Finding a veterinarian and nutritionist to develop a cow and calf health protocol and nutrition program that fits your local challenges and needs can have a big impact on this success. A good nutrition plan in the form of a solid grazing plan or a complete TMR ration on cattle in confinement is essential for making sure you maximize return on investment when using vaccines, parasite control, and implants.

Stocker operators often feed supplemental energy to calves on forage-based diets to increase gain, stocking rate, or both. Historically, the standard energy supplement has been grainbased, in conjunction with a protein source to optimize ruminal fermentation. However, our team often recommends hand-feeding a blend of mostly by product ingredients, including beet pulp, soybean hulls, wheat middlings, etc. While the calculated, or “book,” energy values (TDN = 69-74%) of these byproducts are significantly lower than that of corn (TDN = 89.5%), several experiments have concluded that their actual nutritive value, when supplementing a forage-based diet, is equal to corn

There is a trend in the pre-feedlot cattle industry to want to control costs through sourcing raw ingredients and mixing feed on a ranch. While this can help to reduce costs, there are many labor, time, and equipment cost considerations. Many customers choose to utilize their roughage source combined with a premix to balance these factors. Below are some things to consider about switching to a premix.

As trusted advisors for our customers, we get asked every day about a lot more than nutrition. Customers often want to understand the success factors we see across the thousands of commercial cattle producers we serve. Whether it’s management practices, health programs, or nutrition, the end goal is to understand which choices will give the producer the best return.

As we approach the end of a summer season with relatively (historically, in some areas) dry conditions across much of our serviceable area, we have been receiving more calls than normal about supplemental feed for the cow herd. As always, our answer to the basic question, “What and how much should I be feeding my cows?” is straightforward – it depends.

The majority of purchased calves for stocker and backgrounding operations are lightweight and bring inherent, significant health risks, especially for Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD.) It is critical for the operation to have a comprehensive management, nutrition, and health plan in place to mitigate these risks to avoid losses and optimize performance

It’s a question we are asked regularly: “How much should I be feeding my cows?” It is a valid question with meaningful tradeoffs – on one hand, we want to minimize the largest variable cost in a cow-calf business, while on the other, we yearn for maximum reproductive efficiency. The truth is: finding yourself on either side of this delicate balance can have profound impacts on financial performance. Our goal for this article is to describe our approach in building optimal supplementation strategies for commercial cow herds.

Forage quality of native range in Oklahoma and the Southern Great Plains declines during the mid to
late summer. Research conducted by Dagan Montgomery, a graduate student in the OSU Department of
Animal and Food Sciences shows the dramatic decline in the protein and digestibility of native range as
the summer progresses

Forage quality of native range in Oklahoma and the Southern Great Plains declines during the mid to
late summer. Research conducted by Dagan Montgomery, a graduate student in the OSU Department of
Animal and Food Sciences shows the dramatic decline in the protein and digestibility of native range as
the summer progresses