Create Your Herd’s Meal Plan
What will your cattle eat during the next 12 months? It’s time to make your plan.
August 25, 2024
Feed is the most expensive cost input in a cow-calf enterprise, and buying supplemental feed during a shortage can be a herd-ending exercise. Developing a plan for feeding the herd through the coming months into next year and laying in needed supplemental feeds before they are needed can ensure you have what it takes.
Every year is different in terms of how many animals you are feeding, what their requirements are and your forage inventory. Weather conditions affect pasture growth and the hay crop you get, so it pays to have a flexible plan.
David Bohnert, ruminant nutritionist and director of the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center at Oregon State University, says most of his recommendations for nutrition planning can also be used for drought preparedness. The most important thing is to plan for how conditions might change throughout the year.
“Most producers hope for the best, but should prepare for the worst,” he says.
Planning on the front end starts with taking a feed inventory. This includes stockpiled pasture, hay inventory, any other stored feed, etc.
“By September, you should have a good idea about what you have left in the pastures you’ve grazed in terms of standing forage and what you’ll have heading into the winter feeding period,” he says.
If it has been a poor year, Bohnert recommends lining up winter feed supplies early — before hay gets more expensive and/or hard to find.
“In this scenario, chances are you are not the only one looking for hay, so make sure you have your feeding plan figured out,” he emphasizes.
Location affects choices
Their location determines the general recommendations Erin DeHaan suggests for ranchers thinking about what to feed for the next few months.
“On the Northern Plains, it’s best to plan for at least six months of supplemental feed,” says the assistant professor and extension beef specialist for South Dakota State University (SDSU). “It depends on what kind of weather we get through the year and what the winter outlook is.”
It will also depend on body condition of the cows as they go into winter, she says.
“What are your fall grazing options?” DeHaan asks. “Stockpiled grass can help extend the grazing period and minimize the amount of time you’ll need to supplement. If you can graze cover crops or crop residue, this can also help extend the grazing window.”
In some locations you may have adequate grazing for several more weeks or months. However, if it gets snowed under you need a backup plan. As much as we’d like to keep cattle grazing year-round, it’s not possible in some regions.
Dried distillers’ grains, or DDGs, have proven to be a viable alternative feed for many cattlemen. However, SDSU’s Erin DeHaan cautions that you should use caution in feeding DDGs if your water supply is high in sulfates.
Calculate the need
“There are several types of calculators available to walk you through the math regarding how many tons of feed you’ll need,” DeHaan shares. “SDSU Extension has a Forage Inventory and Demand Calculator that puts into perspective how much you will need and what type of cattle you’ll be feeding.”
This Excel-based calculator compares quantity (tons) of forage available and the quantity of forage needed to meet feed requirements on your livestock operation.
Forage inventory is a detailed description of the forage on hand, including bale count and weight, or tonnage for bulk feeds like silage. Livestock inventory by class determines forage needs. The more detailed the livestock inventory, the more accurate the results.
“Are you retaining heifer calves as replacements, feeding yearlings to sell or just focused on the cow herd?” DeHaan asks, noting there are many helpful tools within the calculator.
Know what you have
As you inventory your forages, she recommends testing all of them.
“Then you know what you’ve got (nutrient values) and whether you need to buy additional forages, protein or energy supplements,” she explains. Even if it’s forage you grew on your own place, it may not test the same every year. Nutrient levels can vary depending on growing conditions, harvesting conditions, stage of maturity, etc.
Forage analysis is cheap insurance to know if you have adequate levels of energy, protein and minerals, which is especially important if historically your area has a mineral deficiency like copper (Cu) or selenium (Se). If tests show your feed is shorter than you thought, you can use supplements to make up the difference.
Bohnert says mature cows can usually get by with low-quality [containing 5%-7% crude protein (CP)] grass hay until late gestation, but the younger animals might need higher levels because they are still growing.
Looking at alternatives
Depending on location and infrastructure to handle different feedstuffs, you may have access to alternative feeds like cornstalks, grass-seed straw, beans, etc.
“Most people prefer to feed hay because it’s easy and we’ve all done it,” Bohnert says. “But, sometimes there are things we can substitute — even grain or corn if it’s not as expensive as hay on an energy basis. When looking at alternative feeds, try to price it on an energy basis and be aware of your storage capacity, and infrastructure to be able to feed it.”
If you don’t have bunks or ability to feed it, don’t buy it, he emphasizes.
“It’s also wise to test water sources to see if there are any issues to be concerned about,” DeHaan advises. “If your water is high in sulfates, you need to think about the sulfur (Su) content of supplements you might use, such as dried distillers’ grains or some of the other byproduct feeds.”
Balancing the diet and avoiding problems is doable, she says, but you need to know the starting point regarding the nutrient values of your forages.
Also plan for abnormal situations.
Match the need
“It’s better to have some carryover after winter than to run out before green grass in the spring,” she says. “Having enough resources on hand helps when trying to keep the cow herd in the best condition possible.”
Spring-calving herds are usually at their lowest nutrient requirement going into the fall after calves have been weaned.
“As we enter winter and move toward spring, at the end of gestation and into lactation, their requirements are highest,” she says. It’s crucial to meet those requirements to avoid detrimental effects on the growing fetus and/or the cow’s ability to rebreed again after calving.
By late gestation you should start using your better-quality hay because the cows need to be in good body condition.
“If they are thin at calving, you are behind the eight ball, and it’s hard to put that weight back on after they are lactating,” Bohnert says. “When evaluating feed resources, look at what you need in order to get body condition score around 4.5 to 6 (on a 9-point scale) by the time they calve.”
Adjusting numbers
Spring is crucial in terms of whether we get rain for pastures, especially if cattle will be out on rangeland. Tools like the “U.S. Drought Monitor” published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration can help predict what’s to come in terms of moisture and heat three months out, Bohnert shares.
“We can use tools like this to make more of an educated guess rather than just hoping for enough moisture,” he says. “This can help us plan for the number of animals we turn out on summer pastures.”
Research at the University of Idaho, Oregon State University and New Mexico indicated it is more economical long-term for producers to diversify rather than maintain only a cow-calf enterprise.
“Maybe only 60% to 70% of the AUMs (animal unit months) should be for cow-calf pairs, and the remainder could be young stock,” Bohnert provides as example. “If your operation is set up to deal with normal climate versatility — some years a lot of precipitation, some years light precipitation and some dry years — you will be more successful. All of these things affect forage production, and if we can’t deal with that variability, we are not setting ourselves up for the most success.”
Water base
If you have a lot of grass, but don’t have water, that may be a limiting factor.
“This is why your water infrastructure should be adequate — or be able to haul water, which some people do, to utilize grass in pastures with seasonal or no water,” he says. Hauling water isn’t cheap, but it can be less expensive than buying hay. When cattle are worth a lot, it may be cost-effective to haul water to pastures you might not be able to use otherwise.
On a dry year, or when feed prices are high, if pastures are looking sparse in mid-summer you might consider weaning early or using a supplement to help stretch pasture a little longer. It helps to have several possible strategies.
Some ranchers become creative with cover crops for grazing in the fall and into winter. A mix of plant species in a cover crop can provide a well-balanced diet for cattle. If you do try a cover crop, select species that thrive in your climate, and make sure you have a way to water it if you don’t get adequate rain.
“Grazing cover crops or crop residue (perhaps on a neighbor’s farm if you don’t have farm ground) can be handy in some parts of the country,” says DeHaan.
Master the art
It takes some calculation to determine what your cattle will need for the coming year, and what it will cost. Feeding cattle is an art, as well as a science. Tracking body condition as the cows go through their production stages during the year can keep your operation at its most productive.
When feeding hay, if you have several different kinds, or qualities, save the best quality for young growing stock or for cows during lactation if they calve ahead of when you have green grass, she says. “Feed your poorer- or lower-quality forages first; it lines up better with the cows’ nutrient requirements, and the cows won’t want to eat the poorer-quality forages later if you started feeding the good-quality hay first.”
Instead of trying to do the same thing year after year, such as when you wean the calves, it can be beneficial to be flexible in terms of what the environment is telling you. Many people still like to wean at a certain date, but it should be based on your resources and the animals. It also helps to have cattle that fit your environment.
Editor’s note: Heather Smith Thomas is a freelance writer and cattlewoman from Salmon, Idaho.
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