Livestock Management RANCHING


problems in the calves’ digestive systems. At KSU, they tend to feed a higher level of protein


in the diet than is called for by the National Research Council. “Protein is a relatively inexpensive ingredient when you’re bringing a lot of co-product into a diet,” he says. Co-products are those grain products left over from a distillation process. Moisture level in the diet is also important. Blasi


believes inclusion of wet co-products adds to a good response by preventing the diet from getting too dry and allowing better blending and composition of the total mixed diet presented to the calves. There are a few other problems to watch for, among


them acidosis, but Blasi believes the distiller’s grains act to settle the rumen. Starchy grain is a more likely cause of this condition, especially if it’s too fi ne. Coccidiosis is also a concern. “We always utilize


Rumensin in our standard diet,” he says. “The Eime- ria cocci can get out of control and have an impact on performance and eventually intake. It can really set calves back if you allow that little insidious organism to get a foothold in the digestive tract.” Blasi says calves typically begin gaining weight 7 to 10 days after arrival, and their intake at the start


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is quite low. This creates the need for fortifi cation with protein and energy. Once they get on full feed, you can start to moderate the amount of roughage in the diet. He says KSU has just completed a study that found no difference in performance when calves are fed a 30 percent ammoniated wheat straw ration versus plain straw with a wet co-product added for moisture. “The roughage provides for good rumen function


but we saw no additional response from the ammo- niated wheat straw in the diet,” he says. Spire says once animal health safeguards are put


in place, management should be focused on getting the cattle onto a plane of nutrition that will bring them to a target weight by the end of their stay. “If we’ve cleaned the parasites out of them — both


internal and external — and we’ve minimized their disease risk, we have a really stable population. The only thing we have to worry about is the effect of major weather events, and we’ll adjust our rations and shelter accordingly for those conditions,” he says. “There’s a pretty minimal health risk issue in late fall and winter for the cattle we brought in earlier in the season.”


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