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Growing Systems

Two different types of growing systems for backgrounding animals.

One is intensive and intensive means that they are placed directly in the feedlot. Usually on a grain based diet and grain based diets are more efficient than forage based diets. I know we have talked a lot about forages and ruminants, but with these animals they are more efficient when they are consuming a corn diet versus a hay diet. The problem is with these young animals because they do not have the frame growth or the structural growth is that they deposit much more fat and they usually finish at lighter weights. This primarily has to do with small framed cattle. Large framed weaned cattle can go into the feedlot and the detrimental effects are much less versus small framed cattle. This is just put them in the feedlot on a high grain diet and feed ad-lib. Another alternative is program feeding, so you are feeding for a specified rate of gain. Maybe these guys are gaining 3 to 3.5 pounds a day, you are going to feed for 2 to 2.5 pounds of gain. How you achieve this is a similar diet, but you just limit feed. You feed for a specified rate of gain and you do not get the extra fat deposition. Your animals will finish at a higher weight from program feeding versus ad-lib feeding. These cows will gain more pounds per day, but they will finish quicker because they get too fat too quick because they do not get the frame growth, fat deposition is much quicker. With program feeding, you feed for a lower rate of gain but they do not fatten as quickly, more of the nutrients would go towards structural growth rather than fat deposition. When you did put them on full feed, they would end up finishing at a higher body weight.

What I think of when I think of backgrounding or a growing system is extensive systems. Extensive would mean moderate rates of gains, around two pounds a day. These diets are roughage based. The animals are usually not in a feedlot. What would be the most economical way to take advantage of backgrounding animals on a roughage based diet? What can you think of we have lots of in the Willamette Valley? Grass, right? That would be an example of an extensive system. It is based on roughage. If you fall weaned calves and you could do this in certain parts of the country, it is better in the east than in the west, you can graze the animals on stock piled forage. Usually you graze the pasture up to the spring, you let it grow through the summer you do not graze it and then in the fall/winter you put animals back on it, so it is stock piled. Instead of harvesting the forage, you leave it in the field and let the animals come back in the winter. What is pretty popular in Kansas, Oklahoma and down through Texas is backgrounding fall-weaned calves on winter wheat pasture. Through the winter and late winter/early spring you would pull them off, let the wheat grow and eventually they come in and combine it. You can take advantage of the forage growth during the winter. You may have to additionally place the animals in a dry lot because the wheat pasture may not be ready when the animals are weaned, but eventually you can get them out on it. Some studies show that you can stock or you need 1.7 acres per steer and the average daily gain they have gotten was two pounds per day. One problem they did note you had to be concerned about was frothy bloat. What is bloat in ruminants? Think of bubble bath and that is about what it would look like in the top of rumen. Gas cannot escape. It just gets trapped in bubbles, and they just blow up, they do not explode, but eventually they suffocate. There are supplements that you can feed animals that prevents bloat. Usually to get some type of bloat guard into an animal, in cannot be with the mineral mix, it needs to be mixed in with grain to get the quantity that you need into the animal. If you add some kind of bloat guard to some kind of grain. If you supplement, you can usually increase your stocking rate by about 65%. How do you take care of bloat? It is easy to identify because the barrel of an animal is about twice as large as is should be. You can put a tube down them to let the gas escape. What is another way, if you have a pocket knife? Where does the rumen lie? Any of you ever seen a fistulated animal that has a rumen cannula? What side is that usually on, on the left side, right? A trocar would be most appropriate, that is an official instrument that you would use to stab the animals with. But how many people probably carry a trocar around? A knife also works. In the area, you have the hooks or actually the hip of the animal and you have a shelf of short ribs, then there is this triangular shaped area. Can you envision where the hook or the hip is on a cow? You have a shelf of short ribs and you have some indention that is paralumbar fossa, so that is where you would either stab the animal with a trocar or with a pocket knife. The deal is that when the rumen expands, it fills up this space. If you make a hole there, the gas should escape.

The growing system can have an effect on future performance. One way is compensatory growth. This is a negative for the grower, possibly a positive for the feedlot. Think about if you were backgrounding animals and you had a drought during the year and you relied on grazing. What would be your weights of animals when you sold them, they entered the feedlot, good or bad? Bad. But there is something called compensatory growth which means that if we raised animals on some deficient or just sufficient plane nutrition, so they gained very little versus animals that gained very rapidly. If we put these animals back on full feed, eventually, they will catch the animals that were fed sufficiently. Does that make sense? What some feedlot buyers will look for are small calves and the theory is that they will take advantage of compensatory growth. It is a very cheap growth. Remember, we talked about the age at which calves are placed in the feedlot. There was an experiment where they put calves in at a very young age, which is not realistic, but three and a half months, eight months, yearlings, 15 months and 17 months of age.

Here was the feed conversion while they were in the feedlot, low fives for the very small animals or young animals and high sevens, low eights for the older animals. In addition to feed conversion being higher for older animals, days on feed of course was lower high 200s versus the low 100s for older animals. Which is best? There was a Nebraska study that showed that there is considerable flexibility exist in choice of post weaning production systems, so when animals enter the feedlots or when they do not. There is no best time or a best weight for animals to enter feedlots.

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