 Hi, my name is Carl Hoppe. I'm an extension livestock specialist here at the Indie issue of Carrington Research Extension Center apart of an Indie issue extension and Today we're going to talk about feeds and rations for backgrounding calves First I'd like to say is feeds follow the corn price in North Dakota feed prices Are based off of whatever the corn price is across the United States and that comes up to North Dakota and All of our co-product feeds or hay prices are all based off the energy costs That comes in with corn minus of course some freight issues But for the most part as the corn price goes up the price of competing feeds also go up as well let's talk a little bit about different feeds that we have available and Discuss this in two years ago in October of 2017 being a backgrounding season corn was around 288 a bushel Alphalia was on $80 a ton and dried distillers drains were at $113 a ton Jump ahead one year to 2018 last year corn was $3 a bushel Alphalpha hay $90 a ton and dried distillers is 130 now if we jump one more year to this year We've had corn prices this year a little bit higher at 340 a bushel that has come down now Over the past few weeks most of because that particular time of October our ethanol plants were searching for corn since corn was still out in our Fields not harvested and they had to raise the price and encourage some movement into the Processing plants for ethanol Alphalpha hay has a $90 a ton and dried distillers remain at $130 a ton You can see the price the other feeds that we have there grass hay at $65 a ton wheat mids at $105 a ton corn So I just around $3 excuse me $30 per ton and then canola male is a competing feed stuff at $206 a ton and that's basically considered a protein supplement. We have a lot of feed stuffs available in North Dakota and We just don't appreciate how much we really do have available And so we still kind of map and see the different processing facilities that we have across the state We have ethanol. Excuse me. We have sugar beet refineries up and down the Red River Valley as well out in Western North Dakota over at Sydney, Montana where sugar beet pulp or tailings are available as a feed We have a potato processing occurring in Jamestown as well as a Grand Fork So there's potato products that are available. They have a malt plant that is operating over at Moorhead We have a high fructose corn syrup plant and the corn gluten feed that's available down in Richland County And we have wheat mills available in North Dakota and actually I should maybe have talked about those first Let me just put into context of how much wheat meds that we produce in our state wheat meds are the byproduct of the wheat milling industry after you take off the flour or the semolina and Just to note how larger than industry we have in North Dakota Grand Forks where the state mill and elevator is Is the largest milling facility in the world at one location We export a lot of wheat meds away from North Dakota for feeding we have Wheat mills located in Foster County with Dakota growers up in Minot as well as down in Richland County and so We have wheat medlings available and of course we have a an abundance of ethanol Biproduct or dried distillage grains or modified or wet distillage grains if you went for a wet product available throughout the state and surrounding states we actually do have oil crushes to in the state and Those across soybean mill would have a soil haul which is a fiber source that can be used for cattle Then of course they always produce the mills that are available for livestock feed as well We have a lot of co-products available to us in North Dakota if we're seeking for supplements or feed replacements Or if we're in a feed shortage area, we have a lot of milling capability available to us for use in cattle feeds Now I'd like to talk a little bit about Some daily nutrient feed costs Here we got a 700 pound steer eating around 3% of body weight or about 18 pounds of dry matter intake TDN of this ration is 14 pounds TDN and If we look want to consider this on a megacal basis, we can look at 57 megacals of net energy for gain Good protein is 13.1 percent for this ration The bulk of the ration is really energy We need 14 pounds of TDN, which is a measurement of energy and energy cost of use corn to be around five cents per pound of TDN so 14 times five gives us around 70 cents Per day of energy needed to get this calf to grow and gain Proteins needed to Calf needs 2.3 pounds of protein protein is expensive. It's double triple the price at 18 cents So if we just had to consider the protein cost to be 42 cents per calf per day However, most time when we buy corn, which is 90% crude protein. We don't need to Pay twice for the protein In other words, we get the energy and the protein comes for free Well, we do have to pay for a supplemental protein because a 9% crude protein That's a ways away from the 13% crude protein the calf needs So in this example the calf needs 2.33 pounds of protein the TDN side of the feed That supplies some protein is 1.74 pounds Excuse me, there's 1.74 pounds of TDN in that 14 1.7 pounds of crude protein and the 14 pounds of TDN that's used to feed the calf And so supplementally we need 0.59 pounds or 0.6 pounds of crude protein It did just added to this ration or for a cost around 10 cents per head per day 10 to 11 cents per head per day So my point is when we're feeding cattle the energy cost is by far the most expensive input for feeding cattle Protein is what we usually end up having to buy extra. We think that's expensive But really on a per day basis the energy cost is the most expensive thing and water really isn't very expensive at all But we do need good quality water for our cattle in order to have them gain Let's look at feed value or cost per pound of nutrient canola milk. That's a protein source It's 38% crude protein Cost per ton is $18 if you do that on a cost per pound of crude protein or at 28 cents It's protein source. So if we look at cost per pound of TDN it's 17 cents and it's an expensive source of energy But a pretty competitively price source of protein. Now, let's look at corn grain. That's third line down It's only got eight and a half percent crude protein in 70s, but it's got 76.5% TDN Costs is $110 a ton. So if we look at cost per pound of of energy, it's at 70 at 7 cents But if we look at the cost per pound of crude protein at 64 corn obviously is not a protein source It is an energy source But now sometimes we can have our cake and eat it too. In other words, look at the wheat myths That's 70 17 protein $95 cost per ton. So we look at cost per pound of crude protein It's 27 cents look at cost per pound of energy. It's 6 cents Actually, it's cheaper as a cost of energy than the other feed stuffs and its protein cost is fairly reasonable as well. Let's look at down distillage grains That's a popular feed to be added in the cattle diets. It's almost 30 protein on an as-fed basis Cost right now is $130 at the plant Cost per pound of crude protein that would be $2 excuse me 24 cents Pretty reasonable cheapest cost protein in this example And then we look at cost per pound of TDN and it's 7 cents. So it's not out of line But we can look at the different feed stuffs here and come up with a Idea of what we want to feed along with transportation costs that have to be included when we're looking at different feed Let's just talk a little bit about some feed issues for 2019 to 2020 This last fall was a real bugger when it came to corn salad. It was tough year to harvest and see we had to pull through muddy fields and and It delayed harvest so we didn't get the moisture content up as high as we wanted it to have It's just been a real challenge. Although I'll have to say The quality of the feed that we were get off the field was actually fairly high if it fermented It would it would produce a good fermented silage If it was if it didn't get the chance to ferment it was a little bit drier I'm surprised how well the energy content in that feed is actually fairly decent. So Some more feed issues for 2019 is that we have a delayed corn harvest And a lot of that corn is still standing out in the field right now So if we would like to have some wet corn for our cattle, I'd like to buy some but unfortunately It's still standing out in the field. We're waiting for it to dry down out in the fields. So it has to be Propane dried or natural gas dried or some other way of drying it down And the test weight will usually increase so it's left out in the field as well So with those issues, we're not seeing a lot of corn being moved right now But for an ethanol plant They need corn, but they don't need light test weight corn And they don't want to deal with high moisture corn because they have to dry it down To 15 percent moisture before they can grind it and add it and put it through the ethanol plant They have discounts and there's a reason for that Light test weight corn usually has less starch, which means it takes more bushels of corn to make the same amount of ethanol However for cattle, that's not the issue cattle can utilize that light test weight corn because there's a germ in the fiber And they can use it quite well. I'll talk about that in just a few minutes storing high moisture corn Well, if you can feed it right away, that certainly works if you can lay it on the ground and Maybe grind it and put it up as high moisture Corn that inciles that's one way to keep it. However, in this frozen weather we have like this that doesn't really work very well Earlege is another example You could snap off the ears and and feed that as such you get 20 percent more feed when you feed the cob from that field And again with ear leech you hope that it would ferment high moisture corn the same way you hope would ferment However, if it's too cold to ferment then perhaps we just look at keeping it frozen until it's fed. However, be careful Piles will tend to heat on their own Even if they're frozen if there's by some heat source that could get them going heat source could be sunlight It could be a solar the warmth of the day or it could be ground that wasn't frozen completely hard and the Corn's been laying on top of it for a couple two three four weeks And all of a sudden there's some heat being generated from the earth up into the pile The microbes get going and then we have mold on our feed So if you're going to look at freezing as a way to contain your corn or maintain these feed stuffs at high moisture Be sure to make sure it stays frozen as we work through the the feeding period Light test weight corn and yes, you did a trial a few years back where you compared 54 pound corn to 47 pound corn Pretty light 39 pound corn and they found cattle gained fairly similarly It just meant that on the light test weight corn some of those calves did gain did eat a little bit more Just because it was 39 pound corn, but the 54 and 57 there really wasn't any difference in gain Ability for the cattle. Univ. Sabast agreed with that. They did 56 pound and 47 pound corn They found no difference when it came to feeding cattle South Dakota state actually found that light test weight corn actually fed better Do a small group of calves and so it just tells me I like to summarize this up by Light test weight corn isn't a problem for feeding our ruminant livestock Be sure to feed it by the pound not by the volume. So use the scale and buy things by the ton Or feeding light this way corn We do have some frozen the corn silage out there this year as I affectionately call it frozen brown Shop because corn silage would imply that is fermented and the frozen brown shop certainly hasn't So if you look at this thermometer, this pile was Chopped on a cold day below 32 degrees 24 degrees and it was packed on the same day where it was frozen And it went into the pile frozen and you can see by the temperature gauge a month later It's still frozen takes a long time for these piles to heat And this pile may never heat part of the pile from the top is heated because of the warm weather We had it at a certain time, but it has not migrated down into the pile and perhaps it never will but we look at So it's not a fermented feed But it is a stored feed and if we look at the nutrient value of these feeds, they're actually fairly high. So Um, we haven't lost any energy by feeding it. We've just lost that nice fermented smell Uh, yeah, we'll still eat this some other issues wheat We've had some milling quality problems, fallen numbers, vomitoxin on it It can certainly be fed to cattle. We just need to look at the quality and the cost And uh, vomitoxin is limited by fda at 10 parts per million We've done projects at curington that would show that that has no problems in feeding cattle that that level Flooded haze Can be an issue for every foot in the water. It's probably mold of foot above the water So be sure to check out those bales Just to see how moldy they are if you do bring them home for feeding On the young calf that the digestive system just doesn't with handle mold very well Especially on haze and that could decrease intake decrease performance And what you're hoping to get in weight gain may not happen if there's extensive going on I got a series of rations here for you 700 pound steers And my point is as we increase the gain we usually get better feed efficiency And we get better feed efficiency. We usually have a lower cost per pound of gain. So here's our first example Grass hay 13 pounds wheat mid seven pounds and I have a two pound a day ration gain here on these calves V conversion is 10 to 1 And the cost per pound to gain is 38 cents. Let's tweak this ration a little bit Put a little more wheat mids take out some grass hay put in some alfalfa hay We're going to get a 2.6 pound a day gain make a little bit of less feed to put on the same amount of gain And we see that it went from a 38 mega kelp to a 45 mega kelp ration But our feed cost per gain went down from 38 down to 32 Now if we tweak this ration a little bit more and just use a lot more wheat mids and some grass hay We have to add some calcium to this since wheat mids are high in high in phosphorus but low in calcium So we need to balance this ration by adding some extra calcium to it We get a 2.8 pound a day gain as you can see our feed cost went down to 30 cents so This trend continues. Let's look at a ration that's alfalfa hay and corn silage 1.8 is a nice average daily gain if you're growing heifers Heading to pasture to be bred or if we're looking for grass calves that are going to be head to pasture Um at a lighter weight our feed costs though. Look at that is 46 cents per pound of gain That's not our cheapest feed cost, but we're feeding to a different marketing window So please consider what you're doing here our cost to gain for our another of a 2.6 pound gain ration here. We're using grass hay alfalfa hay corn grain wheat mids As 33 cents and if we tweak those to get a little bit better average day of the gain of three pounds We'll be at 31 cent per cost of gain Here's some rations just using alfalfa hay and corn grain a 2.3 pound a day gain 42 cent feed cost We look at buying a commercial protein supplement 38 percent that fed at a pound and a half per head today with corn alfalfa hay Three pounds a day gain we can get good gains out of these calves 41 cents per pound of gain Or if we get them to be a 3.4 pound a day gain We can be up to 38 cents per pound of gain or down to 38 cents per pound of gain These higher rates of gain are probably appropriate for calves that are heading to be finished Maybe finished on farm and sold as fat cattle and these cattle this type of ration will certainly work quite well for those cattle Actually, you could pick up that average gain even more if you go from a 55 up to a up to a 62 NEG ration We're talking about backgrounding calves here not finishing cattle. So we'll leave it at this rate Got one more ration one more set of rations here and these deal with distillers grains grass hay at 15 percent or at 15 pounds per day and distillers grains at five pounds Give a 1.8 1.7 average daily gain with a 47 cent cost of gain I think I seen that number earlier beyond when you looked earlier in this slide set when we talked about 1.8 pounds a day gain A little under 50 cents per pound Okay, but as we pick up our rate of gain we get into 30 cents And if we look so we get in 2.6 average daily gain or a three pound average daily gain as you Pick up the rate of gain the cost per pound of gain goes down Let me talk a little bit about some gain goals If we're looking at heading for next spring's grass market Having calves at a low rate of gain less than two pounds a day gain Is what our goal should be However, as I said earlier our lowest cost of gains are with better rates of gain So let's look at a medium rate of gain at two to three pounds per day Cal growing at that level won't add much condition. They'll gain way. Well, they'll gain very well Buyers will be lined up to buy them And feed yards will find good performance out of these calves because they weren't overly fat However, um our other when we look at higher rates of gain like above three pounds a day gain You know, you really ought to be looking at going to the finishing to the feedlot or the finishing market with these calves because You're gonna stop them at eight nine hundred pounds and try to sell them Buyers may not want to have those because they don't really have much compensatory gain them There might be too bad. They might stall out the feed yard before they're placed on feed But let me point this out. There's some cattle their genetic proposed Supposed to great weights gain without loss of performance and they can still gray and grow Grow and grade extremely well So my point here is know what type of cattle you have and how you want to for how you want to Feed them to the performance you'd like to have if you know the history That'll go a long ways telling what you do if you don't know the history You're going to do less than two pounds a day if you're in a grass cattle If not after that then you're going to go somewhere between two to three pounds a day gain Is a good backgrounding so get these calves grown and healthy and moved before calving starts again Like to say that we're always looking for I look for targeting calf gain with a balanced ration I said earlier as we increase our energy and protein we get better gains and better feed efficiency So our cost of gain is lower as we pick up our rates of gain However, backgrounding is one of these deals where you have a flexibility when we want to sell calves If you're selling fat cattle when they're fat You maximize the value out of those calves And feeding you mean longer get some fatter and that actually decreases the value yield grade fours those types of things And you have a product that has a shorter time that needs to be sold However, backgrounding you have a lot of flexibility whether it be this month next month six months from now It all depends upon the rate of gain you're looking to have those calves on And honestly when you're looking at lower rates of gain You're really hoping for a different market and a different price And when you combine those two together with low cost of haze You might end up better off then Hedging on what I like to say better gains with better feed efficiency and growth So good luck in your decision of how you want to maintain calves And uh, if you have any questions on rations or balancing, please contact me carl hoppy extension livestock specialists at the kerrington research extension center part of indy issue