Practices in the Feeding of Beef and Dual-Purpose

PRACTICES IN THE FEEDING OF BEEF AND DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE by W. H. Black i IN A liUUNiKTa& varied a^ the United States, feeding practices with heef cattle differ considerahly in different areas. The author of this article discusses his subject with these differences in mind. Some of the newer experiments and methods, including the creep feeding of calves, are described from the standpoint of their practical value or lack of value. A table at the end of the article gives suggested average rations, in terms of the common feeds, for various classes of cattle. BEEF CATTLE PRACTICES used in the feeding of beef cattle depend to a large extent on the relative availability of suitable grasses and grain. Where grass is the principal asset, as in the range country, and where grain or other concentrates are rather limited, the practices employed will or should be based on the maximum use of grass supplemented in some instances with hay, grain, highly concentrated feeds, or combinations of these. This will apply to essentially all methods or phases of beef-cattle feeding, including wintering, summer grazing, and fattening. Therefore, where grass is the primary feed and concentrates are limited, the feeding practices are likely to be associated with the wintering and summer grazing of breeding herds and steers of various ages for feeder production rather than with the production of finished beef. In such areas as the Corn Belt, where fattening feeds are usually abundant and where pastures are somewhat limited, the extensive use of grain for steer fattening, and to a lesser extent for breeding herds, is the common feeding practice. But whether it be in the range country of the West, the fattening areas of the Middle West, or otlier beef-production areas, the feeding practices to use will hinge on the place filled by grass in the ratioTi. In the broad sense, it is either grass or grain with the beef cattleman. There are, of course, many modi- ! W, H. Black, Senior Animal Husbandman, is in charge of the Office of Beef and Diial-Purpose Cattle Investigations. Animal Husbandry T)ivi?ion, Bureau of Animal industry. Acknowledgment is made hv the author for the valuable assistance in the preparation of the dual-purposo material of A. C. Cook, Associate Animal nusbandman. Animal Husbandry Division, in charge of records on beef and dual-purpose cattle. Agricultural Research Center. Reltsville, Md. 544 FEEDING OF BEEF CATTLE 545 fications of these two practices within and between the various beef- prodnction areas, and these will be discussed under wintering, summer grazing, and fattening. WINTERING BEEF CATTLE Wintering beef cattle is an economic as well as a nutritional problem. The objective is to meet the minimum requirements of the animals for existence without impairment of function with feeds that are available and cheap and can be easily transported. Slightly different feeding- practices are followed with breeding herds, bulls, and steers. Breeding Herds The breeding herd, generally speaking, is wintered in the feed lot. The tendency to reserve range or pastures for winter grazing is rapidly increasing, however. In the range country of the Southwest and in the Southern States, particularly along the Gulf coast, thousands of cattle have always had to depend upon range the year round; as a result death losses are usually qidte heavy, and while the majority come through, the ill effects of undernutrition are usually clearly revealed in their poor condition and small size. To remedy this situation is a big problem in many localities, such as the cut-over pinelands, where it is difficult to improve the range by the introduction of better grasses or to grow supplementary feed, especially during the winter months. Perhaps the most practical way to improve the methods of wintering beef cattle under these conditions is to feed a supplement of concentrates. Cottonseed cake has been used rather extensively throughout the Great Plains region as a supplement to winter range. At the United States Range Livestock Experiment Station, Miles City, Mont., experiments during 1929-34 (113)^ showed that in 3 years out of 5 it was possible to keep the breeding cows on the range all winter. One group of the cows kept on the range throughout the winter received no supplemental feed, while the other received cottonseed cake in an amount averaging 91 pounds per head for the total average winter period of 156 days. Cows fed cake made a winter gain of 23 pounds per head, whereas those on range alone lost about 11 pounds. At the end of the following grazing season, however, there was a difference in yearly loss per cow of only 13 pounds, those fed cake during the winter losing 19 pounds as compared to 32 pounds for those wintered on the range without supplement. The loss in weight during the summer grazing seasons for the supplement-fed cows was 42 pounds, twice that of those carried on range alone. Calves from cows fed cottonseed cake were about 2 pounds heavier at birth and 13.6 pounds heavier at weaning time. The winter feed cost for the cottonseed-cake fed cows was $2.02 greater per cow, and the cost per 100 pounds of calf produced was $0.60 more than in the herd receiving no supplement. These results indicate that the use of cottonseed cake should be limited to seasons in which winter range conditions are severe. The experiments also showed that 1 pound of cake replaces approximately 10 pounds of hay fed in the feed lot. It should be taken into consideration that the range used in these '^ Italic numbers in parentheses refer to Literature Ci tod, p. 1076. 1 41304°—.'^9 36 546 YEARBOOK OF AGRICULTURE, 1939 experiments was typical of the northern Great Plains region, consisting largely of western wheatgrass, blue grama, and buffalo grass. Grazing was therefore somewhat better than that fomid in the southern part of the Great Plains and decidedly superior to that on native range in the Southeastern States. Progressive cattlemen have found, however, that from 1 to 2 pounds of cottonseed cake a head daily or its equi- valent in grain or hay will usually carry breeding cows or growing stock 1 year old or older through the winter if they have access to reasonably good range for the area and if the season is normal. Other highly concentrated feeds will undoubtedly come into promi- nence for use in wintering beef cattle on the range. Up to the present time, the supplements for the most part have been protein-rich feeds such as cottonseed and linseed cake, but there is now a growing opinion that energy (carbohydrates and fats) is equally as important as a range su])plement as protein—admitting that the protein-rich concentrates supply some energy. In view of this, some feed manufacturers are already putting on the market feeds in cube or pellet form which supply both protein and energy. Such feeds as beet pulp, alfalfa, molasses, and protein-rich meals are being used in the manufacture of these newer types of feeds. Whether cattle using winter range, which is usually deficient in nutrients at best, require additional protein only, energy only, or a balanced supplement, will have to be determined by carefully con- trolled experiments. This problem should be worked out by State experiment stations for specific areas, since what may be found to be true in one area may not be the best for others, owing to diftei'ences in the plant species making up the bulk of the grazing. In areas where winter range cannot be provided, some form of dry roughage (principally hays), or silages supplemented in some instances with grain or protein concentrates, or both hay and silage, may be used for wintering cows. There are few areas where either hay or silage crops cannot be produced. The place of silage made from corn, sweet sorghums (sorgos), and grain sorglmms in the whiter feeding of the breeding herd is well known in the areas Avhere these crops are produced. It may not be amiss to mention that good-cjuality silage from these crops, when supplemented with small quantities of grain and dry roughage, is one of the most economical and otherwise satis- factory feeds for wintering breeding, feeder, and stocker beef cattle. The use and value of good-quality hays foi' wintering beef cattle are likewise known. Suggested hay and silage rations for various classes of beef cattle are given in table 2 (p. 564). In some areas, particularly the South, many forage and hay crops are produced, but owing to the humid climate, it is impossible to cure them as fodder or hay. New processes by which legiones or gi'asses can be ensiled with safety are already beyond the experimental stage. Two methods now being employed in the making of silage from these crops are by the addition of molasses ^ and of acids {8ô4-y 1169)} The use of molasses in the making of silage from legumes and grasses is no 3 WISCONSIN AGEICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, MAKING MOLASSES LEGUME SILAGE. Wis. Agr. Expt. Sta. Spec. Bull., 6 pp., illus. 1936 (rev. 1938^ [IMimeographed.] * VIRTANEN, A. I. THE A. J. V. METHOD OF ENSILAGE. Lecture ... ill Stockholm during Swedish Agriculture Week, March 15, 1932. 28 pp. fïypeMTitten copy in Bur. Anim. Indus., Beef and Dual- Purpose Cattle Investigations.j FEEDING OF BEEF CATTLE 547 longer experimental. The preservation of silage by the use of mineral acids, such as phosphoric, offers possibilities, but so far has not been resorted to as extensively as the preservation by molasses.

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