Where to find a good dry fat supplement to add to my finishing mix of feed

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Hello, I am finishing out some steers by mixing sweet feed (Lonestar Sweet Treat) and cracked corn. The sweet feed is 10% protein and about 50% starch but only 2-3% fat, actually for sweet feed that is very good-the best but I want better. I can't help but think I would benefit from kicking that fat % over all to around 7% or higher. My dream is to have a mixed feed 13-14% protein, 8%+ fat and 60%+ starch. I think I would of been finished feeding them out by now if I had

To increase the fat, I could mix in rice bran (12% fat) but then its reducing the starch too much (at least I think it is, and its kinda expensive). Its been a real chore trying to figure out how much starch in a lot of these mixed feeds since its not listed on the bag 99% of the time. To find out the starch, I have to email or call the manufacture and wait for them to respond. Meanwhile, I got 4 mouths eating about 25-28 pounds of feed a day-per head like its nothing. Currently, they are 18 -20 months old steers. I am taking one of them to the processer this month (already sold in 1/4s) BTW, they are F1's 1/2 wagyu and 1/2 Brangus

I looked in to soy or cotton seed mill and 90% of the oils are removed to be sold to different markets, it seemed good for increasing the protein but that's it. I have not found unprocessed cotton seed or soy that is just "milled" anywhere here in Texas

Would any one know a good way to increase the fat without scarifying too much the starch and protein?

Thanks
 
First - WHAT are you feeding? Small bottle raised calves, weaned calves, yearlings? What WEIGHT?
I don't know where you are getting your information, but I will tell you what I do.
I take my Sept/Oct steers, weaned around Mar/Apr. I start them with 1% of their body weight of whole shell corn + enough protein pellet to make a 14% ration. Corn is 9% protein. After about a week, I raise the the #s of corn as long as they are cleaning it up. Your goal is for them to consume 3% of their BW each day - AND all the good grass HAY or grass they can eat free choice. When they get to about 800-850#, they only need about 10-12% protein, so good hay & WSC is all they need thru finish.
My calves are Simmental and will weigh 600-750# at weaning. I finish them at 12-13 months of age with 750# + carcass weight and will go Choice. My husband was a bovine feed nutritionist and we have been feeding steers for over 50 years. Steers are NOT my main product. I sell breeding stock. But, I guarantee you, you DO NOT need to worry about FAT in their feed. You need to worry about putting on pounds and FAT. CORN will do that.
Think about your own diet. CARBS (corn) puts on fat - PROTEIN (meat) keeps you lean.
Edit to add: feed MINERALS. I feed free-choice loose minerals designed for feeders.
 
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First - WHAT are you feeding? Small bottle raised calves, weaned calves, yearlings? What WEIGHT?
I don't know where you are getting your information, but I will tell you what I do.
I take my Sept/Oct steers, weaned around Mar/Apr. I start them with 1% of their body weight of whole shell corn + enough protein pellet to make a 14% ration. Corn is 9% protein. After about a week, I raise the the #s of corn as long as they are cleaning it up. Your goal is for them to consume 3% of their BW each day - AND all the good grass HAY or grass they can eat free choice. When they get to about 800-850#, they only need about 10-12% protein, so good hay & WSC is all they need thru finish.
My calves are Simmental and will weigh 600-750# at weaning. I finish them at 12-13 months of age with 750# + carcass weight and will go Choice. My husband was a bovine feed nutritionist and we have been feeding steers for over 50 years. Steers are NOT my main product. I sell breeding stock. But, I guarantee you, you DO NOT need to worry about FAT in their feed. You need to worry about putting on pounds and FAT. CORN will do that.
Think about your own diet. CARBS (corn) puts on fat - PROTEIN (meat) keeps you lean.
That is good advice, for feeding cattle in a cooler climate. The problem is that CharleyCap is trying to finish steers in the heat of a Texas summer. When starch is fed to a ruminant, most of it is fermented in the rumen which produces heat. A good thing in the winter of upstate New York, a bad thing in when the weather is hot. It hot conditions you want to reduce the load on the rumen by feeding things like distillers grains which has the protein, fat and fiber components of corn and citrus pulp that has sugars and pectin.
I am in California and I have stopped feeding grains in favor of byproducts. I get a 20% protein pellet from a feed mill that has distillers grains, safflower meal, wheat mids and rice bran. I feed that free choice with almond hulls and standing dry grass to my bull calves. They have done well on that program and can select how much protein, energy and fiber they want.

I would see if you can buy feed from a mill and get it delivered in bulk so you can get what you need.
 
You need to find a co-op that can mix feeds and ditch the sweet feed. It will be cheaper and they can customize a ration to your specs while giving guidance.

I feed whole cotton seed. You can look up the protein, fat, fiber, etc. I'm guessing you could feed it with corn as both are pretty desirable. Both can be bought in bulk also if you have a gin around and would likely be cheaper than the sweet feed. There are rations online where they grind it up and slowly walk the corn up.

I'm just not sure all that is needed and I could see you actually going backwards by throwing a bunch of feed at them. You might have better luck the next couple of months, also. Finishing out any thing in July and Aug can be tough.
 
That is good advice, for feeding cattle in a cooler climate. The problem is that CharleyCap is trying to finish steers in the heat of a Texas summer. When starch is fed to a ruminant, most of it is fermented in the rumen which produces heat. A good thing in the winter of upstate New York, a bad thing in when the weather is hot. It hot conditions you want to reduce the load on the rumen by feeding things like distillers grains which has the protein, fat and fiber components of corn and citrus pulp that has sugars and pectin.
I am in California and I have stopped feeding grains in favor of byproducts. I get a 20% protein pellet from a feed mill that has distillers grains, safflower meal, wheat mids and rice bran. I feed that free choice with almond hulls and standing dry grass to my bull calves. They have done well on that program and can select how much protein, energy and fiber they want.

I would see if you can buy feed from a mill and get it delivered in bulk so you can get what you need.
, i need to get some mouse proof barrels and buy in bulk


You need to find a co-op that can mix feeds and ditch the sweet feed. It will be cheaper and they can customize a ration to your specs while giving guidance.

I feed whole cotton seed. You can look up the protein, fat, fiber, etc. I'm guessing you could feed it with corn as both are pretty desirable. Both can be bought in bulk also if you have a gin around and would likely be cheaper than the sweet feed. There are rations online where they grind it up and slowly walk the corn up.

I'm just not sure all that is needed and I could see you actually going backwards by throwing a bunch of feed at them. You might have better luck the next couple of months, also. Finishing out any thing in July and Aug can be tough.
think your right, i have not found a cooperative co-op yet, still trying, these steers spend most of the day laying under the cedar trees. Heat is not your friend
 
@CharleyCap would mixing used cooking oil in the feed help. When we had the gas station the local feedstore had a cube mill and they'd take all of our used cooking oil. Most restaurants would give you all you wanted I'm sure.
 
@CharleyCap would mixing used cooking oil in the feed help. When we had the gas station the local feedstore had a cube mill and they'd take all of our used cooking oil. Most restaurants would give you all you wanted I'm sure.
Or buy the cheapest 2.5 gallon jugs of vegetable oil at WalMart. Sometimes can find 5 gal jugs.
 
Here's an article from PennState about fat in a beef ration. It gives good info on what can be added to up the fat content. But notice it cations to keep it under 7%.
Ditch the sweet feed and talk to your feed store on a more economical and effective feed. They likely already have something available, lots of people out there feeding a handful of fats at a time, but they don't do it with sweet feed.

Link
 
I can't speak to TX. But I do feed corn in the humid summers here in TN. Give em shade, water, and free choice mature first cut hay. Gotta keep the gut functioning.

I use whole corn most of the time. The benefit of scratching thru the gut sold me after I had some trouble with them going off feed while eating ground/cracked corn. I pour it to them. 2% bodyweight plus. Every now and then I have one that doesn't eat as much as the rest, as well as one that'll eat more than the rest.

I doubt this helps you, just thought I'd share what I do.
 
Here's an article from PennState about fat in a beef ration. It gives good info on what can be added to up the fat content. But notice it cations to keep it under 7%.
Ditch the sweet feed and talk to your feed store on a more economical and effective feed. They likely already have something available, lots of people out there feeding a handful of fats at a time, but they don't do it with sweet feed.

Link

Here's an article from PennState about fat in a beef ration. It gives good info on what can be added to up the fat content. But notice it cations to keep it under 7%.
Ditch the sweet feed and talk to your feed store on a more economical and effective feed. They likely already have something available, lots of people out there feeding a handful of fats at a time, but they don't do it with sweet feed.

Link
thanks for the article, looks like 7% is our magic number. so far, I am looking at rice bran, cotton seed or soy to put n the mix. I think rice bran might mold less and have fewer chemicals
 
I had an opportunity to get all the used cooking oil I wanted. Talked to my nutritionist about it and she talked me out of it . It takes very little oil to get the result. And it sounded very easy to overdo it.
Whole Shell Corn would have less available starch than cracked corn.
No real need to add fat to a rumen. Corn and protein is plenty.

@Jeanne - Simme Valley Just curious; How are you getting your strs to eat 3% BW and still have access to free choice hay? I can get them to eat that much but I have to limit their roughage.
 
I had an opportunity to get all the used cooking oil I wanted. Talked to my nutritionist about it and she talked me out of it . It takes very little oil to get the result. And it sounded very easy to overdo it.
Whole Shell Corn would have less available starch than cracked corn.
No real need to add fat to a rumen. Corn and protein is plenty.

@Jeanne - Simme Valley Just curious; How are you getting your strs to eat 3% BW and still have access to free choice hay? I can get them to eat that much but I have to limit their roughage.
my steers are about 1000 maybe 1100 pounds maybe and they are each eating almost 30 pounds a day (7 auto-feedings @ 4 pounds each), they barely touch the grass. They drink some water, then find a shade tree to lay down under every time they eat. Couldn't help but think, they wouldn't plow through so much feed if it had 7% fat (instead of 3%) and get tad bit more marbled in the process
 
@CharleyCap - you are a little stubborn, LOL. DAIRY CATTLE need fat for milk production. Feedlot cattle do not. Eating fat does not mean they will produce/make fat. They do not need ANY FAT. They need the CARBS (corn!). You are complicating a very simple program. They definitely don't need sweet feed. I would guess their is a lot of filler/roughage in the feed you are buying, that is why they can/will consume so much. You have an ideal way to feed!!!

@SBMF 2015 - yes, it is challenging to get them to eat 3%- generally more like 2%+. 3% is actually total weight eaten - including roughage. If they were on a complete feed (including their roughage) they would easily eat 3%. I do add a little protein so that they start off at 14%, slowly reducing it until it's nearly non-existent by the time they weigh about 800# as long as they are on good protein grass/hay.
I think what CharleyCap is doing is definitely a better way to get them to eat more #'s of feed - feeding 7 times a day. The more small meals, the more total consumption. If I fed 3 times a day, I would have better luck getting them to eat 3%. But, finishing them at a year old and hanging an average of 750# HCW....I'm happy with that, and so are my customers. The goal is to get them to be tender (young) and to marble enough to grade Choice.
 
@CharleyCap - you are a little stubborn, LOL. DAIRY CATTLE need fat for milk production. Feedlot cattle do not. Eating fat does not mean they will produce/make fat. They do not need ANY FAT. They need the CARBS (corn!). You are complicating a very simple program. They definitely don't need sweet feed. I would guess their is a lot of filler/roughage in the feed you are buying, that is why they can/will consume so much. You have an ideal way to feed!!!

@SBMF 2015 - yes, it is challenging to get them to eat 3%- generally more like 2%+. 3% is actually total weight eaten - including roughage. If they were on a complete feed (including their roughage) they would easily eat 3%. I do add a little protein so that they start off at 14%, slowly reducing it until it's nearly non-existent by the time they weigh about 800# as long as they are on good protein grass/hay.
I think what CharleyCap is doing is definitely a better way to get them to eat more #'s of feed - feeding 7 times a day. The more small meals, the more total consumption. If I fed 3 times a day, I would have better luck getting them to eat 3%. But, finishing them at a year old and hanging an average of 750# HCW....I'm happy with that, and so are my customers. The goal is to get them to be tender (young) and to marble enough to grade Choice.
The feedlot that I market for uses Acuration now but when I started helping them the dad was still in charge.
Shell corn, corn silage, wet gluten and more shell corn.
It was strictly rations buy bunk reading. When I took over mixing the feed we eliminated the wet gluten and I counted the seconds it took to fill a five gallon bucket with corn out of the silo. Then I could figure how many pounds per second.
I would work the cattle up to around 28 pounds of shell corn plus silage then switch them over to a self feeder. Straight shell corn with 100lbs of supplement in 5-6,000lbs of shell corn with corn stalks in a bale ring for scratch.
It was totally old school but there were a lot of strs marketed out of the yard that were 1,500+, YG 3.5-4, high choice-prime.
 

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