Robyn Stewart
One of my favorite views as I drive around Lincolnton are the numerous pastures filled with a wide variety of livestock including horses, goats, and cattle. I just wanted to bring a few reminders about feeding livestock during this time of year and stage of life for our producers.
First things first, it’s important to understand how the nutrition requirements of a livestock animal may change over time. I’m going to speak fairly broadly here, but the concepts are pretty similar for most livestock species. All livestock animals will have higher nutrition requirements when they are young and growing- they need high energy and protein to grow and develop. As livestock mature, we typically separate them into 3 classes. The first nutrition class is an adult animal that is not gestating and not lactating—or as we call it, a “dry” animal. A dry animal is eating to maintain its own body, and has fairly low nutritional requirements. The second class of animal is a pregnant (gestating) animal. A gestating animal actually has similar nutritional requirements to a maintenance animal for the first two trimesters. The third trimester is when most fetal development occurs, which requires higher nutrition for the pregnant animal. The last class of animal is a lactating animal. A lactating animal is providing milk to their young. Nutrition requirements during lactation are higher than any other time in an animal’s life. For lactating animals, we are also usually trying to get that lactating animal bred again. If we succeed, that animal is maintaining her own body, nursing a baby at her side, AND pregnant again. Clearly, any animal eating for three is going to need more nutrition than a dry animal.
I wanted to mention class of animal and nutrition requirements because at this time of year we start to see some changes in livestock body condition score (BCS) due to changing pasture quality and class of animal. If you are in the business of producing offspring (kids, lamb, calves, foals) it is important to maintain BCS because it directly impacts reproductive efficiency. For cattle at a BCS of 3, only 56% of cows will be bred in a 75-day interval. At a BCS of 5, that number jumps to 88%. When BCS is low, cows may not breed at all, in which case you either have to cull them or maintain them until the next breeding season (increased cost with no return). If they breed late (assuming you sell calves as a group), their calves will have a shorter period of time to gain prior to sale—meaning lower sale weights and prices.
Once an animal has lost weight and dropped in BCS, it takes significantly more time, energy, and feed to get them to gain that weight back. It is easier to stay proactive in providing appropriate feed for the class of animal and maintain weight than it is to play catch up down the road. If we keep in mind that feeding livestock is usually your largest expense, it benefits producers to make the most of their pasture. Pastures that are overstocked, full of weeds, and poorly managed are not going to produce a good stand of forage—do not assume that because something is growing and it’s green that it is providing nutrition to your animals! Some basic pasture management practices that we recommend are: soil tests, lime, fertilizer, mow, and weed control. If you are managing your pastures well and your livestock are still not in the condition they need to be, ensure that they have free-choice access to a good quality mineral, and consider adding a supplemental feed product. You may supplement with hay or an alternative forage in which case we recommend running a forage analysis to appropriately match forage quality to the class of animal you’re feeding. Other supplemental feed products include things like bulk ingredients for TMR, commercially mixed feeds, or something as simple as protein or fat tubs. While these supplemental feeds may present an up-front cost to your operation, having your animals maintain body condition, get bred, and produce efficiently will benefit your operation. If you’d like to discuss your unique situation and nutrition needs, or if you need more information on pasture management, please let us know at 706-359-3233 or uge3181@uga.edu
