NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

November 9, 2000

Plan Calf Feeding To Boost Profits

With calves coming off pasture and into feedyards across the region, planning a marketing strategy and feeding accordingly could be crucial to your bottom line,says a North Dakota State University beef specialist.

"You can use certain diets to achieve different levels of average daily gain depending on why you are backgrounding calves," says Karl Hoppe of the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center. The condition of calves going into the backgrounding feedyard may influence that decision too.

• High grain diet. With a diet of 60 to 70 percent grain, calves may gain 3 pounds a day or more. "If you’re weaning 700-pound calves and you want them to gain 500 pounds and sell them at the seasonal market high in March, this might be an option to consider," Hoppe says. A risk of the diet is acidosis, or digestive upset. Another concern is too much weight gain. Fleshy calves, those with too much weight compared to frame size, will be discounted if sold to a feeder.
• High forage diet. With grain as only 20 to 30 percent of the diet, calves will increase their frame size and maintain their health, but little else. About a pound of gain per day can be expected. "This may be your diet if you have lightweight calves and you want to get them through the winter as economically as possible so they can take advantage of lush spring grass growth," Hoppe says.
• Equal mix of forage and grain. This diet will support growth of about 2 pounds per day. "If you want to put some added weight on calves before they go to the feedlot with little risk of acidosis or bloat, this is a nice diet," Hoppe says. By mixing low-quality forages with good grain or high-quality forages with poor-quality grain, producers are often able to make the most of available feeds. A total mixed ration is best to keep cattle on a consistent diet.

"No matter what diet you use, making sure it’s balanced and mixed in the right proportions is essential," Hoppe says. Performance of cattle on backgrounding diets is limited most often by the energy content of the feed then by the protein. Producers also need to make sure requirements for calcium, phosphorus and other minerals and vitamins are met.

Two NDSU Extension publications provide additional information on management and feeding during backgrounding: AS1152, "Nutritional Guidelines for Backgrounding Calves," and AS 1158, "Feeding Management for Backgrounders." The publications can be obtained from NDSU Extension county offices or on the Web at http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extpubs/beef.htm.

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Source: Karl Hoppe, (701) 652-2951
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629

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