Consider options and factors involved in delivering efficient nutrition.

The nutritional requirements of beef cows change with their body weight, reproductive status, whether or not they are milking, and at what level. There is a pronounced cause and effect relationship between nutrition and cow efficiency. So the objective of the nutrition program should be to provide adequate nutrients for optimum reproductive efficiency and calf growth. Animal requirements are independent of what they are going to be fed. Given that we beef producers are incorrigible users of the total digestible nutrient (TDN) system, I've printed the nearby table. It lists TDN and protein needs of a 1,000- pound beef cow.

An army marches on its stomach; so does a cow herd. Bad things happen to tactically brilliant, albeit poor quartermaster generals. Cows on great feeding programs that don't eat the requisite groceries show reductions in reproductive efficiency. To balance your approach:

Determine the amount and quality of the forage inventory

The biggest bang for the buck is to test your available feed sources and estimate the amount available.

1) Evaluate amount and quality of stockpiled forage. Cows will consume dormant grass that is in relatively good condition. As standing forage quality and quantity decline, a greater proportion of the feed needs to come from supplemental sources.

2) Evaluate the amount and quality of the hay and silage available for feeding. Questions such as the tons or cubic feet of silage available, moisture and protein content are going to be important to know. Likewise, knowing the number, weight, moisture and protein content of hay bales is important. Accurate weights and moisture contents are needed. Being 10 percent off on guessing the weight of a big bale actually weighing 1,200 pounds, makes you 120 pounds off per bale fed. This can have a substantial influence on the amount of nutrients provided to the herd. With silage, the moisture will vary the most. This will be most noticeable between years, cuttings, and crops. Feeding 50 pounds per head per day of 64 percent moisture corn silage is not the same as feeding 50 pounds of 75 percent moisture Sudangrass silage.

3) Feeding method will influence how much feed needs to be fed. Feeding on the ground tends to drastically increase feed waste. Feed usage of forage fed on the ground approaches the harvest efficiency of grazing, about 65 percent. Feeding in ring feeders or silage in bunks reduces feed losses and eliminates "silage burn," the problem where silage laying on the ground kills the grass.

If feeding hay on the ground, using a hay feeder is nearly always recommended. As the table below shows, using a feeder will reduce the feed cost per head per day compared to feeding on the ground.

Consider your animal inventory

Your feed needs will be largely determined by your herd inventory. Thin cows will eat a larger proportion of their body weight than will fleshier cows. Body condition score (BCS) 7 to 9 cows will eat about 1.5 percent of bodyweight; BCS 5 to 6 cows will eat about 1.75 percent bodyweight; and BCS 2 to 4 cows will eat 2 to 2.5 percent of their bodyweight. Thinner cows are cows that will respond best to gaining weight prior to calving. The nutrient requirements of a cow have some play-a fudge factor is usually included. Cow requirements increase when they are wet and cold, under heat stress, last trimester of pregnancy, milking, etc.

On spring-calving cows, BCS should be evaluated at weaning. Fall BCS and subsequent breeding success are related. It is common for a cow to lose weight as she winters, but BCS at weaning has been shown to be a good indicator of the next year's breeding success.

The advantages of getting cows from a BCS of 3 or 4 to 5 or 6 are huge. The time to check to see if cows need to be supplemented to change BCS is at weaning.

Cattle Charge is effective at quickly putting weight onto cows. Assume you have a 1,050-pound cow at a BCS of 4, and you want to move her to a BCS of 5 to weigh about 1,140. That type of weight change requires about 195 megacalories of net energy above maintenance to add the weight. Feeding 15 pounds a day of Cattle Charge would get the weight on in about 3 weeks. If we only fed 5 pounds a day of Cattle Charge, it would take 2 months.

Make the calculation

Cows will have a lower requirement when dry than when milking. At weaning the cows will be under less environmental stress than they will be in January, and you have more days to affect the weight change than you will have when they are closer to calving. For the exercise here, let's take 40 cows at 1,200 pounds each, two 1,900-pound bulls, 15 bred heifers weighing 900 pounds each, and 15 of this year's heifers at 550 pounds.

Armed with the feed resources we have, knowing what animals we want to carry and estimating intake at 1.75 percent of body weight for the adult animals, 2.25 percent of body weight for the bred heifers, and 2.5 of body weight for the younger heifers, we can calculate what daily feed needs. Pushing the calculator buttons shows the animals will need about 1,420 pounds of dry matter a day. Assuming a grazing efficiency of 65 percent, this roughly translates to an acre per day of 12-inch-high, stockpiled fescue pasture. If the forage resembles the height of a putting green, the herd will need about 1,850 pounds of dry feed a day.

What to supplement

Given adequate availability of stockpiled forage, if the forage is 6 to 8 percent protein, we would like to feed 3 to 5 pounds of MFA 20% Cattle Breeder cubes. If the hay being fed was 6 to 8 percent protein, the same recommendation applies. When the forage base has a protein content greater than 8 percent crude protein, 2 pounds of cubes are recommended. If the herd was to be fed with an 8 percent protein corn silage, the supplementation need is principally for protein, so we would be looking at 1 to 1.25 pounds of a 40 percent protein supplement, such as Super Beef 40. We nearly always need to get at least 2 pounds of crude protein fed to cows, every day. Depending on the analysis of the forage, you may wish to feed 3 to 5 additional pounds of TrendSetter Developer or TrendSetter SLR to the smaller heifers. It is very important to keep the heifers that will be calving in good flesh. Research and field experience has shown that thin heifers have greater calf losses and poorer subsequent reproductive efficiency than heifers in good flesh.

Assuming that winter feeding will continue until April 1, we get an idea of how much supplemental is needed.

In short feed situations

Consider substituting concentrate feeding for forage feeding.

Use an additive that improves feed efficiency, such as Bovatec.

Diligently hand feed the needed protein and energy to maintain condition and performance.