Experts encourage producers to test their forages
A cow herd’s nutritional requirements can undergo significant shifts from season to season. As the weather pattern eases into a new season, the change can impact the quality and quantity of forage. Couple that with momma cows entering different stages of production and producers have quite the nutritional puzzle to solve several times throughout the year.
Know the Forage: The first step producers can take to ensure they are meeting their herd’s nutritional requirements is to gain a solid understanding of what nutrients are available to the cow herd on a regular basis. The next step is determining how those nutrient sources change with the seasons.
“The fundamental principle is to understand the nutrients available in your primary forage base. Of course, in extension we encourage people to test, in particular, their own harvested forages because you know you are going to be feeding that,” David Lalman, Ph.D., professor, and extension beef cattle specialist at Oklahoma State University, said.
Extension specialists encourage producers to also test grazed forages. “It’s a little more difficult to test grazed forages or forages standing out in the pasture, but that can be done too. Producers can gain a good understanding throughout the seasons of what nutrients are available in that forage as well,” Lalman added.
Ideally, producers should test their grazed forages in fall, winter, spring and summer. This will give producers insight to the nutrients available in their pastures throughout the year. “We encourage people to collect the high-quality forages that are available in the pastures because generally speaking that is what the cows are going to graze,” Lalman said.
The easiest way to collect a sample is to carry a bag or bucket and pluck samples of grass while zigzagging across the pasture. Then mix up the sample and send it to a laboratory for analysis. Local extension specialists are available to assist producers with questions or information on sample collection, analysis logistics, and result interpretation.
This process is similar to sending in a hay sample for testing and analysis. Depending on how detailed the analysis, the grazed forage test could cost anywhere from $15 to $75.
Nutrients for Stage of Production: The second part of the process to determining how to adapt the herd’s nutritional program for the seasons is to determine the animals’ nutrition needs for their stage of production. There are a variety of resources to help producers figure out what their animals need. Extension fact sheets, textbooks and beef cattle manuals are all resources that provide tabular nutrition values for different size animals in different stages of production.
An increasingly popular method of calculating those values is through a computer software program or a nutritional app. “The one we use here is OSU is the OSU Cowculator. It is an Excel spreadsheet that helps you understand the difference between the nutrients in the forage and the animal’s nutrient requirements. It points out the gaps or the excesses,” Lalman explained.
Monitor Physical Changes: Lastly, there is another method producers can implement to keep tabs on their animals’ nutritional needs. “The other practical monitoring method, other than doing all the math, is the change in the animal’s body condition throughout the seasons. Their body condition today is a reflection of their current and recent nutrient supply,” Lalman said.
A rule of thumb would be to check a cow’s body condition during the four main stages of production: early lactation, late lactation, mid-gestation and late gestation. “We encourage people to evaluate body condition score within each one of those quarters so every three months. When they go from one stage to the next, their nutrient requirements change dramatically,” Lalman stated.
Once producers have a solid grasp of the nutrients in their grass and hay, as well as understand the current nutritional needs of their animals, then they can make the adjustments and additions needed from one season to the next.
