Food Stamps for Cows? Or Reducing Winter Feed Costs in the Near Term.

By Charles Cheyney, Extension Educator

The agricultural economy is kind of crazy. Wheat and corn are sky-high and growers are plowing out forage and pasture crops to plant these cereals, driving up the price of hay and pasture. Some cow-calf operators who grow alfalfa hay have been seduced by the high alfalfa prices and are now trying to figure out how and what to feed their cows. And while, cow calf operators are receiving some of the highest prices for their calves that they can remember, they are still having some trouble making ends meet. Why? Because of winter feeding costs, which can make up as much as 50% of the cost of production of a calf. It is all about ENERGY. Energy for fuel. Energy for human food, and energy for livestock feed. So what is a cowboy to do?

In the long run, there are any number of strategies and tactics that can be evaluated and employed to lower livestock production costs on an individual operation. These include growing annual forages for fall and winter feed as hay or pasture, using crop residues, stockpiling pasture, increasing grazing efficiency with fencing and water development, partitioning the herd for feeding by age, body condition score and reproductive status, changing the production cycle to more closely match feed production cycle, reducing cow size and more. But what can you do now that it is almost Christmas and you have no hay in the barn.

First, one needs to as do a “needs assessment” and inventory. One needs a good estimate of the nutrient (primarily energy and protein) requirements of the cows for all of the months or weeks to come until there will be green grass. This will change week by week as the cows approach parturition and begin lactating. This may include dividing the cow herd by age and reproductive status. Next we need an inventory of our possible or our existing energy and protein resources. This would include, inventory and feed analysis of any hay we do have, as well as estimating the availability, quantity and quality of any remaining crop residue and finally evaluating the energy reserves of the cows by using body condition scoring. This information can be turned into a nutrient budget, much like a cash flow budget, for energy and protein that will permit us to estimate what we will need to purchase in order to meet these needs.

So now what? You already knew that you didn’t have enough feed, but now you should know exactly what NUTRIENTS you need to purchase. This will probably be energy and/or protein. Every FEED has a complement or density of NUTRIENTS, but not every feed can meet the requirements of our livestock.

At this point we are ready to enter the market and evaluate feeds. Crop residues are going to be relatively high in energy that can go into animal maintenance, but low in protein. “Stock cow hay” is going to be a pretty good source of energy, but not so good as “dairy hay” for protein, and some by-product feeds are going to serve mostly as either energy or protein sources, but will contribute to BOTH. The only way to know what you are buying or feeding is to have a product analysis, ie. a feed analysis. This is particularly important for forages and “straight from the processor” by-products where there is either no way or no attempt to standardize the feed. For other products like meals, and cereals, the “book values” are often adequate for ranch use. Prepared supplements will have a guaranteed analysis.

Once you have the delivered prices of the FEED and its analysis, from the lab, feed tables or the labels, you are ready to evaluate the value of the NUTREIENTs in the feed. This can be done for each of the most important nutrients, energy, protein, calcium and phosphorus, and should be done on a 100% dry-matter basis.

Eg. Alfalfa Hay

CP 18%

DM 90%

Price: $250 per ton or $0.125/pound

1 ton (2000 lbs) of this alfalfa has 90% DM so 2000*.9=1800 lbs of DM

This 1800 lbs of dry matter has 18% CP so 1800*.18=324 lbs of CP..



…if this was the only reason we were purchasing this FEED was to supplement protein, then the value of the protein would be

$250 (price per ton of feed) / 324lbs (lbs of CP in the FEED) = $0.77 per pound of CP.

By repeating this for other protein supplements, we can compare their relative value to us. If we needed an additional nutrient, we could also subtract the value of the other nutrient in the feed before we computed the nutrient value for CP. For example, we could use barley or corn, which are primarily sources of energy, to value the energy in the alfalfa above, before we valued the CP. This would reduce the value allocated to the CP, and thereby lower its cost as a protein supplement, because it is also supplying energy. Although feeder hay is at near record prices, it may still be the cheapest source of nutrients.

There is simple software and/or spreadsheets available that will help you do this feed comparison and other fairly simple software that will help you formula a feeding plan based on the needs of your livestock and the cost and availability of hay, residue feeds, by-product feeds, crop residue and commercial feed supplements. With the above information you are ready to complete your feed budget and select the feeds that will meet your cows’ needs most economically.

There is one more, often unattractive, strategy for dealing with high feed prices. Transfer the feed costs to another operator. Partial or complete destocking, before you buy supplemental feed, is an option if your anticipated cost of production is not going to be covered by your anticipated revenue.

For more information or help with feed sampling and analysis, feed inventory evaluation, body condition scoring, and feed valuation or ration formulation and feed budgeting, contact your local University of Idaho Extension Office or go to the University of Idaho Beef Cattle Website at http://www.uidaho.edu/extension/beef