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Considerations in feeding litter

Considerations in feeding litter
By Shane Gadberry, Associate Professor Department of Animal Science Cooperative Extension Service, Little Rock,Ar
A few factors to consider when feeding litter:
Digestibility. The normal range for litter total digestible nutrients
(TDN) is 44 to 55%. On average, both gestating and lactating cows will need supplemental energy. Corn, soybean hulls, and hominy would be good energy supplements. Distillers grains and corn gluten feed would add a lot of unnecessary nitrogen to the diet. Rice bran, defatted rice bran, and Rice Mill Feed would require a much higher inclusion rate than the other energy feeds to balance the energy deficit in litter.
Milk fever. Milk fever may develop when feeding litter to mature beef cows. Many cattle producers believe adding calcium will help, but this not likely to help. Litter averages 2.9% calcium and 1.6% phosphorus. There is already a good ratio (1.8:1) of calcium and phosphorus. The problem is calcium in litter is 10 times the concentration that is sufficient to meet a beef cow's calcium requirement. Exposure to the very high calcium content, as well as other minerals in high concentration, is likely causing the body to minimize absorption and focus on mineral storage. Near parturition, calcium needs for milk production increase greatly and due to the exposure of high calcium in the diet, a cow's body just isn't prepared to absorb and mobilize stored calcium during this period when fed litter at a high rate. Reducing the amount of litter feeding prior to calving may help. Dairy rations are often formulated to change the ratio of sodium and
potassium to chloride and sulfur (DCAD) to reduce incidence of milk fever. Research in Alabama indicated increasing hay supplementation for high litter diets is an effective option to help lower the chances of milk fever; whereas, adjusting the DCAD of a litter based diet does not appear to be effective.
Vitamins. Vitamin A status is “at risk” with long-term feeding
of litter diets as well as long-term hay feeding. Vitamins break-down with mineral exposure and litter is very high in mineral content. A vitamin pre-mix can be added to the litter diet. It is difficult to make a specific recommendation for a premix amount to add to the diet because premixes come in difference concentrations. Each beef cows need 30,000 to 40,000 IU (international units) of vitamin A, daily, so if there are 38 beef cows in the herd and a vitamin A premix contains 1million IU/pound then 1.3 pounds of the premix should be added to the total daily feeding for the herd. A vitami n premix could be added to plain salt as a free choice supplement and would require some trial and error to establish the right level of intake. A place to start with mineral
mixing is an old rule-of-thumb that cattle will consume 1 to 2
ounces of salt daily. Going back to the 38-cow example, these cows would be expected to consume 3.5 lb salt/day, therefore,
a 70% salt and 30% vitamin premix could be a starting point on this salt and vitamin supplement example. Alternatively, a vitamin injection may be given. AgriLabs AD3 injectable mineral contains 500,000 IU of vitamin A. A vitamin injection given now and a second injection given in 60 days can help reduce the risk of fat soluble vitamin deficiencies which could result in reduced pregnancy rates. This vitamin injection comes with a withdrawal
period for slaughter of 60 days. So, anyone that thinks they may have to cull cows to cope with the drought should not consider using an injectable mineral.
Ammonia control. Products are added to litter in poultry houses to help control ammonia. Two products used are Alum and PLT. Alum is aluminum sulfate and the maximum tolerable level for aluminum in beef cattle diets is 1,000 ppm. Research in Arkansas and Mississippi has examined the effects of diets containing poultry litter amended with Alum. Based on the results, Alum treated litter mixed as a 50:50 ratio with an energy dense feed such as corn could be fed without concern. Unfortunately, many producers may be looking to use a greater rate of litter in the diets (70-80%) and any effect of Alum amended litter fed at this rate is unknown. The other product, PLT, is a sodium bisulfate. While
there appears to be no published research on feeding litter amended with this product, this product would be less likely
to cause performance issues. Sodium bisulfate is an approved
feed additive that is also used in pet and human food and beverages