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Questions and comments may be directed to the BEEF Team or Stan Smith, Editor
Previous issues of the BEEF Cattle letter
Issue # 142
June 23, 1999
PLAN NOW TO MANAGE FORAGE SUPPLIES
It never seems to fail that one extreme follows another. Two years ago much of Ohio was critically short of hay. This year, we carried an abundant inventory into spring from last year's harvest. Now, once again, with the current drought like conditions over much of Ohio (I've had 1/2 inch of rainfall in the last 4 and 1/2 weeks) and no rainfall in sight, we need to be managing what forages we do have with care. Two or three alternatives come to mind immediately.
With wheat harvest upon us, straw is a crop that has historically been thought of as primarily bedding material. However, straw can be a good alternative for wintering rations for cows if properly supplemented with an energy source like corn and added minerals and vitamins. Oat straw is most palatable and nutritious, barley straw is second, and wheat straw has the lowest nutritional value (41% TDN, 3.5% crude protein, 78.9% NDF, 55% ADF).
Straw can be used for up to about 60% of the brood cow ration in combination with other feeds as the major roughage for beef cows. Grinding straw can increase intake 10 to 15%, according to research done a Dickinson Experiment Station. Straw one year old should also be considered a feed source because it is usually slightly more digestible and palatable than fresh straw.
Another alternative to be considered with straw or other low quality forages is ammoniation. This process can economically improve the quality of crop residues and grass hay when forage and/or protein supplements get scarce. Ammoniated forages are best utilized as maintenance during mid-gestation for brood cows, or in a 'roughing through' diet for stocker cattle. Feeding ammoniated forages to thin cows that need weight gain is discouraged. It is especially important that ammoniated forages are supplemented with appropriate vitamins and minerals for the class of cattle being fed.
A number of advantages can be gained by ammoniating poor quality forages. TDN is increased by up to 15% because ammoniation breaks the lignin-cellulose bonds in plant fibers, allowing better microbial activity. The forage also becomes more palatable, increasing intake by up to 25%. Crude Protein is increased 4 to 8%. Also, ammonia acts as a preservative for forages because it kills molds and fungus and prevents heating.
Treatment rate for anhydrous ammonia is 3% of the dry matter weight of the forage to be treated (60 pounds of anhydrous ammonia per ton of dry matter). For treatment, bales should be grouped and stacked on a level site where the wind will not become a problem, since the forage must be covered securely with plastic during the process. Depending on the individual bale size, a 40 foot by 100 foot sheet of plastic may cover a five bale pyramid that is up to 15 bales long, allowing for the ammoniation of up to 75 bales at a time. In an effort to evenly distribute the ammonia, the bales can be stacked around a simple network of plastic drain tile through which the anhydrous can flow and the liquid can lie until it all vaporizes. After the bales are stacked and covered with 6 or 8 mil black or UV resistant clear plastic, the edges of the plastic must be covered securely with soil or gravel to provide a seal. The anhydrous hose can be fed under the plastic into the tile system and dispersed at a rate of about 500 pounds of ammonia per hour. An alternative to pyramiding and covering a stack of bales may be 'tubing' or individually plastic rapping the bales for ammoniation.
After treatment, the forage should remain covered for up to 45 days depending on the temperature (the colder the weather, the more time that is required). Even after the process is complete, weathering of the forage will be prevented if it remains covered. When the stack is uncovered, care should be taken that the forage is aerated for 3 to 7 days before feeding. When having treated forage analyzed for protein content, label the sample 'ammonia treated' in order that it is correctly evaluated.
Cost to ammoniate low quality forages would be less than $15 per ton (anhydrous + plastic + tile tubing, with no cost calculated for labor). The advantages of increased crude protein, palatability and digestibility can easily yield more than $15 per ton when applied to wheat straw, baled corn stalks, or poor quality grass hay. If ammoniation is an alternative for consideration, an inventory of available forages should be taken now with the idea that high quality forages need to be saved for feeding during the final 1/3 of gestation or to cows in poor body condition.
Another action that can be taken now that will save forage is to wean the calves and feed them
relatively cheap corn. Feed conversions of weaned calves is double (or better) the feed
conversion of creep fed calves. And, dry gestating cows only require 60% as much feed intake as
lactating cows. Next week, we'll at more reasons why you might not want to wait 205 days to
wean.
THE CATTLE BUSINESS: Livestock Update - Bill R. McKinnon, Ext. Animal Scientist, Marketing, Virginia Tech
Increasingly the cow/calf sector is going to see the economic signals to market calves more prepared for the feedlot. One of the most devastating routines impacting cattle health and profitability that the industry practices is the sudden weaning of a 500 to 700 pound calf and immediate shipment to a distant feedlot. The stress of weaning, learning to eat new feeds, distant shipment, the introduction into a new group of cattle, etc. certainly contributes to the costs of bovine respiratory disease or "shipping fever". Whether studying the results of the Texas Ranch to Rail or the VA R.O.P. feedout programs, it costs the cattle feeder $50 to $75 for every steer or heifer that goes to the hospital pen. If a calf get sick in the feedlot, medical costs and costs of gain go up while average daily gain and carcass performance goes down.
The industry will increasingly be sent the signal for calves to be backgrounded for at least 30 days by the cow/calf operator, a commercial backgrounder, or by a custom backgrounding operation. A backgrounding period helps the calf make the adjustment from "Mom" and grass to more dry feed in the diet without the additional stress of the long haul and the introduction into a group of strange cattle. The backgrounding phase also offers the opportunity to protect the cattle against respiratory disease by incorporating an effective vaccination program. Many of the state's small part time herds do not routinely have the feed, time, facilities, or management resources to background their own calves. The possibility of several neighbors working together to background their calves seems to be an option for many Virginians.
Many cow/calf operators say that they must be convinced that the buyers will pay for the cost of backgrounding before they would consider weaning their calves. Asking for a guarantee that buyers will pay more for a set of backgrounded calves is unrealistic. How many cow/calf operators would pay a purebred breeder $2000 for a bull when other bull buyers are only willing to pay $1700? How many commercial bull buyers after buying a bargain bull at an auction then go up to the seller and pay him another $200 because the bull is worth it? A backgrounding program that must have a premium price for the finished product probably utilizes feeds that are too expensive or puts on too little gain. A set of backgrounded cattle with excellent health and growth performance history in the feedlot will bring repeat business.
Some producers have heard from their neighbors that it will take 30 days just to regain the weight lost during the weaning process. That is probably true if those calves are only fed some of that late June or 4th of July fescue hay or maybe only a pound of added grain. Most calves are probably growing at 1.5 to 2.25 pounds per day on their mothers. It makes sense that lowering those calves nutritional plane will result in poor growth performance. There must be sufficient weight gain on the calves to provide added pounds to make short term backgrounding programs pay. From an economic standpoint, a 30 day post weaning period is typically not long enough to produce the added pounds to offset backgrounding costs. A slightly longer period of six weeks or 45 to 90 days tends to start providing enough gain to produce profits without requiring the major amounts of feed consumed by tradition winter-long programs.
During the fall of 1997 and 1998, short term backgrounding trials were conducted at the Shenandoah Valley Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Steeles Tavern to mimic on-farm conditions faced by many of Virginia's cow/calf producers. During both years, steer calves were weaned the last week of October and kept an additional 42 days and placed on three different treatments. Steer calves in Treatment 1 were put in a barn lot and fed moderate quality hay free choice and approximately 1% of their body weight of a grain supplement daily. Treatment 2 placed the steers on a mostly fescue aftermath pasture with the daily addition of 1% of body weight of the same grain mix fed to Treatment 1. Steers in Treatment 3 were grazed on the same type of pasture utilized by Treatment 2. The steers were weighed at weaning and at 21 days and 42 days later. At weaning, the steers were implanted and dewormed and had received a typical preweaning vaccination program several weeks before weaning. The steers were basically Angus and black baldie calves with 40% of the calves being Charolais sired in the 1998 trial.
The grain supplement was designed to be simple and cost effective and was comprised of 83.6% ground shelled corn, 10.4% soybean meal, 5% molasses, and 1% ground limestone. The average cost of the grain mix was $162 over the two years. The average crude protein of the mix on a dry matter basis was 13.7%. The mixed second cutting hay fed had an average crude protein level of 13.5% on a dry matter basis.
Table 1. Shenandoah Valley AREC Short Term Background Trials, 1997 and 1998 Averages
| Treat. 1: Hay+Grain | Treat. 2: Past.+Grain | Treat. 3: Pasture | |
| Start Weight | 532 | 537 | 539 |
| Ending Weight | 621 | 636 | 614 |
| 42 day gain | 89 | 99 | 75 |
| Average Daily Gain | 2.12 | 2.36 | 1.79 |
| Grain consumed/Hd. | 186 | 186 | 0 |
| Ave. daily gain intake | 4.43 | - | - |
| Hay consumed/Hd. | 387 | 0 | 0 |
| Total feed cost/Hd. (1) | $26.68 | $22.21 | $9.52 |
| Total cost of gain/Hd. (2) | $43.23 | $38.81 | $20.96 |
| Total cost of gain/Cwt. | $48.58 | $39.20 | $27.95 |
| Initial cattle value/Cwt. (3) | $81.00 | $81.00 | $81.00 |
| Cattle sale price/Cwt. (4) | $76.75 | $76.25 | $77.00 |
| Net income | $2.47 | $11.17 | $15.23 |
(1) Hay @$60/ton, pasture @$.17/hd./day, grain supplement @$162/ton
(2) Includes 10% interest on cattle value, labor @$8/hr., vet costs @$6/hd.
(3) Opportunity sale value, 2 year average, late October, VCA sponsored sales
(4) December sale price, 2 year average, VCA sponsored sales
EDITOR'S NOTE: Ohio Buckeye's Best is one program cattlemen may consider for addressing
many of the concerns mentioned in this article regarding the impact that sudden weaning and
immediate shipment can have on feeder cattle. Contact OCA (614.873.6736) or your local OSU
Extension office for details.
Last Friday's Cattle on Feed report was not very encouraging to the beef complex. We get a Hogs and Pigs report this Friday on June 25, and it is going to be an even more important report in determining longer-term prices for beef and pork. The Cattle on Feed report showed placements above expectations, marketings below expectations, and the on-feed count above expectations. Monday's market showed the repercussions of this with the nearby June live cattle futures trading down. Tuesday's session is showing prices trying to hold. A key here is the fact that boxed beef values are still holding in the $117-$118 area, at a six-year high. Volume is not very big at those price levels, however, and I think a lot of analysts expect to see last week's $67 cattle market be the top for the near term. This week, very little trade has occurred with bids $65 and lower and asking prices $67 and higher. Limited trade in some parts of the cattle feeding area has been as much $1-$1.50 below last week's closing levels.
What Monday's reaction gives us on the charts is another point on which to hook a trend line that is a bit flatter than the ones I have talked about in recent weeks and a more reliable indicator. I am showing the August feeder cattle futures again this week, but the live cattle futures in the summer and early fall months look very similar. If we can re-sketch that trend line from the steeper one we used to generate sell signals on Monday's short-term downturn in price, we may have a more substantial indicator longer term. I would definitely look at forward pricing feeder cattle and fed cattle for summer and fall months on rallies back to recent highs or on a close below this new trend line, whichever comes first. I think we are at or near a top in the beef market at least for time being. I expect to see prices trade to somewhat lower levels as we move into the summer months and start to see the output from heavy placements in the first quarter of the calendar year and late in 1998.
There is little new in the grain and oilseed markets. Corn and soybeans have been volatile in late
May and early June as we watched the weather and moved through the planting period. Then, in
June, there were forecasts for possible high-pressure weather patterns in the Midwest and heat
and dry weather, but that concern is clearly diminishing this week. December corn dipped down
to the $2.26 level, very near its late May life-of-contract low at $2.25 3/4. This is an excellent
opportunity for users of corn to place long hedges on the summer contracts, fall contracts, and
indeed well out into the year 2000. We are at or near historic lows and at levels that we probably
would not anticipate much decrease in prices from here. Indeed, I would think producers who
have not lifted short hedges and are comfortable with being a selective hedger should look at
taking profits on contracts in the mid-$2.20s. As we move through June and early July where we
have most of the corn pollinating in about a three-week time period, we are sure to get weather
scares again. They will pop this market back up and give us a chance to place more price
protection if you hold what you have or replace any short hedges that you might take profit on at
these levels.
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BEEF Cattle is a weekly publication of Ohio State University Extension in Fairfield County and the OSU Beef Team. Contributors include members of the Beef Team and other beef cattle specialists and economists from across the U.S.
Fairfield County Agriculture and Natural Resources
