Beef cattle management stressed to farmers
■ By KENDACE BORRY
■EPHRATA - Beef cattle
■anagement was the topic
Ecussed at the Ephrata
Eea Young Farmers
■eeting held December 6, at
|e Ephrata High School,
dvisor Charles Ackley and
red Frey, of Frey Bros.,
uarryville, spoke on the
jpects of feeding programs
nd equipment necessary for
jeration of beef programs.
Accordiiig to Ackley, who
ased his-talk on research
one at thfe Michigan State
Iniversity, there are several
actors in management that
hrough careful work, can
liminate the extra costs of
}oor feedlot management.
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The following factors were
stressed:
Feeder quality and health
should be-good, being that a
careful farmer would buy
high performing cattle and
have a good health program.
His lot conditions would be
the most economical, and
have the least stress effect
on his animals. Feed intake
should be normal or above.
For his ration formulation
and feeding system, the
careful farmer uses a
balanced ration, with the
least cost, aiming for a
optimum combination of
grain and roughage feeding.
A careful feeder should
use both a growth stimulant
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and a metabolic stimulant.
He works to get the best sale
condition of his cattle,
aiming for a low choice,
yield grade of 2% to 3%.
By following these
management factors, the
differences in cost between a
careful feeder and a careless
feeder could amount to as
much as $l3B per steer under
optimum conditions, ac
cording to the Michigan
State University’s findings.
Then speaking about the
two-phase feeding system
for steers, Ackley explained
that in this program, all com
silage is fed to the cattle for
the first 300 lbs. of gain, then
a mixture of 42 per cent
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silage and 58 per cent con
centrate is fed until the
cattle are finished.
Advantages of the two
phase feeding system are
said to be that -the energy in
the com silage is utilized
more efficiently without the
added grain. Also the cattle
show what is known as a
compensatory growth when
switched from high forage to
high grain feed. In other
words, they get a more ef
ficient use of the diet when
being fed during the high
grain phase. It is also im
portant to remember that
Farmers watch as the special features of a head gate and chute are explained
at the EAYFA meeting.
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 10,1977—123
the rate of gam is highest
when the cattle are the
heaviest, therefore the cattle
will spend fewer days on
feed when the maintenance
requirements are the
greatest.
According to results of
testing the two phase feeding
system, cattle provided a
similar rate of gain but 1200
lbs. of less com silage was
used with the two-phase
system.
It was also said that the
advantages of the two-phase
system will change as com,
supplement, and NPN costs
change, but if a careful
farmer watches the prices of
his inputs, the two-phase
system will never be far
from being his most
profitable system.
Concerning the results of
starting cattle on hay, it was
brought out at the meeting
that research indicated that
regardless of the cattle
source or the method of
feeding hay, there was no
advantage to feeding hay to
new feeder cattle. The only
reason hay was fed to the
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