Feeding Strategies, Part 2 - What are we after?

The main nutrients being delivered to cattle in most purchased grain rations are protein, energy and minerals. In most cases, the primary energy sources are starches (usually delivered in the form of corn meal). Fiber, on most farms around here, is supplied in forages.

The strategy of increasing nutrient density leads us to look for ways to use highly concentrated nutrient sources. Minerals, in most cases, are quite concentrated to begin with. Protein sources are generally considered concentrated when Crude Protein levels are over 40 percent of feed dry matter. This includes most soy products, as well as some others, like meat, bone and blood meal and some commercial plant protein products. Density on the energy side comes from sources that provide a lot of starch, such as corn grain, barley and wheat, as well as products that make starch more available in the rumen (such as true steam-flaked corn).

In making rations denser, what we generally try to avoid is mid-range protein sources such as wheat, distillers’ grains and corn gluten feed. Inclusion of a high level (more than 2 pounds per cow per day) of these products requires that we feed more grain to get the same level of nutrients delivered.

There are some circumstances (such as where a lot of extremely high quality forages like lush pasture or extremely low quality forages coupled with low forage feeding rates) when the feeds that are low in protein and high in digestible fiber, (e.g. soy hulls, citrus pulp) are a good fit in the ration.