K-State Ag Today: Choosing the right supplements for your cattle operation
1:31 p.m. Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Matching the right supplement to your cow herd can be daunting; the trick is to rank your priorities and whittle down your list of options.
Ted McCollum, a beef specialist for Texas Agrilife Extension, and a guest speaker at the recent K-State Beef Conference, says the number one consideration should be the primary nutritional need of the herd.
"Kansas and Oklahoma and Texas, all through these areas where most of the cows are going to be grazing on dormant forage during the winter months, rangeland such as the tall grass prairies in this area, protein's going to be our first limiting nutrient, and so we then limit that portfolio to which of these supplement options will provide protein at the best cost for the operation," McCollum said.
There are lots of ready-made supplements available, but McCollum says individual commodities should also be considered.
"Soybean meal, corn gluten feed pellets, distillers grains, some of these other commodities that I would consider high-protein, or moderate-protein that could fit into a supplementation program on rangeland for cows," he said.
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