Do a budget for feed management

01-05-2010 | Not Specified

A written feed budget of some sort will help to clarify what measures need to be taken.

Feed budgeting does not have to be complex or involve a computer. Calculating in terms of ME and DM is helpful, especially when comparing supplements and estimating changing requirements as pregnancy advances, but ME/DM terms are not widely used (or practical) for extensively run beef cows.

The feed demand of a pregnant cow increases significantly in the last trimester of pregnancy, this is at the end of winter when feed supply is at its lowest. Provisions for this period need to be made early. In basic terms you need to know:

• How fat/skinny are the cows now. Look hard at how many light cows there are and make a realistic feed plan for them, or quit them.

• What have they got to eat over the winter? The simplest way to "visualise" supplementary feed requirements is by using small hay bale equivalents. For example, maintenance for a beef cow is about 7kgDM/day (one-third of a small bale), for cow in late pregnancy this increases to half a bale of hay each day. If you've made the decision to retain capital stock start sourcing supplement feed now. It is unlikely to get any cheaper.

Feed budgets are more useful if they are simple, practical and constantly reviewed. They can quickly lose relevance when conditions change. Good objective advice will help.

Growing stock, replacement heifers and hoggets cannot be compromised nutritionally for long periods.

Decisions such as grazing away, starting on supplements, not breeding, selling store etcetera need to be made as early in the pinch as possible for the long-term future of the breeding unit.

There is no right or wrong decision in these adverse times; the real wrong thing is NOT making a decision. In extreme situations more extreme management decisions need to be made.

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