start to loosen back up instead of being stacked up and fi rm. If they are still stacking up after a week or 2 of feeding high protein cubes and protein meal, then increase the supplementation until you get the desired results, he says.
Other components of nutrition There are other components to ensuring your herd
is able to take full advantage of the available nutrition, both forages and supplements. Make sure there is good access to good, free-choice water. If they are not get- ting enough water, their feed intake will reduce and they will not be able to cool themselves as effi ciently. Keep a complete, loose mineral supplement avail-
able year round. In many cases, that same product will work year round. Banta says on introduced forages like bermudagrass and bahiagrass, the need is generally for a high-calcium, low-phosphorus supplement. For cattle grazing native range pasture, the typical supple- ment is more likely to be a 12-12 calcium/phosphorus ratio type mineral, also known as a 1-to-1 calcium/ phosphorus ratio. If the forage starts getting short, and lack of rain is
producing a drought situation, Banta advises taking the cows off the grass and placing them on a sacrifi ce
pasture. “We would be bringing in some hay and feed- ing those cattle some grain and concentrate to meet their nutrient needs,” he says. “We do that so we do not damage the rest of our pastures, so that when we do start getting some rain they can come back.” On native range, the general rule of thumb is to
“take half and leave half,” so ranchers should leave a 12- to 14-inch stubble height, or even a little more. On introduced pastures like bermudagrass, the cattle should be moved off the grass once it is below 3 to 4 inches. Under those circumstances, the cows’ access to forage
is being limited. They normally eat their fi ll, consuming roughly 2 to 2.5 percent of their body weight each day. Therefore, if cattle are moved onto a sacrifi ce pasture, Banta recommends consultation with a nutritionist in order to come up with a ration that would meet the full needs of the cattle. During times of normally declining pasture, he says,
“We want to be effi cient and economic with what we use, but we are not going to get quite as fi nely detailed because what we have in the pasture is always chang- ing. Therefore, we want to look at the high protein supplements. We can get protein from some other feed sources, but we would get it most economically from those feeds that are high in protein.”
tscra.org
September 2015 The Cattleman 107
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