10% Protrein, 10 % fat feed

[PaMike]

I background Holstein steer calves. I have lots of pasture and hay, but I am looking for a cheap supliment to feed in the winter, and to the 200-300 lb calves yearround. I saw an ad in the farm paper for candy meal with 10% fat and 10% protein. Its only $65 a ton. Can someone give me a crash course on the amounts of fat and protein an animal needs. I am feedin mixed grass baleage to the 450-800 lb calves , and mixed dry hay to the younger ones.
Thanks

 

[Howdyjabo]

Unless you have a mixer grinder-- its too dangerous. And it doesn't have enough protien to use as a single source supplement .

 

[feelnrite]

How about corn gluten pellets or soy hull pellets. They are not much higher.

 

[Howdyjabo]

????
They are both conciderably higher in protien
and much safer choices to be hand fed.
They also add to the fibre conversion instead of taking away from it.

buying SBH in the summer is usually your best all round supplement buy.
At $69/ton(what I have been paying) its a nutritional bargain.

I would pay $89+/ton for SBH over $65/ton for candy--- If I didn't have a TMR mixer. and even with a mixer I would specifically need extra energy and fat to balance up a high protien/fibre ration before I would make use of it. .

 

[alabama]

No such thing as a free lunch.

 

[dcara]

Below is a link to a paper titled "Nutrient requirements of beef cattle". You'll note that FAT is not a requirement. It is a source of very high energy though. However, it can cause digestive problems it the daily ration contains more than about 5% fat. If you have plenty of hay and pasture then I think you would probably be better off supplementing protien first which will increase there forage (and hence energy) intake. If your forage is very poor quality and doesn't contain enough TDN for adequate energy then you may want to supplement energy. You would need a forage test to determine this, or a way to measure how much they were eating vs. how much they were gaining. There are many tables of feed stuff values around. I think I saw one posted on these boards recently. If you need help determineing what proportions of various feed stuffs to mix to achieve a daily ration of the desired nutirtion targets I can sen you a copy of a Excel speadsheet I wrote which can calculate these values for you.



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