Hiring a Nutritionist

[skip7879]

I know from reading alot if post on this blog that alot of you are pretty smart when it comes to feed ingrediants. I have just started feeding out holstein steers and looking into trying to make it more than just 10 to 15 head. I live in Iowa where there are all sorts of byproducts available but how do I utilize these to the best of my ability. I am thinking about maybe getting a nutritionist to help me get bigger by using less corn and more byproducts. When I was a dairy herdsman all the dairies I worked on had nutritionists. How many of you have them? what do they charge? Do you find them usefull and worth the money? Just looking for some of your experiances?

 

[Engler]

Feeding 15 head you really can't take advantage of the byproducts the way that you want to. Wet distillers has a shelf life of 10-14 days during the summer in Iowa, no way you can make that work without having 90% spoilage. Some of the other byproducts are less bad, but you have to buy in such a large volume that I don't think there is any way to make that work on your scale.

As far as hiring a nutritionist, DO IT!!! There are several feeders that I work with that have hired several different ones and they have all lowered the cost of gain by at least a dime, sometimes double that or more. Being a little guy the big rollers may not want to mess with you, but there should be someone at your co-op that can point you in the right direction.

 

[skip7879]

Your right 15 head doesn't make it economical to use by products. I want to get bigger more like 75 to 100 to make by products a more viable option.

 

[Howdyjabo]

Steve Bledzinger (featured writer for Cattle Today) has been really helpful to me
But I would start with local extension agents to get a feel for the basic options before I started paying to ask questions.
Do your homework before you call a nutritionist
they need to know what you have available and at what cost
and what the moisture is running for your source if using a wet ingredient
Also if its an odd ingredient you need to have an analysis done so they know what they are working with.

Cumberland Valley has a great service- they give some advice with their analysis of feeds/ingredients you send them.

 

[Amo]

Check with your extension agent. Iowa State should have some data on storing by products through the summer. If not check with UNL...nebraska. 15 you still cant stockpile WDDG. Your bigger #'s you can utilize it better.