NEWTON — More than 300 “all-natural” calves weighing 600 pounds left Catawba and Lincoln counties in the last few weeks to graze on wheat fields or eat forage in feedlots.
Cow-calf operations receive a higher price due to maintaining the requirements for “all-natural” fed beef.
This county’s livestock farms can appropriately be called a forage production enterprise — a business of converting sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into a high quality all-natural human food resource: namely beef. This is because cattle can digest foods that humans cannot use, mainly grass and forage.
With good management, grass and forage are an extremely valuable renewable resource. As such, it represents the least expensive feed resource to maintain animal health and production in cow-calf operations.
A combination of excellent grass/forage production, grazing management practices, cattle genetics that match the forage resources, and a well-timed calving season results in minimum reliance on purchased and harvested feeds.
On average, 50% plus, of total operating costs in cow-calf enterprises are associated with nutrition because purchased and harvested hay and concentrate feeds make up the majority of that cost.
Consequently, the nutritional program represents a major target to trim cost of production. However, it is widely recognized that nutrition status of the cow is closely related to reproductive performance. If too many corners are cut in the nutritional program, pregnancy and calving rate dramatically suffer.
Occasionally, cow-calf producers need to feed a concentrate to further increase body condition of the cows. To implement and maintain an efficient supplementation program for grazing or forage fed cattle, the following must occur.
First, cattle producers identify specific supplementation needs. Second, they estimate nutrient content of standing forage or hay which may vary greatly. Once nutrient requirements have been established and a reasonable estimate of the nutrient contribution of the forage has been made, determining supplemental needs is simply a comparison of the two.
Next, it is a matter of finding feedstuff at the cheapest price and meets the animal’s nutrition requirements. First priority is the protein requirement to maximize forage intake. Many years of research have consistently shown that protein supplementation is extremely effective for cattle grazing protein-deficient forage. In fact, energy supplementation will not be effective if dietary protein is deficient.
Once protein is met, energy intake will be evaluated. The decision must be made whether the cattle need to maintain body weight, or gain weight, or allowed to lose some weight. This decision will dictate how much supplemental energy will be provided.
Lastly, vitamin and mineral requirements should be compared to make certain the vitamin and mineral intake will solve any potential deficiencies.
It should be noted that protein, energy, vitamins, and minerals all are important and necessary. One can think of a wooden barrel with each board representing each needed ingredient. In order for the barrel to hold water all board staves need to be at the correct level to maximize the water held. If one board is short that is where the water first leaks out. It also tells us how much water is held in the barrel. So it is with these ingredients. The ingredient which is low will limit the maximum growth of an animal.
Since grasses do not have high levels of energy, it takes a lot longer for calves to grow to 600 pounds unless their mothers are high milk producers. Livestock producers understand and balance all these to provide you with beef. Now some are meeting all the requirements to produce “all-natural“ beef which relies heavily on grass/forage and does not allow the use of antibiotics or growth hormone stimulators (implants).
Livestock producers know a lot about a lot of things and “all natural” is a way for producers to provide a high quality product to meet the varied needs of beef consumers.
For more information, call the Cooperative Extension livestock agent, Glenn Detweiler, at 828-465-8240.
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September 07, 2020 at 09:00PM
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All-natural beef calves are raised and sold in area - Hickory Daily Record
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