Beef Cattle

Baled Corn Stalks Offer Another Feed Option

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By Michaela King

As winter approaches, some producers are questioning if their hay inventories will last until spring. Cornstalks can extend hay inventories, but their use comes with some important considerations.

“Residual corn left in the field is not going to be captured in the bales, which lowers the feeding value compared to grazing the field,” notes Jeff Lehmkuhler, University of Kentucky extension beef specialist.

The best forage quality from the corn crop residues is in the leaves and husks, he says. The cobs and stalks are lower in digestibility with protein concentration ranging from only 3 to 6 percent, which is too low to meet the needs of cattle. The highest quality forage portions of corn crop residues are the leaves and husks.

Lehmkuhler explains that energy levels in cornstalk bales vary depending on the stalk to leaf ratio within the bale. Typical ranges are from 48 to 58 percent. Additionally, the high moisture levels of the stalks make baling and storing corn residue more difficult.

Feeding cornstalk bales can result in high levels of waste, according to Lehmkuhler. Cattle will pick through a bale, eating the leaves and husks while leaving behind the stalks. For this reason, the best way to utilize corn crop residues for feed is having the bales processed or by flail chopping the residue in the field to improve drying. Processed bales can be fed in a total mixed ration or along a feedbunk.

The extension specialist recommends feeding baled corn residues to dry, mid-gestation cows, remembering to supplement nutrients to meet diet requirements. Cattle fed cornstalks should be in good body condition and not be experiencing any environmental stresses, such as cold and mud. Environmental stresses on cattle will require additional supplementation.

Lehmkuhler offers an example diet for a mid-gestation cow of 15 pounds of cornstalks, 1.5 gallons of condensed distillers solubles (distillers syrup), and 2 pounds of soybean hulls plus minerals to meet requirements.

“Significant energy and protein supplementation are needed for lactating, fall-calving cows,” Lehmkuhler notes. “Producers should work with a nutritionist to ensure nutrient needs are being met.”

Lehmkuhler recommends hay for lactating cows, but he notes that cornstalks may be worked into the diet to stretch hay supplies with proper supplementation.

To extend hay inventories, feeding cornstalk bales is a reasonable option. Remember to work with a nutritionist to meet all nutritional requirements and supplement as needed. Lehmkuhler advises to not overpay for cornstalks since supplements, along with additional feed costs, will often be needed.

“Pumpkage” – Putting Recycled Pumpkins to Use in the Cow’s Diet

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Halloween has passed, and Thanksgiving is coming soon. If you wonder what to do with pumpkins as the seasons’ orange fades to Christmas green, cattle may be the answer.

A large quantity of pumpkins are available at salvage prices, and their high digestibility is appealing to many dairy farmers. Take special consideration to feeding logistics and nutrition.

Feeding logistics

Cattle should be able to break upon pumpkins after several free/thaw patterns, according to an Extension factsheet published by University of Nebraska-Lincoln. If pumpkins still remain too hard, lightly disking pumpkins in the field may help. One scenario could involve cattle grazing a field with cornstalk residual, supplemented by hay and pumpkins.

Additionally, Susan Kerr with Washington State University Cooperative Extension describes her experience making pumpkin silage, “pumpkage,” here. Her efforts to preserve the pumpkins for later use involved a “pumpkage” formulation with and without straw, and she ground the pumpkins with a wood chopper.

Nutrition

Pumpkins tend to have a moisture content between 83% and 88%, a crude protein content between 14% and 15% dry matter (DM), and a total digestible nutrients (TDN) of 60% to 70%, according to University of Nebraska-Lincoln Cooperative Extension.

Washington State University Cooperative Extension also cautions cattlemen to monitor trace mineral consumption when feeding large amounts of pumpkins, as pumpkins are high in phosphorus.

Remember, however, all pumpkins are not created equal. This nutrient content table published by University of Nebraska-Lincoln shows pie pumpkins tend to have higher DM, higher acid detergent fiber (ADF) and lower digestibility than carving pumpkins.

The Great Pumpkin

Pumpkins are a unique crop with special nutrition and feeding logistics. However, as many retailers are willing to sell large numbers of pumpkins salvage prices, it may be an opportunity you do not want to miss.

Take the “Stress” Out of Caring for Cold Stressed Calves

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Winter weather could be here sooner than we originally thought as a shot of much colder air will dip down and cover much of the country this week. That blast of cold air could include snow for some and frigid temperatures for others, according to U.S. Farm Report meteorologist Cindi Clawson.

For dairy producers, bitter temperatures present additional challenges when it comes to keeping dairy calves healthy, comfortable and growing. To combat potential cold stress, here are five tips to keep calves bright-eyed and bushy-tailed during colder weather:

Give Newborns a Quick Warm Up

Just like people, calves attempt to maintain a constant body temperature regardless of the outside temperature. Within a certain range of temperatures called the thermoneutral zone, calves can maintain body temperature without needing extra energy. When the temperature drops below the lower critical temperature, calves must use energy to support basic bodily functions and maintain their body temperature.

Here are three ways to ensure newborn calves stay at a constant, warm temperature:

  • Turn on the heater – Consider using a calf warmer or warming roomto quickly dry newborn calves and help increase body temperature.
  • Deep and dry bedding – When calves are laying down, a good rule of thumb is to provide enough bedding that one should not be able to see the feet and legs of the calf.
  • Calf blankets – Even though they add extra expense, calf blankets are reusable and provide an extra layer of protection for calves. Make sure to adequately clean and dry blankets between uses.

Consider Adding Another Meal

The most critical, and most expensive, period of calf growth in raising dairy calves is the pre-weaning period. During this period calves are highly susceptible to cold stress with a lower critical temperature of 50°F for newborn calves and 32°F for older calves.

In cold weather, feed more milk or milk replacer daily if using individual bottle or pail feedings in one of three ways:

1) Add a feeding or a third meal.

2) Increase the volume fed by a third.

3) Increase the total solids fed.

Don’t Forget the Water!

Another key to feeding calves in cold weather is to provide all liquids at 105°F target temperature for consumption. Always offer calves clean, fresh water in addition to milk or milk replacer. With regard to free-choice water, this means offering warm water several times per day in cold weather.

Step Up the Starter

The sooner calves start eating grain, the more benefit they will get in terms of generating heat. Anything we can do to encourage starter consumption will have a positive effect on calves’ ability to withstand cold temperatures. Offer small amounts of starter during the first week of life and be sure to have water available to all calves because drinking water stimulates starter intake.

When to Wean?

Cold stress can result in calves turning to stored body fat to generate body heat, essentially losing weight. In addition, calves experiencing cold stress will have compromised immune systems making them more susceptible to disease. Weaning calves during extreme cold conditions provides added stress to the animal and consideration should be given to delaying weaning until temperatures are less extreme.

Some Thoughts on Halloween Hay

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By Mike Rankin

Many regions have now or will soon reach the point when significant alfalfa regrowth won’t occur if the crop is cut one more time. Research has historically shown that cutting when the chances for regrowth are low is safer from a winter injury or kill standpoint than cutting earlier in the fall when regrowth is still possible.

There are three primary reasons why farmers decide to cut alfalfa late in the fall. They are:

1. Don’t want to leave money on the table.

In the case where favorable weather has contributed to significant fall growth, it’s hard to leave an apparent high-yielding, high-quality crop out in the field. However, the reality is that late fall-cut alfalfa is rarely high yielding.

Yes, the crop can sometimes be tall, but the stems are usually small and there are fewer of them. What looks like a high-yield crop usually shrinks to nearly nothing when put into a swath or windrow. This makes for expensive forage when harvest costs are considered.

On the flip side, late fall-cut forage is almost always excellent quality. With the extended cool temperatures, there is low fiber deposition and plant digestibility stays high.

2. It will smother out if not cut.

There’s been a long-held concern by some that fall alfalfa growth will smother and kill a stand over winter. This simply does not happen with a legume such as alfalfa. Rather, leaves freeze and eventually drop off the plant. Stems, for the most part, stand erect. The old, fall aftermath growth may impact forage quality in the next year’s first cutting, but if harvested early enough the reduction in quality is minimal.

3. There’s a need for feed.

Following a year of severe winterkill or drought, sometimes alfalfa is cut in late fall simply to meet a need for additional feed. This may apply to many in 2019.

Is there risk?

Though the risk to cut alfalfa in the late fall has proven to be less than when regrowth potential is high, the practice is not without some downside. Already mentioned is the fact that yields are typically low; they will be even lower if the cutting height is raised as is often recommended for a late-fall cut.

Also consider that fields cut in the late fall generally break dormancy later during the following spring and have a lower first-cut yield compared to not being fall cut. The gain in fall yield is about equal to the loss in spring yield. This is not to say that the fields are winter injured but rather less vigorous come spring.

Leaving the fall aftermath growth over winter is beneficial to not just catching and holding snow cover, but it also has the effect of moderating soil temperature fluctuations during winter and early spring. It is extreme soil temperature fluctuations that may cause alfalfa to break dormancy too early or cause plant heaving.

Finally, consider the condition of the alfalfa stand before taking a late-fall cut. If it’s already been stressed by intensive cutting, pest issues, or low soil fertility, stress from an additional cutting will likely accelerate stand decline.

All factors considered, the need for feed prior to the next year’s harvest may be the only good reason to cut alfalfa in late fall.

Beef Quality Assurance Certification

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Mark your Calendar and call (302) 831-2506 to register by Friday, November 1, 2019

 

What: Beef Quality Assurance Training

When:  Saturday, November 16, 2019

Where: UD Cooperative Kent County Extension Office

69 Transportation Circle, Dover, DE 19901

Time: 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Lunch: Lunch will be served

Join your fellow producers and the Delaware Extension team for Beef Quality Assurance training.  Following the workshop producers will have the opportunity to take the National Beef Quality Assurance exam and become BQA certified.

We will wrap up lunch that is sponsored by the Delaware Beef Board.

The meeting is free and everyone interested in attending is welcome.  If you have special needs in accessing this program, please call the office two weeks in advance.

To register or request more information, please call our office at (302)831-2506.

Thank you and see you there.  Dan Severson

 

 

 

 

Our institutions are an equal opportunity provider.

FDA Proposes Banning Over-the-counter Antibiotic Sales

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Milk splash. ( Farm Journal, Inc. )

In just a few years, you will no longer be able to buy over-the-counter (OTC) antibiotics from your local farm supply store or mail order catalogue.

In a draft guidance issued in late September, the Food and Drug Administration is proposing to ban the OTC sale of more than 100 animal drugs. Some of the more common OTC drugs on FDA’s list are formulations that include cephapirin, penicillin G procaine, sulfamethazine and tetracycline. The ban will take at least two years to implement—if not longer.

In effect, FDA’s proposal would require livestock producers to obtain veterinary prescriptions for these medications if they want to continue their use. Note: Some of these drugs might become unavailable if their manufacturers opt to pull them the market.

The purpose of the FDA action is to reduce the use of medically-important antimicrobials in animal agriculture and ensure that they are only used when necessary for the treatment, control or prevention of specific diseases. By moving these drugs to prescription-only, it assures the drugs will be administered to animals under the supervision of a licensed veterinarian.

The proposal sounds more ominous than it really is, say veterinarians and pharmaceutical companies. “Moving these drugs from over-the-counter to prescription will have a minor impact on dairy farmers,” says Ron Erskine, a veterinary and mastitis specialist with Michigan State University.

To start with, most of the antibiotics sold OTC are old drugs. Most, if not all, of the drugs on the list are decades old formulations approved prior to the mid-1990s.

Under the FARM (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management) program, dairy farmers are already required to have a valid, signed veterinary/client/patient relationship with their local veterinarian and have established written protocols for the use of antibiotics, he notes. “Everybody wants protocols in place for FARM audits,” Erskine says.

Drug residues in milk has become almost a non-issue, with residue rates dropping steadily over the past decade. In fiscal year 2018, just 364 tanker loads of milk tested positive antibiotic residues out of the 3,598,188 tankers tested. That’s a positive rate of 0.01%, reports the National Milk Drug Residue Data Base. A pilot project looking for tetracycline residues in raw milk conducted in 2017 and 2018 found just six positives in the 304,289 tankers tested, for a positive rate of 0.002%.

The bigger problem is antibiotic residues in cull dairy cows. When USDA veterinarians conduct follow-up investigations of carcass residues, they find the majority of farms investigated have not had veterinarian involvement or direction in the use of antibiotics to treat sick animals nor do the farms have appropriate treatment and drug withdrawal records, says Mike Lormore, Director, Dairy Cattle Technical Services at Zoetis.

Bringing all antibiotic use under the umbrella of the veterinary/client/patient relationship is simply prudent, responsible use, he says.

FDA is accepting comments on the proposal until December 24, 2019. The agency will then issue a final guidance followed by a two-year implementation period.

Silage Season Safety – Processing & Packing

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When you’re processing and putting up silage in any type of structure, it’s a complicated job, and potentially dangerous.

Silo Gas

  • Let’s talk silo gas for a minute – also known as nitrogen dioxide.  It’s a normal part of the silage making process.  We start to see this gas a few hours to a day or so after a silo is filled – And then it’s produced for about 2-2.5 weeks
    Silo gas is created in ANY type of silage storage
    system, but is a particular problem in tower silos.

    depending on conditions – Silo gas is produced
    in ALL kinds of silos – tower silos, bunkers, piles, bags – the biggest issue however, is when it’s a confined space.  This could be in a tower silo, an adjoining room, the chute or in the space between silo bags.

  • In the air, nitrogen dioxide has a faint yellowish color though in low light conditions, you probably won’t see it…It smells a bit like bleach.  It is very irritating — even a few breaths can cause serious health problems.
  • Avoid silo gas, especially during that initial three-week post-harvest window. Treat a tower silo and areas surrounding stored silage as a confined space.  Ventilate thoroughly – generally with the blower.  Get more information – entering any confined space incorrectly has deadly consequences.

Bunker Silo Rollovers & Other Issues

  • There are special hazards with packing a bunker silo.  Some great detailed information can be found in this piece from Penn State on horizontal silo safety.
  • Tractor rollovers occur every season while people are packing bunkers and piles – It’s critical that you select the right tractor – it MUST have a ROPS (rollover protective structure) and a seatbelt.
  • A wide front-end is also an absolute must. Front-wheel and front wheel-assist tractors provide extra traction and stability for packing. Duals usually increase stability as well as appropriately-placed weights.
  • Backing a tractor up ANY slope is preferred – you achieve better stability AND CONTROL.
  • On a slope – as you fill a bunker, make sure your packed, wedge-shaped surfaces are not too steep – We generally talk about a safe slope being 3 to 1 or something even less steep. On a pile or bunker that’s 20 feet high, you need a wedged surface do drive up that’s at least 60 feet long in the horizontal direction.  Anything less, and you run a great chance of rolling a tractor.
  • There are many other precautions to take with your employees and family members who are working at this time…Like these:
    • Only experienced people should be permitted to operate equipment.
    • Require all equipment operators to remain in their vehicles to avoid being run over.
    • Keep visitors and children out of ANY farm work zone.  A packing operation seems cool and fun to watch – but operators have a lot to pay attention to, and the chaos associated with visitors and bystanders can be very distracting.
    • Have workers wear brightly colored safety vests or t-shirts to increase visibility.

This post was originally developed to support a series of silage harvest-related podcasts posted by colleague Liz Binversie of Brown County, UW-Extension.  This one is written to connect to the podcast covering processing and packing

Silage Harvest Starts with Planning

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August is the time to start planning and making arrangements for silage harvest. It’s also a good time to bring the team together and make a checklist of what needs to be done to ensure nothing gets missed, said Rory Lewandowski, Extension Educator at The Ohio State University.

Starter checklist:

  • Speak to harvesting team or custom harvester
  • Check the chopper to ensure it’s in excellent working condition
  • Line up equipment, including hauling trucks or wagons and packing tractors
  • Make sure there are enough properly trained people on-hand to use equipment
  • Have pile covering materials ready for use

Monitor Moisture

“With corn silage harvest, you’ve got one shot to get it right and you’ll be using that silage for about a year, maybe longer,” he said. “It’s so important to get dry matter content right because if you don’t, you’re going to really struggle.”

Ideally, target 35% dry matter (DM) for all your silage, but the range is 32% to 38% DM. There are some issues if silage is harvested too wet or dry, but if you must err, Lewandowski recommends harvesting wetter rather than running too dry.

“Typically, corn silage dries down about ½ percentage point of moisture each day. Last year, we ran into a warm streak and were at ¾ percentage point a day, so it went from ‘not quite ready’ to ‘should have harvested yesterday’ very quickly,” he said. “So, you’ve got to monitor daily.”

Length of Cut

Length of cut is critical to fiber digestibility. While fine, small pieces make for easy packing and exclusion of oxygen, they don’t make effective fibers in the ration or the rumen.

“If you’re not using a kernel processor, the theoretical length of cut should be set at ¼ inch to ½ inch,” he explained. “But if you are using a kernel processor, it helps to increase the availability of starch, so we cut a little bit longer at ¾ inch. Those who are shredding the whole plant length-wise can cut bigger pieces – up to 1 inch.”

Inoculants

There are two types of inoculants to consider:

  1. Lactic acid – if in past years you’ve struggled to get a good fermentation, use a lactic acid bacteria at the point of chopping. It helps produce more acetic acid and drops the pH.
  2. Lactobacillus buchneri – If you’ve had problems in the past with feed out and spoilage, then consider adding a L. buchneri inoculant. It helps to increase the stability of silage. It also boosts your acetic acid, which works on spoilage organisms to like yeast and mold, especially as you open the face up.

“There are a lot of good inoculants on the market. Do your research,” he advised. “Also, make sure you use enough and be cognizant that these are living organisms. Don’t use chlorinated water and watch the water temperature.”

Excluding Oxygen

“Oxygen and air are the enemy of silage,” he said. “Packing helps us to exclude it, but a lot of producers have a hard time measuring it. The goal is to have a density 42 to 45 pounds per ft3 of silage as its delivered to the bunker silo. On a DM basis, that’s a density of 14 to 16 pounds per ft3.”

To get there requires having enough weight to pack and packing in a timely manner. A few tips:

  • For every ton of silage, you need 800 pounds of weight for packing. If delivering silage at 50 tons per hour, multiply that times 800, and it tells you 40,000 pounds of packing or 20 tons of tractors (or packing equipment) are needed for packing
  • Never put down more than a 6-inch to 8-inch layer
  • Pack that well
  • Apply another 6-inch to 8-inch layer

The goal is to harvest quickly. Once you’re done, it’s critical to cover the silo as soon as possible to keep oxygen out and protect it from the elements.

“In recent years, research on a two-step covering product where they have the oxygen barrier sealing and a regular piece of plastic over the top has shown to help with fermenting high-quality silage,” Lewandowski said. “Research has shown that putting plastic on the inside wall of your bunker silo can help to increase the quality of that silage as well.”

Once covered, seal it either using bags with weights or cut tires that are touching one another. If you’re bagging silage, make sure it’s packed tightly but consider leaving the end open for a day to release some of the air and gas, then seal it up tight, he noted.

Safety Tips

  • Big equipment visibility is often very limited, so always keep children away from the area.
  • Plan a pre-harvest meeting with silage crew and farm employees, especially those not directly involved in the silage process to share what’s going to be happening to minimize their risk.
  • Don’t pack silage above walls.