Self Limiting Feed?

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gto05

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I backgrounded cattle a few times before, but I had the ability to feed them everyday because I was within 20 minunutes of them. Now I have pasture thats about 45-60 minutes away and I cannot make it out there everyday to feed them. I have the ability to get a self limiting feed from the MFA, (not sure of the name of the feed) and a self feeder. My question is has anyone used a self limiting feed before? And does it work like it suppose to or is there still overeating/waste of feed, or anything like that?

Ben
 
We Feed It Last Summer. Because of the Shortage of Grass On a Count on The Dry Summer.

It Didnt Really Work that well for us. The Cows Seemed to do Just as Well Without it.

If We Could get a Truck back where the Cows Where. We Wouldnt have USed it. But in your Case its probly the Only Opition.
 
Hey guys, I knew a guy in South Dakota who would feed his bulls on fish meal. He let them eat all that they could, he said because of the taste it limited them and worked out to about 7lbs a day of this feed with fish meal.

I have had fish as a meal but never fish meal
 
We feed a modified intake ration that works really well. The COOP makes it into pellets and limits the intake with how much salt is added. We feed one that limits them to 1 to 2 % of their weight per day. The only way to go if you can't feed twice a day.
 
GTO:

We creep with a couple of feeds from the local MFA. Sometimes we use Cattlecharge which is a self limiting 12% feed. Other times we use Trendsetter which is also self limiting but is 16% protein. Both seem to do the job, although I've found a custom mix I'd like to try if I can convince my dad. The cattlecharge seems to put a little more flesh on them. One of the selling points of using the Trendsetter is that it is supposed to provide growth without getting the calves overly fleshy. The Trendsetter is about $8.60 per cwt. Cattlecharge is about $1 cheaper. We've been using the Trendsetter more lately as it seems that the calves eat less but gain the same or a little better. This has been our experience.
 
with one of these feeds is best foe holstein steers. second when you use a self controling feeds do you mix this with just corn or do you mix it with a mixed feed like a 12% sweet feed.
 
Is there some ratio you use to know how much salt to add to custom mixed feed to start limiting. If not how do you figure this out. Thanks. Kyle
 
txfarmer

Cattle will eat a max of .1lb salt/day per 100lb body weight. 1000 cow will eat 1 lb salt max. If you want 1000 lb cow limited to eat only 2lb supplement, mix 2lb supplement with 1lb salt, for 5 lb/day supplement, mix ix 5 lb supplement with 1 lb salt.

In recent Progressive Farmer a salt-cottonseed meal mix was referred to as a "hot mix". Here it is usually referred to as "range meal" Range meal has been used for over 40 years that I know of.

Good luck & happy trails

Brock
 
I looked into Acuration. Per the salesmen - - they get better results than with salt limiting. Price wise its cheaper than pelleted creep feeds but a lot more than home raised grains.

Has anyone tried to self feed pastured stockers with ground ear corn (rather than the Acuration corn grain and fish meal blend)??? I assume that ear corn has enough fiber in it to avoid upsets but the stockers would get fleshy??
 
You will find varying opinions on here but, I use a 60%corn and 40% bean meal and they consume right about 8lb. per day. Leave it in the self feeder and have had no problems!
 
[email protected]":7y8wnod2 said:
You will find varying opinions on here but, I use a 60%corn and 40% bean meal and they consume right about 8lb. per day. Leave it in the self feeder and have had no problems!


Thanks for the reply! Some follow up:

This is 60% ear corn or corn grain?
How big are the animals that self feed an average of 8 lb per day?
The rest is pasture?
 
Stocker Steve":2mzhxa4p said:
[email protected]":2mzhxa4p said:
You will find varying opinions on here but, I use a 60%corn and 40% bean meal and they consume right about 8lb. per day. Leave it in the self feeder and have had no problems!


Thanks for the reply! Some follow up:

This is 60% ear corn or corn grain?
How big are the animals that self feed an average of 8 lb per day?
The rest is pasture?
And that 48% Bean Meal on top of it all...
 
Stocker Steve":2jd3i7t0 said:
I looked into Acuration. Per the salesmen - - they get better results than with salt limiting. Price wise its cheaper than pelleted creep feeds but a lot more than home raised grains.

Has anyone tried to self feed pastured stockers with ground ear corn (rather than the Acuration corn grain and fish meal blend)??? I assume that ear corn has enough fiber in it to avoid upsets but the stockers would get fleshy??

Steve

IMO-you should be able to self feed ground ear corn with out acidosis if you systematically work them up to full feed over a 2-3 week period. Have done this many years ago. Feeding grain at more than .3-.5% of body weight will depress forage digestibility & intake. Ground ear corn is a little bulky and tends to bridge more than pellets. You will need feeders with adjustable openings.

IMO-stockers will get fleshy pretty quickly if self fed ground ear corn. For a least cost growing ration or supplement, I would look into either dried distillers grain or corn gluten feed. As a pasture suppplement they can be fed only 2-3 times weekly instead of daily. If you would feed 5lb/day, that would be 35lb/week. This would be 11.67 lb/hd 3 times weekly. With adequate grass & feeding after their morning graze, should be no bloat risk with this amount of feed. These byproducts are over 20% protein & have good energy due to highly digestible fiber. Due to the fact that most of the energy comes from digestible fiber instead of starch these products will not depress forage intake, but complement it. They make excellent supplements for summer grass or can be blended with soy hulls for a complete ration. Do a google search for [ byproduct feeds ] this will give lots of good info about feeding many different byproduct.

Just another 2 cents worth

Good luck & happy trails.

Brock
 
My grinder broke down so I ordered in a load of Purina Acuration to try. It is not cheap - - about $150 a ton dielivered. The salesmen claims it improves feed conversion... Any experience out there?
 

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