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April 6, 2006 Feeding Cattle May Be Alternative to Grazing Cattle producers having trouble finding pasture should consider dry-lot feeding, North Dakota State University Extension Service livestock specialist Karl Hoppe says. Producers report that being able to rent enough pasture is growing increasingly difficult. The amount of available pasture is shrinking because some landowners have sold the land producers had been renting. Plus, higher cattle prices and improved grazing conditions have prompted producers to expand their cattle operation, which means they’ve had to rent more pasture. Also, the recent wet weather has turned parts of some pastures into sloughs, making them unusable. North Dakota has about 12 million acres of pasture land, the National Agricultural Statistics Service shows. That’s about 28 percent of the state’s agricultural land. Although providing cattle with feed normally is more expensive than letting them graze in a pasture, the lack of pasture or the high cost of renting it may make feeding an affordable alternative, according to Hoppe, livestock specialist at the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center. “Producers need to do the math,” he says. The average cost of grazing a cow-calf pair in North Dakota is about 60 cents a day, says Tim Petry, NDSU Extension Service livestock economist. In comparison, dry-lot feeding costs about $1.20 per day. One benefit of feeding is it provides better nutrition than grazing, Hoppe says. That’s because some producers have a habit of overgrazing, he adds. Feeding cattle also is a viable alternative because producers soon will have a readily available supply of distillers grain to include in the feed ration, he says. Research at the Carrington Research Extension Center indicates distillers grain is a good protein supplement in barley-based growing and finishing diets for beef cattle. Distillers grain is a byproduct of turning corn and other grains into ethanol. North Dakota has two ethanol plants and soon could have three more. Cattle producers have some ways to cut feeding costs. One is weaning calves early. “Why feed the cow to feed the calf?” Hoppe says. “Feed the calf directly.” More pasture land will be available in a year or two, when it comes out of the Conservation Reserve Program, but producers need to find a way to feed their cattle until then, he says. Visit the Carrington Research Extension Center Web site at www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/carringt/livestock_research_program.htm or contact the center at (701) 652-2951 for more information about dry-lot feeding. “We’ve been doing it here for decades,” Hoppe says. “Our cattle never see grass.” ### Source:
Karl Hoppe, (701) 652-2951, khoppe@ndsuext.nodak.edu |
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North Dakota State University |
