 Carl Hoppe here extension livestock specialist here at the Carrington Research Extension Center I'd like to talk about feeds alternative feeds and cost to gain part of our Backgrounding series that we do every year. We got a lot of different things going on here this year We got a lot of nice spring-borne calves that are being weaned You know, it's a different scenario that we have out here these days. It used to be would always wean calves in October and Then place them on feed But since we're calving out cows later in the year rather than March calving We've gone to April calving. We've switched to later weaning times for calves and that Karen lies while we're doing this webinar a little bit later in the year just to reflect later times of Production so we got spring-borne calves We always like to talk about feeding at least I certainly do but something unique this year compared to other years Is that and Tim's already talked about and so is Brian our feed prices have really dropped a lot compared to Last year makes some opportunities. We had a great Well, some places had a great year for production and with that that we've got feed resources available Be cattle. I like to take a trip down memory lane and that is I like to look at prices of different feeds as well as Co-product feeds and things we produce available for a coward in 2017 corn was only 288 a bushel how quick we forget what the price of corn was and the price of cattle We're low at that time too, but alfalfa hay was $80 a ton grass hay at 65 wheat mids were $95 a ton Barley malt sprouts were 115 that's back when we had Barley malt sprouts now We don't really have them in North Canadian anymore Corn size is priced at $30 a ton and canola mills 186 a ton and dried distillers at 113 Oh for the days of lower prices and then you go to 2018 prices increased a little bit But not much 19 prices didn't change as as much at that time So we had three years of prices that really didn't move much then let's go to 2020 Prices are still the same Canola mill increased a little bit though, but the rest of the feeds were made somewhat constant dried distillers moved up a little bit as well but then in 2021 the price of corn really skyrocketed and of course falling with it the price of hay co-products Corn salad canola mill distillers grains they all increased as well at the same time 2002 shares the same thing high corn prices high hay prices high canola mill prices everything's high again And so what's happened in 2003? Most people didn't think we're going to see four dollar corn and correspondingly the price of the rest of the feeds have gone down as well So hay usually Remains pretty good. That's kind of a localized demand type thing. It costs a lot transport hay from different locations So if you have good hay production in one location, you'll end up with um Maybe a lower price in that region But if you're short on hay then the price is probably going to go up wheat mids again or a decent price soy halls Um, we've got production in North Dakota So consequently that price is where it is corn size has dropped down and reflects the corn price Corn price per bushel The thumb rule I tend to use there is for every uh For the price of corn per bushel times 10 is the price per ton of corn sallage assuming that's 60 Or five six percent moisture corn sallage canola mill is there's demand for it at 348 It's an expensive source of protein and then there's dried distillers grains, which is uh ever popular and always priced accordingly for um Feeding cattle So now we're going to look at another variable weather year some places were droughted out They chopped corn in august other places had an excellent crop And some places uh, just didn't have much at all It was really variable throughout north dakota and what your resources were And so some places had excellent grass year calves rained off heavy But we always have that shoe that comes on with weather changes So i'd like to talk a little bit about other feed worse resources you have in north dakota bubba barn Those are reduced on farm When I go to other states and visit about their milling capacity and co-product production It's amazing how north dakota really stands out with the amount of production that we actually have We produce a lot of different types of co-products In north dakota from our mills as well as the quantity of them if you notice on this picture a lot of these Co-products are produced in the red river valley or mostly on the eastern part of the state But if you look that big yellow dot that's ethanol we have distilleries located throughout the southern part of the state Um, we have feed resources especially in south dakota But a lot of north dakota when it comes to dried distillage grains or modified or wet distillage grains Actually have several wheat mills in north dakota their state mill and elevator up in grand forks is the largest flower mill Producing wheat mids in the world in one location It's huge And of course we have mills in foster county with dakota growers and then of course down in richland county with Horizon mills and of course we've got the mill up in minot as well for wheat middlings which works as an excellent High fiber high protein feed for cattle. We don't have a malt production anymore in north dakota There is a small one over in moorhead minnesota. We have a lot of sugar beet pulp available in north dakota Um, we got multiple plants up and down the red river valley nothing out west anymore That's not not the case but we do them and unfortunately this product is usually high in moisture So to haul it from one location to the other Gets expensive to get to the western part of the state But for those located near a plant that's a really reasonable price feed stuff We actually have potato wastes in a couple different locations in the state grand forks in jamestown Of course, if you're a consumer year round That's something that you might consider because they produce potato waste throughout the whole year Another thing that we have in north dakota would be the oil crushes. So we have canola mills in crushes at crush look canola mill in A velva as well as ransom excuse me uterline as well as west fargo um That's canola mill. We have some swing plants like indolent also produce sunflower meal and soybean meal at certain times Uh, same with the plant in cask county. We have a new plant being developed. It's online now in stutzman county Uh, green bison soybean processing and of course that's producing soybean meal and soy halls We do have a fructose high Plant that produces sugar out of a corn wet corn milling plant and they produce Corn gluten meal unfortunately most that's not available in north dakota goes to the dairy facilities in minnesota But we produce a lot of co-product feeds in north dakota. So there's always a resource available for feeding as I pointed out earlier We have a lot of different distillers grains. There's five plants in north dakota producing wet modified and dried distillers grains as well as condensers to your solubles Some of those make those a lot of time is put it back on to the distillers grains making distillers grains with solubles We have five plants awaken use wheat midlinks. Some of those are pelleted We produce pelleted soybean mills in two plants in north dakota now There'll be a third one someday in castleton as well uh, wet corn or gluten feed one plant data byproducts to Tailings are extremely wet, but they're available beat pulp is wet also We actually have dry beat pulp that comes at a higher price A lot of those other tailings and pulp are reduced price Sometimes just for the price of hauling. We have lots of different meals available in north dakota and then of course we have the ever Present screenings that that are available through our different Cleaners and elevators in north dakota. We're going to switch now and talk a little bit about daily nutrient feed cost We've got some some assumptions here We're going to use a 700 pound stair cap. They normally eat around three percent of body weight That's a good thermal to use three percent of body weight That's on an as-fed basis with 90 dry moisture Okay, if you do on a dry matter intake basis that actually be about 18 pounds of dry matter. They produce a day um They need for some decent gain that need like 14 pounds of tdn Or a megacal 57 megacal ration and that need 13 percent crude protein ration as well So my point here in the slide is to look at the cost of energy So if we need 14.2 pounds of tdn the cost per pound of tdn based on the corn price would be nine Basically nine cents per pound which means a total daily feed cost of a dollar 30 for energy Now that'll also need protein and they need 2.33 pounds of protein in their daily ration and if you're just to go out and price protein off of Distillers grains it would be point three three eight dollars per pound Or we'd spend 90 cents made for the protein cost So people like to talk about protein, but there's the fallacy here when you buy energy When you buy corn 90 percent of that corn is protein. So you actually get the corn that Part of the protein and the ration for free because you paid it to You bought it for the energy content and the protein came along with it So all we really need to do is add the pay for the supplemental protein And so the animal needs 2.33 pounds Uh, what's provided in a corn that's provided the energy would be 1.74 pounds of protein meaning you need to supplement 6 tenths or 0.59 pounds of protein per day at 388 cents a pound That would be 22 to 23 cents per pound per day. Excuse me pound dollars per day for protein So my point here is that energy costs would drive Feeding cattle protein is an added that's needed to like to value out of the energy that we provide to the animal But the energy cost is the big driver in getting gain in cattle. I like to put in a plug for water You tend to think that rural water and those types of things are really expensive But when you look at the actual cost It's really pennies per day versus that dollar 50 in this example just for the energy and protein we'd have to have feed the cattle so Waters very important in our rations It's usually not considered that much. We just assume it's available But you definitely need to have adequate volume and quality available for cattle to have good gains I like to talk about feed value cost per pound a nutrient and That's the thing I look at is uh Look at cost per pound of the excuse me cost per ton of the feed So we got canola mill buy it today would be three dollars and three hundred and forty eight dollars a ton Earlier I said we need to price it on a per pound basis. So it's 17 cents per pound is the cost of canola mill Now if we're going to buy it for crude protein value, it costs us 44 cents or 45 cents We're looking at the tdn cost of what it contains it contains 62 tdm So it would have 28 cents is the cost per pound of protein of of energy. I'm sorry Look wait man. So we can do the same math 160 dollars a ton The cost per pound of protein is 46 cents cost per pound of tdm is 10 cents. Look at corn grain now It's a hundred and forty eight dollars a ton um That'd be seven cents a pound And if we go to cost per pound today, it'd be 87 cents for cost of crude protein And of course our cost per pound of energy is only nine cents nine point six cents Ddgs are at 12 point two cents for energy Protein is eight three nine So if you look at this graph and quick table and quickly look at what's our cheapest cost of protein Huh distillers grains. What's our cheapest cost of energy? It'd be corn And we can actually use wheat mills when we look at the combination We do a ration all of a sudden corn grain of distillers ends up being one of our most Competitive combinations added for backgrounding cattle Well, there are some feed issues I'd like to talk about for backgrounding cattle in fall of 2003 and winter of 2004 Because of the variability across the state Be sure to test your haze for nitrates if it's over 1500 parts a million nitrate You need to dilute it with other feeds. Of course since we're doing uh Backgrounding growing calves part of that ration is going to be grain So it's pretty easy to loot this Because grains are normally very low in nitrates Always encourage you to sample your feed especially the haze and corn side Just to know what type of energy content and protein content that's needed That's In the feed and what's available for the animal that's needed for the requirements Weeds and ergot it's always a consideration Some rye was put up this year that might have ergot in it. We can do the same thing Too high level can definitely reduce blood flow to the extremities and you can have some Ear loss and tail loss and that type of thing always to be weary When you buy screenings that whatever things come with it might have a problem with your animal So be sure to limit those things like corn screenings For the most part, they're pretty pure. They're just corn cracked corn There might be some Cocklebers in there, but for the most part, it's just straight corn We start looking some of the other feeds barley wheat whatever then you might have some other things in there This year our corn was actually immature. We had good test weight So we don't have to look at light test weight feeds our corn stylish spinning palm location might have been immature But a lot of them put up Uh yet at the right moisture content just a immature corn salad usually has a higher percent water So they're right at some cp job the corn size pile which from a feeding standpoint Means you had higher nutrient loss in that feed and you have less feed available Because part of that nutrient was leached out of the pile Again a good reason to do feed analysis on the feed Hazel leaves variable and I seen a lot of variability this year between From fields as well as the cuttings between fields Early on we had some rain in the middle summer. We didn't so consequently your alfalfa's might have different values at tdn Or a relative feed value just because of the rain and when the cutting was actually done Sure to test feeds that's the issue here We do have some lower feed prices and everybody said on that this year, but the calves are high price So we have to do our budgets like brian suggested I do like to point out that Bringing to my math compared to last year a corn base was 35 lower. We've got lots of corn available Freight costs really haven't changed. So that's kind of the same And I guess we have lots of it around And so when it comes to hay prices that usually follows the corn price somewhat It's expensive hay like a haul around like I said earlier, but at least uh There is feed grains for backgrounding cattle this year as well as feeding it coward Now I'd like to talk a little bit about rations and different gains for seven weight Steers Now this would be an average six to eight weights the average would be seven weights So this is example I use and I like to point out that as we increase the gain in cattle Usually get better feed efficiency and our cost of gain usually goes down Not total cost per day, but cost per pound of gain and cost gain is what we sell So I always look at the cost per pound gain Our first example is just a really simple grass hay and wheat mids I give you about two pounds a day gain great for just kind of background on those pathers that we're going to breed This is steers, but Looking at this at two pounds a day our feed to gain is 10 to one because there's a lot of fiber here The tdn of the ration is 64 or 38 megacal ration feed costs us 59 cents If we just tweak this ration a little bit increase the alfalfa hay by four pounds Increase the wheat mids by three pounds. We'll get an increase in average day the gain of six tenths of a pound 2.6 pounds per day gain Our tdn value in this feed is 69 percent feed to gain of 7.7 We look at the n e g that's a 45 n e g ration and our feed cost went from 59 cents per pound of gain to 52 cents Well, let's play with it a little bit more and increase the wheat mids to 12 pounds We don't need the alfalfa hay now because we're getting plenty of protein from the wheat mids in this ration Our grass hay is fairly decent like a 54 tdn 56 tdn hay In this example, we have to add limestone because our calcium phosphorus ratios are certainly out of whack When we feed that much wheat mids so limestone is imperative to be added Our gain is now 2.8 pounds per day our feed to gain is 5 to is 7.2 to 1 Our megacalsons ration is 47 and our feed cost again went up to 66 cents Yeah, so what happened here? A little bit of our haze reprised competitively the wheat mids made a nice supplement But when we increase the wheat mids the cost of our feeds went out of Went went awry because wheat mids are still higher than the haze and our cost per Feed cost Actually went Actually, it should go down. That's a math error on this particular slide. I apologize for that The cost is $1.32 a day. So we divide that by three. It's going to be even lower at around 40 some cents I'll have to change that. Excuse me. Now we're moving on to another ration with alfalfa hay and corn silage We're going to get 1.8 pounds per day gain we'd feed eight pounds of alfalfa hay which provides protein The corn silage provides the energy at 29 pounds. It seems like a lot of corn silage, but realize it's two-thirds water So feed to gain that's on an as-fed basis the energy of the ration is 38 our feed cost to gain be Almost 70 cents per pound a gain Now we can change this to another rational grassy alfalfa hay corn grain and wheat mids Of course the grain that corn grain is for the energy wheat mids is for the protein plus energy And of course alfalfa has got a little protein in it as well Our gain is 2.6 and our feed costs per day or pound a gain is 52 cents Let's raise out the three pounds a day gain and take much to change just Decrease the grass hay two pounds Increase the corn by four pounds and we decrease the wheat mids by two pounds Just change the ratio around Rather than 2.6 pounds per day gain we went up to three and our feed to gain improved Our energy of the ration is 50 and our feed cost per gain is 47 cents Now let's go to another example. We got alfalfa hay and corn grain That's just trickly a dry rational. We're going to feed 2.3 pounds per day gain Our feed cost is 67 cents per pound a gain 47 megacal ration If we do another example here where we got to use a Lot more corn grain alfalfa hay, but we're going to be short in protein in this ration We're actually going to be short in calcium with some other things And so we need to include a partial supplement of at one and a half pounds per day in this example And we would now get 3.2 pounds per day gain And look at our feed cost went down to 15 to 9 cents if we if we pick up our average data gain a little bit more Defeating even more corn grain. We'll have three and a half pounds per day gain and our feed costs A pound a gain go down even more and now we're doing a 56 NEG Of course the finishing ration would be the 63 NEG. So this is not a finishing ration It's a ration on these calves that will make them grow fairly well I'm going to switch over and use distillers grains and some rations Got 15 pounds of grass hay, but we need them to gain a little bit Just because the grass hay doesn't have enough energy to do 1.7 or 1.8 pounds per day gain We have to include 5 pounds of dried distillers grains because of the grass hay And now our feed costs are 75 cents per pound a gain Not cheap, but one way to Get calves to gain with that type of ration if you want to increase the gain we have to increase the grain so Increase the corn by 4 pounds increases the stillers by 1 pound back off the hay 5 pounds And now we have 2.8 pounds per day gain and our feed cost of 51 cents You can actually pick up the corn even more and adds And decrease the hay have to add some limestone to balance the ration an hour at 3.4 pounds per day gain And if you look at the feed costs to gain Part 52 cents, but we have more weight to sell in a shorter period of time So as brian mentioned our yardage costs would be less for this particular example Lots of different rations to feed cattle It's just a matter of which combination you need to use And I always like to point out just adding a little bit more Of our energy or protein supplements Pick up our average daily gain considerably So if you're down around that 1.7 or 2 pounds per day gain you could pick it up And really reduce your cost increase the amount of calves Amount of pounds you have to sell just by tweaking the ration or changing the ration a little bit I always like to point this out If we're going to grow cattle for the grass market We probably want to look at low rates of gain less than 2 pounds per day If we're looking at that's mostly because when cattle go out in grass they usually gain An average is around 2 pounds per day. So you don't want fat cattle Calves that are easily fleshed going out to pasture losing weight You want to keep them somewhat green and put them out to pasture green so they grow without losing Um You're not going to go for the grass market, but you want to add grow the cattle without adding too much fat Condition let's uh grown between two and three pounds per day gain And that's the goal I'd call that a medium rate of gain Want to do higher than that you might have calves put on a little too much fat Which may reduce subsequent feedlot performance However And I've got it written there too um Some of our calves are genetically genetically disposed to Disposed to gain weight without a loss of performance in the feed yard They can grow and grade extremely well. So if you know the history of your cattle, you know how you can treat them And uh, if you've been doing uh, uh, if the buyers know what type of calves you have And you've been doing this management just about right you can tell um, where they end up to You know over flesh cattle usually get a discount But there's a the happy medium there where you put the weight on without getting them too fleshy And here's some examples of where you can focus on I self personally always like that 0.75 2.8 0.9 pounds per day gain on calves up to 800 to 900 pounds They're good growthy spring-borne calves We can always target a calf gain with a balanced ration um We can do a three pounds a day gain or we can do a one and a half pound a day gain In other words, if you want to be 700 800 900 pounds at a certain time We can blend the ration to make that goal And it's just a matter of uh Making a ration to work. I like to point out Feeding for a target weight at a specific day is is the flexibility of backgrounding You can have three pounds a day gain for 60 days or a pound and a half or 120 days That's the weight you have it all depends upon what feed you have available and the price you put at those feeds The concept that I had to learn late in like well, it was actually a long time ago, but um in our sheet market We feed lambs as quick as possible because they need to be dead within a year of age Okay, otherwise they turn into a mutton with cattle. We can delay that up to two years of age So or longer even so if we do a slower rate of gain We actually put these cattle to a different market time and a different price structure So always consider that when you're looking at your costs But one foundation thing that always remains is that as you increase the gain You in and you increase the grain you decrease your cost of gain Uh, we do have co-products available in North Dakota. I do have a info sheet that I can share with uh different locations and phone numbers and Uh prices for that particular time. Um, it'll be available on our website as well Uh one comment about co-products. Sometimes you can price those contract price them in the summertime Because usually our traditional summer prices are low Location of freight prices always affect competitive competitiveness Western North Dakota definitely has more freight. So all of a sudden some of the local feeds there might be cheaper Than hauling in co-products from someplace else But one thing the background in cattle do use quite well are high fiber rations And then protein sources and co-products usually fit both of those at the same time You're looking for feed Please consider when you're looking at rations to provide great results You need good feed bunk management. Uh, you need to look at the feed bunks, you know I used to say you need to teach cattle how to eat. Well You need to train them To eat at a particular time every day and not just have them go into eating some a little Today and a little bit more tomorrow and not less the next day after that They get on a roller coaster of intake and that does not provide good feed efficiency So they need to you know, when you're starting out background in calves Um, you definitely want to keep feed uh for them But you on the same time need to keep them wanting to eat feet. Of course when they come up You can tell who's sick at the same time that'll be talked about later Bedding always helps in calves because you're producing a calf that somebody else is going to buy They certainly like clean calves Not only that in our cold winters in North Dakota bedding will actually improve our rates again provide better creature comfort And so bedding is something that is an expense But it can pay off especially if you're not a large feed yard the smaller backgrounder Somebody who's feeding in the coward certainly works be sure to clean your water Cavs can't withstand much moldy feed. So try to keep that away. That'll cause a digestive upset Maybe you can feed that moldy side to the cows, but try to steer away from any of that stuff for your calves That'll affect them. Um, keep them healthy through feeding Then that's again by training them to eat out the feed bunks at at the same time every day They're creatures of habit. They like to eat at the same time. We like to eat at the same time ourselves They do too. We like to clean eat off of a clean plate They like to eat off of a clean feed bunk as well. So keep that in consideration We like to adapt our rations use a step up ration Different negs for different time frames. You might step up the negs over a month period Like I said earlier balance the ration of your rate gain goals that you'd like to have Um, other things you can do to improve feed per gain would be to use ionophores They certainly like robinson and boba tech. Uh, they certainly improve feed efficiency Implants will do the same thing and that'll be talked about a little bit later Uh, be sure to control coxidiosis. Rements and boba tech help with that But things like dequinate and amprolium can certainly control those and if you do have stresses that lead to coxidiosis That breaks by all means feed additives before it breaks Are something that worked quite well again training cattle to eat and eat early is very important in helping those later on So I'd just like to summarize this year our feed prices are lower than they were in previous couple years Our highly average daily gains always have a lower cost per pound a gain I hope you've seen the scenarios there that show that Uh, lots of ration options. It all depends upon what feed sources you have available We can make about anything work and the prices fit in there too If you need some extra feed co-products are usually high in protein. They're high in fiber too So that really makes a great backgrounding ration Um, you just need to balance it and with good management leads good calf gains So don't give up on working these calves onto a good ration