Nutrition
Nutrition Articles
Finishing Young Stock on the Farm
In discussions with cow/calf producers the topic of finishing calves comes up often. Most farmers want a simple way to estimate the cost of doing this rather than selling the calves at some time after weaning in the fall. Many questions are understandably about the cost of feed. In order to do this calculation the full cost of production needs to be taken into consideration. Facilities are needed and a means of delivering feed accurately so that the ‘best cost’ diets are not wasted. Highline’s AMX 850T is a twin screw pull type mixer which is performing well mixing both high forage and high grain rations accurately. There is also a self-propelled self- loading mixer option for the larger units, the AM1000s.
Starter rations for calves new to the feed yard contain high forage components as well as mineral, some grain and often DDGS to get them started settling into the feed lot. These ingredients shift as the animal moves to grower then finisher rations by increasing the grain portion and diminishing the forage component. Processing the barley to 65% of original volume or steam processing corn is common to increase energy yield. By changing ingredients slowly over the course of 14 to 21 days the rumen microbiota adapt to increasing grain by shifting bacterial populations that can maximize starch digestion and reduce populations that utilize fibre. Changing ingredients too quickly cause rumen upset and can cause the ration to pass quickly from the rumen without full digestion. This results in lost growth and a
period of reset for the rumen.
The Manitoba government agriculture staff has developed finishing rations which can act as a guideline for this cost estimate activity.
Beef cattle on finishing or full feed rations are typically allowed to eat as much as they can consume. An animal on full feed will eat approximately 85% of its ration as grain and the remaining 15% as forage. A link is provided for this information. https://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/livestock/production/beef/rations-for-finishing-beef-cattle.html
Once the ration schedule is established then assign prices to the ingredients that reflect what they can be purchased for locally. Although they may have been grown on the farm they have a market value that is real and could captured. This will give us a value for each ration which can then be expressed in cost per pound. Over all feed efficiency will be 4 to 5 pounds of feed to 1 pound of gain initially and drop to 7 to 8 pounds of feed per pound of gain in the late finishing stage. Overall the feed efficiency of the finishing period should be about 6:1 in general using commonly available ingredients. For an example of calculating cost to add 550 lbs. to an animal with a ration costing $0.14/lb and a feed efficiency of 6:1 it means adding $462.00 per animal in cost not accounting for death loss or waste. Ways to reduce cost by using post-consumer material like bread or cookie meal are more common now than in the past.
For a more detailed cost calculation I inserted approximate costs for ingredients into a Cost of Production worksheet also found on the MAFRI website. The price for livestock is drawn from the Saskatchewan weekly livestock sales report for input to the model. This will approximate the values for cattle fed and subsequently sold later.
Here is a link to the cost of production sheets for Manitoba https://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/farm-management/production-economics/cost-of-production.html . In using these sheets for a quick indication for the decision to background calves they are showing a positive return to investment. Using the finishing cattle worksheet it shows a loss position. Each farm has unique conditions and calculations should be done on your specific set of costs.
These costs need to be calculated carefully and more than once as the cattle markets have proven to be very fluid. If the decision is made to finish or background calves then all efforts to hedge and insure the animals should be taken. Feed is a large part of finishing beef animals and much of that is grain. The crop picture is somewhat uncertain in the US and parts of Canada and this could push prices of feed up. Locking in the needed feed will give some certainty to the decision to finish and Highline mixers can help with accurately mixing rations. This information is provided as a guide to a method of calculating a likely outcome not as a recommendation.