Feeding a young bull

[cajunman]

I have Charilais bull that is 9 months old. I am feeding him 1 1/2 gallons of feed twice a day, calve creep feed 12% and a bull mix feed that has crushed corn, cotton seed and not sure what eles. It is 10%.
He has good hay, very good grass and is all alone to himself. Am I feeding him to much feed ? He weights about 600 - 650 now. He will be alone till he is ready to breed in the late fall.

Thanks for any help

 

[bigbull338]

looks like your feeding him good.except that id feed him 1.5 to 2% of his BW.an feed him a 16% feed.because you want him breeding size an weight at 16 to 18 months.

 

[TexasBred]

I'd throw out that creep pellet and feed him the bull feed only.....and weigh my feed out rather than feeding it by the scoop or bucket. 99% chance the creep is only hurting your feed quality.

 

[CSM]

I would not feed the cotton seed.

CSM

 

[Jovid]

I would put him on full feed......600 lbs at nine months he is going to need all the feed he can eat.

 

[TexasBred]

For a 600 lb. bull not yet at puberty cottonseed will be a great ingredient. Most feeds that have it don't have over a couple hundred lbs. per ton so he won't be getting a lot anyway, but what he gets is packed with protein, fat, fiber and ENERGY. Feed that rascal. He's got some growing to do.

 

[TexasBred]

Angus....11% to 11.5% is more than adequate. Adequate energy is where you get your gain. Just feed a good high energy feed which normally means you need a textured or meal type feed so you can actually see the grain in it. A 4%-5% or higher fat content would be nice as well. Some feed companies will make a pellet with a few corn chops thrown into the mix knowing every corn chop will show up giving the impression that it contains a lot of corn when in fact, the corn you see is about all that's in the mix.

 

[novatech]

TB - Thank you. That's about what their getting. Here's another potential problem. I have them in an outer corral. I visit them twice a week. They have fresh water and some grass. In the feeder I'm putting in about 200 lbs of my feed mix. That last for 4.5 days which works out to about 22 lbs a day each. Is this too much in your opinion?

A little much if they were just weaned, assuming about 500 to 600 lbs. They should be eating 2.75 to 3 % of their body weight per day, plus all the hay or grass they want.

 

[KNERSIE]

TB - I have a similar situation. What percentage of protein should they be getting, in your opinion?

Up till about 14 months they should get about 14% protein in a fullfeed mix. After that you can drop the protein to about 12 %. You don't want to overdo the energy as that tends to have fat collect in the neck of the scrotum which is almost impossible to get rid of and that can really hamper fertility especially in hot weather.

Rather make sure he has the protein he needs to digest hay and let him make his own energy by digesting the good quality hay (cellulose breaking down will create energy), that will make for a sounder bull with better longevity.

Feeding at 2 - 2.5% of body weight would be more than adequate.

 

[mnmtranching]

I just looked at some registered bulls. 30 bulls 14-15 month old average weight over 1400 and ready to go to work. Fed on good corn silage, mixed green hay, 5 pounds of 15% consisting of rolled oats, DDG,and 40% protein. Could be the best pen of bulls I've seen.

 

[KNERSIE]

I just looked at some registered bulls. 30 bulls 14-15 month old average weight over 1400 and ready to go to work. Fed on good corn silage, mixed green hay, 5 pounds of 15% consisting of rolled oats, DDG,and 40% protein. Could be the best pen of bulls I've seen.

They were certainly not shortchanged on the protein. This type of feeding regime just makes much more sense to me than just fattening them up on energy.

 

[mnmtranching]

KNERSIE , I bought one of the bulls, pics coming soon.

 

[TexasBred]

I just looked at some registered bulls. 30 bulls 14-15 month old average weight over 1400 and ready to go to work. Fed on good corn silage, mixed green hay, 5 pounds of 15% consisting of rolled oats, DDG,and 40% protein. Could be the best pen of bulls I've seen.

They were certainly not shortchanged on the protein. This type of feeding regime just makes much more sense to me than just fattening them up on energy.

I still consider energy the most critical element in a feed ration. You can build a feed with any desired protein level you want but it doesn't guarantee the desired gain. Range cubes are an example. High protien, low energy...."maintenance only to supplement low protein hay". Cattle on full feed usually gain faster and require less feed energy for a pound of gain when they consume high-energy rations. This is due to a larger daily energy intake, which results in a larger percentage of the daily energy being left for gain after body maintenance requirements have been met. Excess protein is simply excreted...aka "Pi$$ing off your money".

 

[KNERSIE]

I just looked at some registered bulls. 30 bulls 14-15 month old average weight over 1400 and ready to go to work. Fed on good corn silage, mixed green hay, 5 pounds of 15% consisting of rolled oats, DDG,and 40% protein. Could be the best pen of bulls I've seen.

They were certainly not shortchanged on the protein. This type of feeding regime just makes much more sense to me than just fattening them up on energy.

I still consider energy the most critical element in a feed ration. You can build a feed with any desired protein level you want but it doesn't guarantee the desired gain. Range cubes are an example. High protien, low energy...."maintenance only to supplement low protein hay". Cattle on full feed usually gain faster and require less feed energy for a pound of gain when they consume high-energy rations. This is due to a larger daily energy intake, which results in a larger percentage of the daily energy being left for gain after body maintenance requirements have been met. Excess protein is simply excreted...aka "Pi$$ing off your money".

If it was a feedlot situation I would agree completely, but the bull in question need to go WORK on pasture, so I'd rather supplement him with protein while the bulk of his food is roughage, either good hay, baleage, silage, pasture or whatever is available and afoordable.

 

[TexasBred]

Well the bull in question weights 600 lbs. Certainly all cattle need an adequate amount of roughage but you don't get that much gain and growth off roughage alone when you're really trying to push one to max. potential. A good "in the middle mix" would contain 60% corn along with 300 lbs. of cottonseed hulls to the ton and enough cottonseed/soybean meal to maintain an adequate protein level along with vitamins,minerals and yeast products.