Cottonseed byproducts can be very helpful in formulating rations for cow-calf operations trying to improve pregnancy rates or to supplement pasture, says Buck Chastain of BC Consulting.

“One nice thing about cottonseed is the 2-to-1 (or about 1.8-to-1) calcium (Ca)-to-phosphorus (P) ratio,” he says. “If you are using distillers’ as a supplement, it is deficient in calcium and has more phosphorus than you need.”

A few years ago, says Chastain, a reproductive physiologist tried to flush cows with corn. It provided the necessary energy, but the cows were deficient in calcium and had poor conception rates. Calcium and copper (Cu) stimulate the hypothalamus to stimulate the pituitary for luteinizing hormone (LH) release. The cows being flushed were fed 5 to 10 pounds (lb.) of corn and went through two shots of hormone in a synchronization program, and didn’t come into heat.

A cow can only mobilize a certain amount of calcium from her bones when she is deficient, Chastain explains. One of the problems with some of the byproduct protein sources is they are deficient in calcium, and the rancher doesn’t have a way to add calcium back into the diet. If you try to put it in a free-choice mineral, it would have to be at least five to six times as much calcium as phosphorus, and the cows won’t eat it.

“That’s where a cake or 2 pounds of whole cottonseed in a cow-calf TMR (total mixed ration) lactation diet can help,” he says. “It can be fed in a tub, pressed into a cube or cake, or fed as a commodity mixed into a TMR. Some people just roll out hay and top-dress a couple pounds of cottonseed per head on top of the hay.”

Many things in the beef industry in earlier days were accomplished by trial and error, but people didn’t understand why they worked. Once ranchers found something that worked, however, like feeding cottonseed, they kept doing it.

“On the cow-calf side, it’s one of the greatest feeds, and I also use a lot of gin trash cotton byproducts in rations because it really helps dry up the diets.” — Buck Chastain

“On the cow-calf side, it’s one of the greatest feeds, and I also use a lot of gin trash cotton byproducts in rations because it really helps dry up the diets,” says Chastain. “Gin trash is also very high in calcium and low in phosphorus, so if someone is feeding corn gluten or distillers’, it balances that out. Instead of the animal shooting out liquid manure, it’s more normal, solid manure.”

On lush, green grass, cow manure is generally too loose. That kind of grass is high in protein and has a lot of soluble nitrogen and potassium, and there is nothing to slow down the gut, Chastain says. “You don’t need more soluble protein; they have enough of that already. Cottonseed works really well as a supplement on lush green pastures because it has a lot of bypass protein, and the hulls provide fiber to slow it down.”

Anyone interested in seeing how whole cottonseed and cotton byproducts could work in beef cattle rations should talk with their nutritionist, determine the goals for their cow-calf herd or stocker operation and start balancing rations with these benefits in mind.