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March 2011 Articles

Louisiana Cattle Market Update
Linclon Parish fifth-graders learn about water, aquifer
Will the Internet kill magazines?
AfBF: Passage of Tax Legislation Most Pressing Issue
It's time to plant cool-season bedding plants
Try non-chemical, enviromentally friendlly weed control
NCBA: Vilsack Ignores Bipartisan Attempts to Help Cattle Industry
A Plan for Feeding Cattle From Now Until Spring
Giving Thanks by Giving
Farm Bureau Asks Sentate to Oppose Federal Water Control Bill
E15 for 2007 and Newer Vehicles Benefits America
LDAF crews continue to handle wildfires, dry conditions
Winter is best time to select and plants trees
LSU AgCenter produces first broilers in new houses
First Caddo Parish cotton bale auctioned
• What to do when Hayis Short
The Nirtogen value of Clover
Just Rambling March 2011

(18 articles found)

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What to do when Hayis Short

What to Do When Hay Is Short: Stretching Hay in Times of Drought Paul Beck, Ph.D., PAS, Associate Professor, UofA Recently, parts of Arkansas have undergone a severe summer drought. Summer droughts are not something that would normally be considered unusual, but with temperatures topping over 100 for weeks on end and very limited rainfall from June through August, this year's drought was especially severe. Hay for winter feeding is in short supply and, in some cases, is already being fed to livestock on short pastures. This is coupled with the fact we are coming out of a cold, wet winter with many producers having very little hay carried over from last year. In talking to area producers, there have been several whole herd liquidations in the area because of the hay shortage. This is a possible, although extreme, solution to the problem of "how to feed these cows through the winter," but producers who have put a lifetime of selection and management into building a cowherd may never be able to rebuild their herd to former production levels. So, how can you make it through the winter with an intact cowherd with only a fraction of your normal hay resources? Selling older and less productive cows is the obvious first step in reducing the amount of feed resources needed to carry the cowherd through the winter. Open cows and cows that don't have many more productive years ahead of them will reduce feed requirements without limiting the future productivity of the herd. In fall-calving cowherds, early weaning calves will decrease forage intake, because not only will calves likely be sold at auction, but also because cows carrying a calf consume 10% more forage than dry cows, and their nutrient requirements are lower, reducing cost of supplementation. In order to stretch forage resources, first your ideas about supplementation may have to change. When you have limited forage resources, self-limited liquid or tub-type supplements should not be fed. The mode of action of these supplements is to supply additional protein and energy to the rumen, increasing digestibility and passage rate of hay and other low-quality forages. The increased digestibility and speed of clearance through the rumen increases intake of forages…this is exactly the opposite of what you are likely to want if you don't have enough hay to make it through the winter as it is. In addition, these supplements are not as effective when crude protein of your hay is greater than 8% (which most of our hay in Arkansas is!), and drought-stricken pastures and hay fields are actually usually higher in quality than hay and pasture grown in "normal" conditions. In order to stretch hay resources through supplementation, you will need to feed higher levels of supplement to replace or substitute for hay. Supplementation levels over 0.5% of body weight (6 pounds for a 1,200-pound cow) will replace 12% of a cow's daily hay intake, down to 21 pounds from 24 pounds per day normally, about 1/2 pound reduced hay intake per pound of supplemental feed. As you increase the supplementation rate to 1% of body weight (12 pounds/cow/day), the replacement of feed for hay increases to about a 2⁄3-pound decrease in hay intake per pound of supplement. Additionally, if these high supplement levels are being fed, hay could also be limited to about one-third of normal intake, because the supplements are meeting a substantial portion of the cow's nutrient requirements. Twelve pounds of supplement is a lot of feed, and care should be taken to limit the amount of grain being fed to beef cows as a supplement because of digestive upsets that can occur. Digestible fiber byproduct feeds such as corn gluten feed, soybean hulls and distillers grains can be fed in place of grains and are substantially safer because of their low starch content. If a producer wants to feed these high supplement levels but does not feel comfortable limiting hay access to the cowherd, a cheap, low-quality feed like rice mill feed can be included as a portion of the supplement to serve as a "bulk limiter," stretching the feed resources while not adding additional nutrients to the supplement. An even more management intensive option is to limit feed high-concentrate mixed diets to cows, completely deleting hay from the winter feeding equation. Feeding these feedlot-type diets must be exactly in the right mixture, exactly at the right time and exactly in the right amount, but cows can be maintained on 40% of full feed intake with gains in body weight and body condition score. Small grains and ryegrass are an excellent source of pasture for times when our permanent warm- season forage base is dormant. Producers generally only utilize this resource during the spring flush of growth from these grasses from March through April. With the cool temperatures and recent rainfall, small grains (rye, wheat and oats) and ryegrass can easily be planted into the drought- shortened pastures. If these pastures are adequately fertilized during the fall and they are allowed to grow to 6 inches in height before grazing, these pastures can be used this winter to provide supplemental pasture for the cowherd. At the Southwest Research and Extension Center near Hope, small grains and ryegrass were grazed 3 days per week for 8 hours a day through the winter and spring. Hay intake by cows was reduced by 25% over the winter. It only takes about 8 pounds of wheat forage dry matter to match the nutrient requirements of a cow fed 17 pounds of hay a day (30% reduction in hay feeding rate). When the small grains and ryegrass start rapid growth in March and April, hay feeding can be discontinued completely if adequate acreage was planted in the fall. There are many options available to producers who find themselves with less than optimal hay stored for the winter. To find an option that best fits your situation, contact your local Cooperative Extension agent.

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