Concentrate supplementation for finishing cattle this winter

While the cost of gaining weight indoors on a forage and concentrate diet is much higher than at grass, if correct levels of thrive are achieved on finishing stock they should come close to covering their costs in most years. Alan Dillon, DairyBeef 500 Campaign Manager discusses further.

For dairy-bred steers, a target of 1.0-1.05kg/day should be achieved on top quality silage and 5-6kg concentrates. Dairy-bred heifers should achieve around 0.85-0.9kg/day indoors to finish on top quality silage plus 3-4kg of concentrates. All finishing cattle should be weighed at housing and again mid-way through the finishing period to assess performance. If cattle are not hitting weight gain targets, changes may be needed to some aspect of the finishing regime on the farm be it concentrate type or rate fed, space allowance, parasite control or water quality and quantity. Changes made early on can avoid extra expense later in the winter.

Balancing diets on silage quality

It is unlikely you will be able to finish animals on grass silage alone, even with very good quality (high dry matter digestibility) silage. Some concentrate supplementation will be needed, however the better the quality of silage offered (in excess of 72 DMD), the less concentrates required to finish animals. When feeding a fixed total quantity of supplementary concentrates over a set finishing period, it doesn’t make any difference to performance whether you feed it at a flat rate, at a stepped increasing rate or ad-lib towards the end of the finishing period.  There are no animal performance or feed efficiency benefits from feeding the same quantities of silage and concentrates as a total mixed ration or separately. In the below video, DairyBeef 500 Campaign Manager Alan Dillon gives an overview of the key factors to consider with winter finishing.

Additional meal supplementation will be required to improve the overall energy/protein density of the diet where silage quality is sub-optimal. Growing and finishing animals have varying requirements for energy and protein – one concentrate will not do both. This can create practical issues for farmers finishing smaller numbers where one meal bin is used on farm. Ensure animals are adequately provided with minerals, either through the concentrate or additional supplementation.

How much meal is required over the winter?

Table 1 below outlines how much concentrate is required based on various silage qualities. A silage test carried out by a lab is essential to establish the quality of silage you are feeding.

Table 1: Guideline daily feeding rates based on silage quality (DMD)

Ration spec for finishing cattle

Energy is typically the most limiting factor in beef diets. In terms of rations, >0.92UFV is necessary for finishing rations. After energy, protein is the next limiting factor in the winter diet of dairy-beef animals. Always balance the protein content of the concentrate with the protein content of silage. 11-14% is needed for finishing rations. Minerals need to be provided in the ration or separately. The percentage of different ingredients in your ration will dictate the level of energy and protein. Some farmers buy a ration based purely on the protein content, when in fact they should be buying it based firstly on the level of energy, and then on the percentage of protein. Both are critical for liveweight gain over the winter. Feedstuffs in Ireland are assigned two net energy values – UFL (for lactating animals) and UFV (for maintenance and weight gain in finishing animals). One UFL is equal to the energy content of 1kg of air dried barley and all feed ingredients are expressed relative to barley.

Table 2 shows that some ingredients have lower levels of energy than others, e.g., palm kernel has only 85% of the energy of barley and wheat feed has only 75%, even though in both cases they have a higher protein value. Every farmer should know what ingredients are in their ration. If you look at the label on the bag or the delivery docket, it will list the ingredients in descending order, i.e., highest inclusion rates to lowest inclusion rates. Most compounders bind rations together with molasses at 2-5% inclusion rates, so any ingredients listed after molasses are at very low levels. Minerals and vitamins are also a key component of any ration and will be included at rates of 2% in most rations.

Table 2: Ingredient value and function

 This article first appear on Agriland as part of the winter beef series. For more information on the DairyBeef 500 Campaign, click here.