TexasBred":3uss9bdc said:
dcara":3uss9bdc said:
Cubes are 8.20 here. A couple of other alternatives are:
- Range meal (usually CSM with salt limiter to make it free coice). still 20% protien as fed but usually a little cheaper.
- Cotten Seed meal. 10.46 a bag here but at 41% protien it is still way cheaper per pound of protien. Not free range though.
- 10 % protien Hay at $200/ton works out to same protien cost as $10/bag cubes but doesn't have all the minerals cubes have.
The cattle will benefit much more from that ton of hay than they will those $10 cubes if you have to make the choice.
Well, not necessarily. If he were feeding nothing but range cubes, that is, his cattle had no opportunity to pasture, then yes he might come out ahead. But rarely, unless he is running a feedlot, does the average producer just feed out range cubes and nothing else.
He mentions hay at 10% protein, so I gather it's been tested and that is an absolute number for that hay bale. But, what about the others, what about micro-nutrients? Odds are, those are unknowns. With range cubes, you know what your getting, every time, every bag and if the cattle have access to any roughage at all, they'll be good. As Caustic mentioned, a good liquid feed with cheap hay will work real well, keeping the cattle in condition.