With the dry conditions, a number of livestock producers will be looking at feeding animals early this year.
Dwayne Summach, a Livestock and Feed Extension Specialist, says we're going to get to the winter feeding period pretty early this year.
"My thought process runs along the lines that we better plan on feeding cows for about 225 days this winter, which is a long time."
He says with the drought, a lot of producers have had to take a close look at the herd and determine which cows they can cull given the shortfall in feed supplies.
"We're getting lots of calls on planning for the winter feeding program, looking at what we can do to supplement pasture right now. Things like weaning the calves early or creep feeding the calves to alleviate some of the demands on the pasture. And then we're moving on into planning for the winter feeding. When winter feeding we're looking at salvaging all kinds of different crops. There's been a lot of questions about barley crops that aren't fully developed, barley that's headed out, but then the heads didn't fill. What kind of feed is that gonna make? And unfortunately, my answer has to be until you wrap it up and test it at the lab, we really don't know. But it's going to give us something to work with, has kind of been the answer. And so there's different things that we need to worry about. On the cereal green feeds. We've got concerns about the potential for nitrate accumulation. So we're making sure that people are aware that we need to test when we're feed testing that we're testing for the annual cereals for nitrates. Lately, there's been some interest in salvaging some canola, specifically up here in the Kindersley area. There's been some canola has been hailed and so now it's well do we cut this canola stems and use it as basically a straw. And even then we have to worry about making sure that we test the canola for sulfur content. We probably even want to consider testing for nitrates in those products as well. And so there's been a whole gamut. Then there's been questions on feeding straw, and how much grain am I gonna have to feed with the straw? What do I need to put together with what to stretch things as far as I can? And so a lot of the questions are revolving around really developing the winter feeding program. And that really starts now."
He notes when it comes to feed supplies, the rule of thumb is that you need one round bale for every cow, for every month that you're going to feed her, and one bale for every two calves.
"We really need to think long and hard about how many mouths were trying to feed and and make the plan now as to what you're going to carry. And that's why there's been a lot of questions about is corn a good value? Barley is price X and corn is price Y. Should I be buying corn? Because I actually know I can get it, and barley I think I can get it, but I think this is what I'm going to have to pay for it. And so there's lots of questions going around regarding buying barley versus corn. And I look at the cost of both of them and go this makes for a very expensive feed for feeding cows. But we're likely going to need to use some of it. So we're going to have to be real sharp with the pencils, and make sure that we're feeding as much as we need, but no more than we need to."
Summach says when calculating what you need for feed is is that you need a round bale for every cow for every month that you're going to feed.
"If we're looking at 225 days, that adds up, we're at nearly seven bales a cow, is what we need. So that's a starting point. Again, if we're talking about keeping our calves, we can feed, basically two to three calves on the same amount of feed as one cow. So the easy way to do it is to is double it up, one, bale carries a calf for two months instead of one."
He notes producers are looking at all options from refuse feeds and crops, to straw, ditch hay and sloughs.
"We've got to keep working at increasing that resource base. Pretty much until the snow starts falling, we're going to probably be chasing forage resources. We've also seen a lot of acres of kochia baled up. So it comes down to this is a year where we're going to be blending a lot of feeds together. This is going to be a year where vertical mixers and tub grinders are going to get put to work. There's going to be a lot of different things put together to make a ration that will be suitable to feed the cow to meet her requirements. We'll be trying to stretch out the good feed as far as we can, with some of these more marginal feeds."
Summach says it's going to be a long feeding season, so its important to take the time to analyze our feed resources and get them tested
He notes overall, producers should make a plan, start working the plan, and be ready to adjust the plan as we go through the winter.
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