideal for this purpose. It is often recommended that these feeders be placed about 300m from a water source, to encourage cattle to leave the feeder for a drink. Providing sufficient access to the feeder for the herd size is important when using these restricted feeders. There are a number of commercially available lick feeders on the market to suit various herd sizes.
Self-feeder bins – It is much harder to control intake using self-feeder bins, as they allow ad lib access for cattle to feed, without making them ‘work’ for it. We have seen producers modify self-feeder bins, to turn them into restricted feeder bins.
Weld mesh that is 50x75mm in size, located about 150mm from the bottom of the trough in a conventional self-feeder has been used to restrict intake of a 4mm pellet. The idea is that the cattle need to place their tongue through the narrow gap in the mesh, to then be able to get a few pellets to “stick” to the end of their tongue. It takes a decent amount of effort to get a kilo or so of pellets, by which time the cattle are in need of a drink. The feeders below were used to restrict 250kg LW heifers to an average intake of 1.7 kgs/day over a 30 day period.
The feeder to the above has been designed so that the mesh can swing up, so the feeder can be used for both restricted and self feeding.
Making feeders ‘mobile’ – allowing you to fill them up and move them into a paddock only when needed. This might look like a mob of dry cows that need some extra condition prior to calving, that are in a paddock with low or poor quality pasture, having access to the feeders for a certain period of time, or until they are moved into the next paddock that has better quality pasture.
Supplementary feeding with a balanced and safe pellet, such as Milne Feeds EasyBeef® and Vitalize®, in a strategic way, will help maintain body condition of breeding cows at crucial times of the year, as well as helping heifers to achieve target mating weights, resulting in high conception rates year after year, and more calves on the ground for sale when the season is tight.
For further information on any of our products, or to find out which feeding solution is right for your herd, get in touch with our Beef Sales Manager, Jonathan Langan on 0407 766 444.
