 Greetings everyone and welcome to this week's edition of the NDSU webinar series on backgrinding feeder cattle Today at myself, I'm Dale Nazzi, NDSU Extension agent in McKinsey County With me is John Duveter, the area livestock specialist from the North Central Research Center in Minot We'd like to talk a little bit about some of the systems of backgrinding cattle and getting into the feeds and feeding part I think when we talk about backgrinding cattle, maybe there's about four systems we need to look at or that are available First one that comes to mind is preconditioning This one where the goal is just basically getting the calves ready to enter a feed lot Typically they'll last 30 to 45 days Gain isn't really a big consideration, but we do want to get them vaccinated Get them weaned and get them broke for the bunk Another one we think about is wintering Maybe we've got some late calves We want to get them through the winter, typically a pound, a hundred and a half of gain And then we go on to grass and market them as yearlings for the next summer Some people have some better efficient cattle or faster growing cattle And I want to fast track them, maybe get that three pounds of gain or more a day I think this one takes a little bit more management in terms of nutritional Testing and some of the feed lot management But I think the most typical one is, most of us will use Is what comes to mind is our typical background in ration Where we're going for two and a half pounds of gain is essentially a growing type of a system The advantage of this one is we can use some homegrown feeds We can feed our own cattle Maybe add some margin to them In a year like this year where we've got some maybe more When we get to that though, we're talking maybe 60, 120 days We're going to try to get 100, 150, 200 pounds of gain And basically what we're trying to do is get them up to that 750, 800 pound range We'd market them around the first of the year And beat that fall rush of calves We're going to try to add some value to them Utilizing homegrown feeds and other things like that So with that now, I think I'd like to turn it over to John And he's going to talk a little bit about some of the feeds that are available for background in cattle Well other than the cost or the value of the calf Feed represents the largest cost in background in calves In order to get margin in this business We've got to keep feed costs low So the cost per ton as well as the performance of the calf Will translate into competitive cost of gains We're fortunate in the state this year that we had a good growing season We've got abundant supplies of forage and we've got lots of feed grains In growing calves we can use a variety of different feeds that we have And put them together to accomplish our goals Typically these rations might be about half forage And about half concentrate or grain or grain byproduct To get that two to two and a half pound gain Caves will typically eat somewhere approaching 3% of their body weight a day And if we're going to get the calves to perform as we'd like And utilize these different feeds that are available We'll probably have to do a little bit of feed testing, ration evaluation In order to put together programs that are going to accomplish our goals We're going to share a little bit of information just a little later on What some of the feeds are, what some of their feeding limitations might be And how they might cost compared to other feeds in the marketplace As well as show you some example rations that we think you might be able to use That would accomplish getting cattle to perform and gain at a cost effective basis As John mentioned there are ample feeds across the state This slide here just shows us a quick representation of some of the more common feeds available I'd like to go through each feed in a little more detail, but in essence of time I think I'm just going to talk some of the generalities Corn comes to mind first Prices are going to be variable across the state depending on where you're at And moisture and grain content But we should be able to get corn at a price that's going to get us in that 9 to 10 cents per pound of TDN Corn can be a very good energy source One of the most energy dense feeds we have But we probably are going to need a protein supplement if we're using corn or rations Barley is another common grain fed to cattle Again it's a fairly good energy source It is a little higher protein corn Given the prices around we should be able to get that for about 7.5 cents per pound of TDN Things we do have to keep in mind we should course process Barley to get better utilization out of it And we do need to probably look at limiting legumes because of the potential for bloat Oats is used quite extensively in wintering rations or preconditioning rations It is competitively priced this year although it is a high fiber And if we're going to push these cows we probably shouldn't be looking at oats Wheat mids are a common feed from processing of wheat and durum A fairly good energy source, a decent protein source And around that 9 cents to 10 cents upon TDN again Can be a very good source of phosphorus by storage issues Can be a consideration We probably need flat storage if we're going to store wheat mids for a considerable amount of time Field peas are relatively new feeds available last few years Again competitively priced with corn Very high energy density Good source of protein, very palatable And due to some research we should be looking at 30-40% of the rations Probably where we're going to get our most efficient or most of our bank for our buck on feeding peas There are some low quality wheat out there due to sprout or frost or scab It can be very competitively priced We usually don't lose a lot of nutrient content due to sprout or frost We do need to look at though, we have to start this slow and build up our ration percentage slowly And we've got a limited at 30% of the ration Acidosis can be an issue, so feeding an on a four or a buffer should be highly considered Wheat pulp especially is something that we can get probably on the western edge of the state or the eastern edge of the state Sydney sugars in Sydney Montana are selling theirs for $5 a ton Which makes it fairly price competitive if we don't have to truck it a long ways Because it's a high water content feed, freight and storage are going to be issues we need to think about Lentils I don't want to spend a lot of time on, because I think they're pricing themselves out of the market We have to get them for about 140 a ton to make it cost competitive I don't know if we can do it this year The dried and modified distillers grains can be an excellent source of energy, an excellent source of protein They're again very palatable Again though we should probably limit it to 30% of the ration based on dry matter And we probably have to consider getting a sulfate test of our water If we're going to feed the distillers grains because of the potential for high sulfur in these feeds Just a little bit on forages is some of the common forages Corn silage is available in different parts of the state, fairly high in energy again If we price that at $28 a ton, you can see it gets us a little over almost 6 cents a pound of TDN Corn silage can be very highly variable in energy due to the grain content of the silage Of course we have to transport it, we do have to consider transporting water Alfalfa and alfalfa grasses, there should be ample supplies of those this year in the state We had a good rainfall year You can see the price there, they're competitively priced But alfalfa alone is an excellent protein source, excellent calcium source if we need some of that Again though usually utilizing it with barley or other high starch feeds We need to keep in mind the potential for bloat The grass haze are out there, they're a little lower in energy, a little lower in protein But they're competitively priced Although I think we really need to consider getting a feed test in these grass haze Because they would be very highly variable in their nutrient content And cereal grains are going to be out there too Again I think they're competitively priced this year It can be a decent source of energy depending on the grain content again Although we do need to consider the potential for nitrate poisoning And the potential for waste that cattle probably just eat the grain part of the hay And maybe not the forage or straw part For more information on all these alternative feeds And we didn't even touch on a lot of the co-products available in the state This circular alternative feeds for ruminants is available from NDSU And I think anybody feeding cattle should have this on hand The ration specs that we need for backgrounding will vary a great deal By the kind of calves and our performance targets Certainly lighter calves, faster gaining calves Or objectives require more energy and protein dense rations As a general starting point to consider We like most of our backgrounding rations formulated in the 13th up to 14% protein And have an energy value of about 70% Along with a calcium and phosphorus levels That are in the right proportion and meet animal requirements One of the best sources of help in putting the rations together Are some of the good software programs available Either through your extension agent, area livestock specialist Or your feed consultant They'll have built into them a series of tables on requirements And also have a feed base in them And so we can go in and plug the type of animal we plan to feed What our performance target is And then play around and put some rations together Some feeding scenarios And adjust them accordingly until we can have it come out That it's meeting the requirements And we've got some good expectation that it will produce the results we're trying for I use a cow bites program The cow bites program is very useful in allowing us to put in Certainly our water quality If we've got some issues with sulfates But it also allows us to adjust for temperature And it's quite easy to use And able to run a number of scenarios through And a couple trial and errors to find some least cause type formulations It will generally give you a suggested protein requirement A suggested intake With some experience in North Dakota We often bump the intakes a little higher Which we've seen happen on calves in our feeding climate And also our growth year type calves A little extra protein has shown some benefit Over what some of the standard values are As an example here of a ration that was done on cow bites This has been formulated for 600 pounds steer To gain 2.5 pounds a day We're assuming this to be in late fall Right around the 30 degree temperature mark And we've tried to keep this a very simple ration Something might be adaptable to hand feeding And where the hay is self fed And the grain might be bunk fed Grain and supplement maybe once or twice a day As illustrated in this slide We'd be feeding these six weight calves 10 pounds of hay or assuming they'll eat that And we're feeding them about 7.5 pounds of corn Once we've received them Stepped them up and got them to where they're eating well And since this ration would be just a little bit low in protein We're feeding a half a pound of canola meal As a source of protein Along with some trace mineral salt They'll eat about 18 pounds of this dry ration Or about 3% of their body weight And as this table shows We've got an 88 cents per day Feed costs are low Not including waste or transportation or storage costs Works out to about 35 cents per pound to gain It's a 13% ration At around 70% TDN This next ration shows the ability to utilize some different feeds That allow you to put together something that's probably more complex But probably cheaper in cost to gain The same 600 weight steer Being fed for the same target 2.5 gain In this case We're feeding some grass hay At about 30% of the ration Corn silage has fed at about 30% of the ration 4.25 pounds of barley grain 4 pounds of modified distillers grain And some trace mineral salt And they also a high calcium mineral To get our mineral needs in balance Since we're feeding these byproducts Which are very high in phosphorus As you see this ration has a lower daily cost 64 cents Which would translate into about 26 cents per pound to gain So by using a more diverse ration Something that probably needs to be delivered through a mixer wagon And we're able to actually find some feed buys out there To cheapen our cost of gain This would not be your total cost Because there's certainly some of these ingredients Have some storage or freight cost associated with them But again it's a 13% Right around 13% crude protein Right around 70% TDN ration We've brought in a little high calcium mineral In this instance just to get our calcium phosphorus ratio In line Which we'd like to have at least 1.5 Calcium for every unit of phosphorus This program has only been able to touch on a number of things Many of you may have questions or concerns Or want some additional information Feel free to contact Dale or myself The contact information provided Thanks for watching Stay tuned Come back to CattleDocs for further information and updates Thank you