By the time this article makes print, most of you will have weaned your calves and will be counting hay bales to see if you have enough for the winter.

Large areas of the state went through a serious drought, leaving many cows in poor condition. The hay yield was considerably less than expected and many producers had to start feeding hay in midsummer. Some elected to chop their corn for corn silage and have an abundance of it stored. Given these conditions, let's discuss some nutrition strategies that you might consider.

If you came through a drought, you probably have a beef herd that is not in as good of flesh as normal. Many cows may be in body condition scores of 4 (BCS 4) and some with a BCS of 3 or even less. If these cows are pregnant, without knowing the severity of the upcoming winter, we need to get these BCS numbers up to 5. If we can get our cow's BCS to a 5, we only need to provide protein supplement through the winter. Any grain feeding through this gestating period will only reduce the digestibility of the hay. This will reduce hay consumption with very little improvement in weight gain.

On the other hand, if we provide protein supplement alone the digestibility of the hay and hay consumption increase by 30 to 50 percent. This maximizes the use of your hay.

Furthermore, if you feed Breeder Cubes, you can feed every other day or two times per week versus feeding every day and not depress performance. Not to be misconstrued-you need to feed the same 14 lbs. of Breeder Cubes per week regardless of the frequency that you feed them.

Getting low scored cows into shape
You want to get them in shape quickly and usually only a few select animals qualify for this rapid weight gaining situation.

1. Feed Cattle Charge full feed until desired BCS is achieved. Data at the MFA research farm showed that cows ate 25 to 30 lbs. of Cattle Charge per day and gained 6 lbs. per day. You can see that with 6 lbs. gain per day, it doesn't take very long for an animal to gain 100 pounds.
2. Feed corn and SLR mixed half and half. Though there is cost advantage in using this approach, there is a risk of throwing cattle off feed. Because of the corn, the cattle need to be adjusted to this diet over a 2-week period. This means starting slow. This approach will cost less than the Cattle Charge option, but there will be additional labor for the first 14 days. And since we are starting them slower, it will take an extra 7 to 10 days to achieve the same results as with Cattle Charge.
3. Producers who have chopped corn silage and have little hay may want to feed silage every other day or even 2 times per week to these low BCS cows. Feed approximately 20 to 25 lbs. per head per day or 40 to 50 lbs. every other day. These poor conditioned cows should gain 2.5 to 3 lbs. per day, assuming there is hay or grass available to pick up the slack. Even drought corn silage is high in energy, but it is also low in protein. Therefore a protein supplementation regime of Breeder Cubes, QLF liquid supplement, protein blocks, or MFA salt mix (20 percent protein, 30 percent salt) should be fed.

Through the winter, corn silage will work on a 2-times weekly feeding plan at 40 lbs. per head per feeding along with hay and protein supplementation.

When the temperature is below freezing, silage will need to be fed at the amount the cows can clean up in a normal feeding time. This is usually 30 to 60 minutes depending on whether there is enough bunk space available for every cow.

If it is not muddy or the ground is frozen, feeding on the ground is probably your best bet.

When cows are scheduled to start calving I would highly recommend offering TrendSetter SLR or corn and TrendSetter SLR with corn at 50:50 for free choice feeding. With straight TrendSetter SLR, our experience is that cows eat 8 to 10 lbs. (assuming there is plenty of hay available).

With corn and Trendsetter SLR mixed 50:50, the adjustment period if cows aren't used to grain will be double. Do this until 30 days after calving. The result will be stronger, healthier calves with less scouring, increased weight gain and higher immunities.

The cows will give more milk and utilize the extra energy at 70 percent efficiency versus only 35 percent when they are not lactating.

They will also cycle sooner and have better conception rates. You get twice the punch when you grain the cows at calving and shortly after.