Therefore, many producers might be compromising their cows’ reproductive performance. Many of these cows often fail to return to active estrus and fail to get rebred and finally become pregnant. Rather than go down this wrong road, producers should review their current mineral-vitamin program and choose one that drives successful reproduction.

Before I make any recommendation to producers as to what kind of mineral-vitamin feeding program is a good choice, most people should conduct a body assessment of each cow and calved-out heifer.

I advocate that all nursing animals should maintain a visible cow’s body condition score (BCS) of five to six (out of 10) by calving, which should be carried on to the end of the breeding season. Such adequate BCS has been research-proven to return a higher proportion of fertile beef cows compared to thin cows (BCS less than four) to active-strong estrus by 80 to 90 days postpartum. Strong estrus should result in highly successful conception rates.

Most mineral and vitamin requirements of even the best-bodied nursing cows and heifers soar as they return to active heat cycles in preparation for conception during a short 60-day breeding season. Postpartum cows’ calcium needs increase by nearly 100 per cent, while phosphorus, magnesium and trace mineral demands grow by 50-60 per cent, and the need for fat-soluble vitamins more than doubles.

For example, the requirement for manganese is about 400 milligrams per day per cow. Known to be involved in enzyme systems that drive follicular/egg development, a lack of dietary manganese is proven to lead to inactive estrus, or “silent heats.” Given that Canadian prairie grasses often contain less than 20 mg/kg manganese, the need for manganese supplementation in a typical cowherd diet is necessary.

In order to assure manganese and other essential mineral/vitamin requirements are achieved, I recommend a “breeder” cattle mineral be fed from calving and throughout the upcoming beef breeding season. Consequently, this type of special cattle mineral is a specific complement of macro-minerals (calcium, phosphorus, magnesium) as well as a high level of trace minerals in particular copper, zinc, manganese and selenium, fortified at the best concentrations as well as in highly bioavailable chelated forms. Once these macro- and trace minerals are consumed at three to four ounces per head daily, they are designed to reach the cows’ digestive tract, where they are quickly absorbed, efficiently metabolized and highly retained to build optimum mineral status.

I have met many producers who believe in feeding such a breeder cattle mineral after their calving season is done — but some of them modify it to tackle specific nutritional mineral issues such as “grass tetany” on lush pasture.

In these cases, this breeder mineral can be formulated with four to 12 per cent magnesium and fed during the high-risk period of the first two to three weeks of the grazing season. Other producers I’ve known have added extra copper to the same breeder mineral to combat secondary copper deficiencies caused by excessive amounts of copper-binding molybdenum found in their pasture grasses.

All such types of well-balanced cattle minerals/vitamins should be placed in proper mineral feeders and be accessible to all cows. The feeders should be protected from rain, wind, sunshine and sometimes defecating cows. I am the biggest fan of a two- or three-compartment durable heavy-duty plastic feeder with a fixed metal bar in the centre, which secures a weather-proof rubber flap.

The best ones have notches moulded into the base to bolt it down on top of a truck tire and keep it out of water and mud. Then, two bags of mineral and one bag of salt can be poured into the separate compartments and checked every few days to be cleaned and refilled.

A few springs ago, a friend of mine bought two brand-new blue mineral feeders with the black rubber flaps. He operates a 100-cow red Angus herd and routinely feeds a breeder mineral fortified with extra organic zinc in order to strengthen hooves of the cow herd by the breeding season.

The offbeat thing is that he used to feed this cattle mineral in the trunk of a wheel-less 1962 Oldsmobile found in his yard. He would put out three bags of mineral each week in this way until one day the cattle abruptly stopped eating it. That’s because a fox gave birth to her pups in the back and prevented cattle from sticking their heads in.

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The remaining cow herd is now in its earliest weeks of gestation and requires a modest level of nutrition. It is an opportunity to feed some of the most cost-effective forage diets. But as time goes on, beef cows’ nutrient requirements steadily increase, and new enhanced diets are required.

Unfortunately, some producers do not follow suit, which often leads into a poor calving season. To avoid such catastrophe, a nutritious early-gestation diet should be established for the cow herd that can be built up as winter and their greater nutrient demands descend upon them.

Even before we get started on setting up any gestating cow feeding programs, most producers should walk through their herds, whether on pasture or at home, and think about which cows should be culled. There might be many reasons that beef cows are to be culled; the top qualification on most peoples’ list should be open cows.

I recently spoke to a lifetime producer and friend, who operates a 400-Angus/Simmental cow herd. He allows no exceptions to this rule. He figures that if an open cow (that is, not pregnant) is not sold, not one dime will be generated until the fall of 2025, even if she gets rebred by next spring. And she is already an $800 liability when she is overwintered. Besides, with the strong cull prices at the saleyard, it only makes common sense to put $2,500 per cow in your pocket.

Once these open cows and other stragglers are gone, it’s time for producers take a second walk and assess the general body condition of each gestating cow. That’s because a properly fed cow during autumn and going into winter with an optimum body condition score of five to six — on a scale of one (emaciated) to nine (obese) — has a great chance of maintaining a trouble-free pregnancy and good calving season. This compares to a thinner cow with a BCS of less than four, which is most likely to have difficulty surviving winter and often ending up in a difficult calving situation.

Early- to mid-gestation mature cows make the best overwintering candidates to either maintain their optimum BCS of five to six or build it up. In the fall, their nutrient requirements are comparably low to other times of the year.

Therefore, to support their own vital functions and an early-term fetus, cows require 52-55 per cent TDN (dietary energy), nine to 10 per cent crude protein, 0.4 per cent calcium, 0.25 per cent phosphorus, 0.2 per cent magnesium and salt, essential trace minerals and vitamins.

With the advent of bountiful cereal straw across the Prairies this autumn, I have already built a couple of dozen diets to meet these initial nutrient requirements from late October to the middle of December. Plus, I am prepared to increase their plane of nutrition as we progress into the colder weather of winter. In the table here you’ll see six well-balanced early gestation diets for 1,200- to 1,400-lb. pregnant beef cows.

One assumed consideration in all these just-under-$2 diets is to include an accompanying mineral-vitamin program. In this way, I often recommend to producers that they feed their cows a well-balanced yet less costly standard cow mineral for the first 90 days of early to mid-gestation and then switch their herd over to a breeder mineral formulated with organic trace minerals and higher vitamin levels for the remaining 60 days before calving.

It is common that many people forgo this two-step mineral program and feed the latter fortified breeder mineral for the entire gestation period.

As a beef nutritionist, I am aware that these outlined early-gestation diets (with a good mineral-vitamin feeding program) have a limited overwinter purpose. By mid-December, they should be re-evaluated and necessary changes should be made to enhance the level of their nutrition.

Such changes may include replacing a significant amount of straw with more nutritious grass hay and corn silage, or it may simply mean adding a couple extra pounds of barley. Either way, the essential nutrient requirements in most cowherds are achieved until the calving season.

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This practice maintains a 13-month calving interval. Unfortunately, the onslaught of cystic ovaries in 30 per cent of all breeding cows makes it a challenge. Yet, there is hope that good nutrition, prior to and right-after they calve, can eliminate a significant number of cystic ovaries from occurring in the first place.

Energy status in lactating dairy cows is the first limiting nutrient that most affects the incidence of cystic ovaries.

The actual energy requirement for successful follicular ovulation is very low, at three megajoules (MJ); it also takes on an extremely low priority, compared to 60 MJ for vital body needs and up to 250 MJ for milk production during early lactation days.

Early-lactation dairy cows do not consume enough dietary energy to meet such high levels of milk production and thus are in a “negative energy balance” (NEB) for about six weeks after calving, which adds to the energy challenge.

As a result, one can speculate that being in a NEB makes cows even more susceptible to higher incidence of ovarian cysts.

Reproductive research dictates NEB in dairy cows can adversely affect normal development of follicles by disrupting the production of essential tissue-specific and systematic hormones.

For example, it has been proven that when a cow has poor energy intake there is a significant decrease in the levels of follicular and corpus luteum hormones that complete her normal estrus cycles after calving. Other similar studies demonstrate that the release of large amounts of fatty acids from the breakdown of body fat during NEB is also poisonous to fertile egg cells, even if they are released during the ovulation process.

What to do?

Over the years, there have been several hormone protocols using GnRH, progesterone and prostaglandins to treat cystic ovaries in chronic cows. Subsequent research suggests they are highly effective to induce ovulation, but often retain lower conception rates.

Although I know of several dairy producers who have complete reliance upon periodic hormone treatments, I suggest they shouldn’t give up on a good nutrition program that could help reduce ovarian cysts in their early-lactation cows. My dietary suggestions:

Pre- and post-partum feed

Implement proper transition/early lactation diets (three weeks before and three weeks post-partum). This should be done to promote good dry matter intake, optimum body condition (see below) and reduce NEB during early lactation. Close-up dry cow diets should dovetail into early 60- to 90-day lactation rations.

Both diets should provide adequate dietary energy, as well as provide enough forage fibre to maintain excellent rumen health. Another of the goals is to build up feed intake to about 3.5 to four per cent of cows’ body weight by nine to 10 weeks post-partum.

BCS at its best

Maintain a body condition score (BCS) of 3 to 3.5. Existing research demonstrates that over-conditioned cows (on a BCS scale where 1 = emaciated and 5 = obese) are 2.5 times more likely to develop ovarian cysts during the first 60 days, post-partum, compared to lactating cows with an optimum BCS of 3 to 3.5.

A direct link to cystic ovaries has yet to be proven, but thin lactating dairy cows of less than 2.5 BCS have been shown to have a high incidence of silent heats and lower conception rates.

Serve up supplements

Feed adequate levels of trace minerals and vitamins. Deficient levels of copper, manganese, zinc and selenium and inadequate vitamins A, D and E are known to cause anestrus in female cattle.

For example, Ohio State University animal scientists reported cystic ovaries were diagnosed in 19 per cent of a split-group of dairy cows injected with selenium, compared to a 47 per cent incidence of cystic ovaries in an untreated control group.

Avoid mouldy feeds

Zearalenone, a mycotoxin produced in mouldy corn, has estrogen-like properties and has caused many reproductive problems including a higher incidence of ovarian cysts in dairy cattle. The poisonous threshold of zearalenone is 200 p.p.b. in lactation dairy diets.

These are only a few good suggestions I believe can reduce the incidence of cystic ovaries in many dairy herds. Regimens such as good early-lactation nutrition — which can affect the matrix of 30 to 40 reproductive hormones for successful release of an ovum — should be seriously examined and implemented.

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That’s a good thing because last year, many cow-calf operators bred more replacement heifers that are now calving or about to calve.

Some of these producers told me they throw them into their main cowherd if they are big enough, while others are going to keep them separated until the new breeding season on pasture. I would also treat them as a special group in order to get them bred with a second calf.

Most people will agree that fresh first-calf cows (no longer called heifers, but new cows) need extra time and care to return to active reproduction. After all, they usually take a few extra weeks to a month to shrink their gravid uterus back to normal.

At the same time, they are new to nursing a newborn calf, and are expected themselves to grow into maturity. It is on my own personal wish-list that all new cows should have at least one or two strong and fertile heat-cycles by the start of a 60-day breeding season.

For example, I have known a few producers over the years who failed this challenge and their operation paid dearly. That’s because many of their young cows struggled with nutritional and health-related issues during the next few months; some failed to conceive and were culled. Yet, I feel it doesn’t have to turn-out adversely, if three special guidelines are implemented in most first calf-cow groups:

Best possible BCS

Maintain an optimum body condition score (BCS) of three to 3.5 (out of five). This work starts in hindsight with a well-balanced overwintering feed and management program that supports a gain of one to 1.5 lbs. per head per day by calving. After calving, a more enriched post-calving lactation diet (62-65 per cent TDN, 12 per cent protein) supports similar growth, yet takes on the extra nutrient demands of producing 10 litres of milk per day for nursing calves.

Account for limited dry matter intake

A new 1,000-lb. beef cow has less feed capacity, so it eats less than a 1,200-lb. brood cow. However, its total energy requirements are no different. As a result, this large nutrient load must be condensed into a denser post-calving diet, if their requirements are met. Given that a post-calving first-calf cow should consume about 2.5 per cent of her bodyweight in dry feed, a typical animal weighing 1,000-1,100 lbs. should consume 25 lbs. of feed on a dry matter basis per day.

Emphasize a well-balanced mineral/vitamin program

After calving until breeding, a well-formulated mineral should be fed at three to four ounces per day. This amount helps build up mineral/vitamin status that promotes active rebreeding and conception. It should be fed in loose form or mixed into the daily diet. My timeless favourite is an 18 per cent calcium, nine per cent phosphorus (three per cent magnesium) mineral (with fortified copper, zinc and selenium, plus extra vitamin A and E), which complements many types of replacement-cow diets made up mostly of drylot forages.

Consequently, here are some pre-pasture examples of post-calving lactation diets for 1,000-lb. first-calf-cows in a three to 3.5 BCS that implement my above three points:

Example 1

• Free-choice alfalfa-grass hay
• 1.0-1.5 kg barley or corn
• 3-4 oz. of 2:1 breeder mineral

Example 2

• 25-30 kg barley silage
• 3.0 kg grass hay
• 0.5 kg canola meal
• 3-4 oz. of 2:1 breeder mineral

Example 3

• 25-30 kg barley silage
• 1.5 kg straw
• 1.0 kg protein distillers’ grains
• 3-4 oz. of 2:1 breeder cattle mineral

The nice thing about these diets is that they are built upon feedstuffs that are readily available to most western provinces. However, there are years of drought and feed shortages, where overwintered first-calf cows become run down by calving time and people are often forced to feed them to increase BCS, afterward.

Fortunately, university field trials demonstrate that high-energy diets (usually meaning more grain is available) should be fed during a few weeks before and a few weeks after the start of breeding season. This allows some thin replacements to “catch up” to the rest of the cowherd by laying down enough body fat to achieve strong heats to be rebred.

It’s a last-resort practice that doesn’t always work. Therefore, I maintain that newly fresh cows are to be separated as a special group — first properly overwintered, calved out and then continuously fed/managed from calving to the breeding season.

Here, they might join the main cowherd on breeding pastures — or they might be bred on special pastures of their own for better chance of successful conception and finally dovetailed into maturity.

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Those beef cows in optimum body condition should be put on a nutritious feeding program that maintains them until they calve in two to three months, while fleshy pre-calving cows should be put on similar diets which do not allow body weight loss. All it takes from beef producers, in both cases, is a little common sense.

Such common sense starts with assessing one’s cowherd body condition score (BCS). As a beef nutritionist, I like to use the wider U.S. scale of 1 to 9, which tells us the nutritional status of each cow just by looking at how much body fat is carried. Associated research predicts that overwintered mature cows and replacement heifers that calve at a target BCS of five to six (scale of 1 = emaciation to 9 = very obese) are destined to have a successful calving season compared to freshened skinny cows (BCS below 5). Later on, they return to estrus to get successfully rebred in order to maintain a full-year calving interval.

The funny thing is that this November, I have been hard-pressed to find snow or many skinny cows on the Prairies. For example, I walked among a herd of 200 red Angus-cross beef cows on dried-out pasture just before their calves were shipped. I believe the average BCS score of this herd was around 6.5 — no skinny cows, a few cows in the 5-6 range (moderate to good) and a higher proportion of 7-8 (fleshy to obese).

It seems odd that limited research shows freshened beef cows — ones that carry lots of flesh and are not too fat — have a quicker return to estrus than optimum-BCS penmates. Unfortunately, their conception rates fall off dramatically during the breeding season. Plus, if a cow becomes obese, she tends to lay down internal fat, which often leads to calving problems once her calf is born.

These things are good to know, because they give me a clearer picture to design current late-gestation feeding programs that should be fed particularly to herds that calve this February-March. Then, they can be modified to be fed to nursing beef cows until the subsequent breeding season. In doing so, I follow three mainstream dietary guidelines:

• Meet National Research Council (NRC) requirements for late-trimester gestating cows: 55-58 per cent TDN, nine to 11 per cent protein, 0.25 per cent calcium and 0.20 per cent phosphorus, complemented with salt, trace mineral and vitamins. Dry matter intake estimates are about 35-40 lbs.
• Modify diets to cowherd BCS: cows in a BCS of 5-6 should gain about 100 lbs. of body weight to recover their fetal and placental weight after calving. Fleshier cows (BCS of 7-8) should be fed to maintain their body weight, not to lose body condition.
• Adjust for cold winter weather: energy density of any late-gestation diet should be increased in these diets as the weather gets colder, based on a rule of thumb that for every 1 C drop in temperature below 0 C, the beef cows’ TDN (total digestible nutrients) energy maintenance requirements are increased by about two per cent.

As a testimonial to these parameters, a friend of mine operates a 400-cow-calf farm, which went through a very dry summer. Along with other forage, he salvaged his scant canola crop by turning it into good overwinter beef feed. Its analysis showed TDN of 54-60 per cent and protein of 11-12 per cent, which partially meets late-gestation cow nutrient requirements. As a bonus, the canola crop’s notorious sulphur levels are very low. High sulphur levels can cause polio in cattle.

The details of late-gestation diets are listed in the table shown above.

My friend’s cowherd is in optimum body condition going into the winter. That’s because his harvested hay fields had a lot of green regrowth in which most of his cows grazed, right up to weaning of their calves. Now that he moved them onto snowy home pastures, one or two of these TMRs are going to be fed for the next few months until calving. Producers in a similar situation — having a cow herd of good body condition — might consider their own beef cow diets along similar nutritional lines.

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He replied that all his mature and young cows should show a couple of strong heats before they are let out with the bulls. He then implements a high plain of nutrition from post-partum until the breeding season; he calls it “reproduction planning.”

Its success assures all of his fertile cows are in good shape — inside and out — for breeding and conception. An open cow, to him, is a financial liability and not given a second chance.

His post-calving nutrition dovetails with well-balanced overwinter feeding programs. Their specific dietary foundation is based on the overall energy status of his nursing beef cows, which is the largest and first-limiting nutrient.

He correctly believes it affects his cow herd fertility the most. The actual energy requirement is very low for reproductive activities such as follicular growth, ovulation and early embryonic development, and that takes on a very low priority compared to energy needs for body maintenance and milk production.

Luckily, my friend determines each cow’s energy status (with good fertility) by assessing the animal’s body condition score (BCS, on a scale of 1 = emaciated to 9 = extremely obese). Post-partum beef cows and heifers should maintain a BCS of 5-6 by calving, which should be carried to the end of the upcoming breeding season. Such adequate BCS returns a higher proportion of fertile beef cows compared to thin cows (BCS lower than 4) to a strong estrus 80-90 days post-partum, which ends in high conception rates. The next year’s calves are often born earlier in a desired short calving season, which also results in higher — as much as 50-60 lbs., I’ve seen — autumn weaning weights.

Several university studies have confirmed my friend’s commitment of maintaining BCS from calving to the breeding season. Case in point: a two-year Oklahoma State University study illustrates two polarized BCS situations: beef cows that were fed to maintain body condition from calving until the beginning of the breeding season averaged 94 per cent pregnant, while those that calved in similar body condition but lost nearly a full condition score were 73 per cent rebred.

As a beef nutritionist, I have built my friend’s post-partum cow diets on supplying fresh beef cows with a BCS of 5-6, producing 10-15 litres of milk for their calves with about 58-62 per cent dietary TDN (total digestible nutrients) and about 11-12 per cent protein, to maintain such good body condition until the breeding season.

Given that a mature gestating beef cow (500-600 kg) consumes about 2.25-2.5 per cent of her body weight (dry matter basis), I suspect they will consume about 12-14 kg of dry-based feed, daily.

Menu options

Here are my friend’s three feeding options, to be fed in drylot until his nursing cows are let out on sprouting green pastures in order to be rebred by the resident bulls. It should be noted most of these diets are based on medium- to high-quality forages (avoiding low-quality straw) with relatively little concentrate being offered unless the weather dips below –20 C. Then, one to 1.5 kg more grain/screening pellets are added to each diet, below:

• 15 kg mixed alfalfa-grass baleage, seven kg of crested wheatgrass hay, one kg of barley (optional) and 100 grams of a 1:1 cattle breeder mineral.
• 20 kg of barley silage, five kg of canola/grass hay, one kg of DDGS (added for protein), and 100 grams of a 2:1 cattle breeder mineral.
• 10 kg of barley silage, 10 kg of first cut alfalfa hay and 1.5 kg of a 14 per cent screening pellet with minerals/vitamins.

As a footnote to these well-balanced post-partum diets, a strong mineral/vitamin feeding program is also implemented. It contains fortified levels of calcium and phosphorus as well as copper and zinc in bio-available “chelated forms.” Extra vitamin A and E are also formulated.

Following such reproduction planning after calving, and until the breeding season, returns my friend’s cowherd to active heat cycles on cue.

From this success it follows that most of his cows are rebred within a few weeks of an established annual 60-day breeding season. It’s therefore a big contributor to his herd achieving a 96 per cent calving rate almost every year, with only a handful of cows shipped away due to infertility.

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Whether these successful bulls are young or mature, they must maintain or achieve a body condition score (BCS) of 5.0-6.0 (one being thin and nine being obese) by the start of the breeding season. That’s because beef bulls in this optimum body condition have the highest viable sperm count and have high sex drive. To gain an even better premium on fertility, we should also segregate the young first-year bulls and returning two-year olds from mature bulls and put them on their own feeding program to gain weight into maturity.

For example, for a group of mature bulls weighing 2,000 lbs., we want yearling bulls to weigh about 1,300 lbs. (65 per cent of mature weight). Two-year olds should weigh about 1,500 lbs. (75-80 per cent of mature weight) at the beginning of the breeding season. Such a growth rate of the yearlings will largely be based upon their adjusted autumn weaning weight, while two-year bull performance depends upon weight-loss recovery at the end of their first breeding season. In both cases, the daily weight gain is estimated to be about two to three pounds per head.

As a case in point, I have a friend who operates a 250-cow-calf operation and calves them in mid-March to the end of April. Bulls are released onto breeding pastures in early June and pulled by the end of July. (Note: A few weeks before the main cow herd is bred, calving-ease bulls are released to breed his first-calf replacement heifers). At the end of the last year’s breeding season, all bulls were separated according to stage of maturity by putting them on their own recovering hayfields until the first snowfall. Then, they were brought onto pastures near my friend’s home and overwintered on harvested forages, concentrates and a good mineral-vitamin program.

A nutrition program

A few months before the present 2023 breeding season begins, here are some dietary and related details on how my friend ensures all his bulls are ready to breed when the time comes.

1. Body condition of the bulls (as well as the entire cow herd) is evaluated. This allows time to increase the plane of dietary energy of all mature and young bulls, either to put back some BCS or increase the rate of growth.

2. A midwinter inventory of available forages is taken. Last winter, there was a feed shortage due to the previous year’s drought, which put my friend’s bulls (and cows) in less-than-adequate shape and fertility. This winter there is an adequate supply of good quality alfalfa-grass hay and barley silage.

3. Mature bulls (three years old and older) in fairly good shape are maintained diet of 58-60 per cent TDN and 12-14 per cent crude protein. Yearlings and returning two-year olds are moved to achieve optimum BCS by consuming a higher plane of 62-65 per cent TDN and 13-14 per cent protein.

4. The actual pre-breeding diet is really an extension of the overwinter program — mature bulls are fed alfalfa-grass hay, plus five to 10 lbs. of barley silage. Yearling bulls and two-year- olds get 30 lbs. of barley silage plus a couple pounds of barley. When weather gets cold and nasty, the dietary energy is increased — mature bulls may get a few pounds of barley added to their all-forage diet.

5. A fortified mineral/vitamin program is introduced to all bulls at the same time as their pre-breeding diet. My friend provides them with a breeder-type mineral fortified with chelated (more bio-available and retained) trace minerals and higher levels of vitamins A, D and E. He likes to refer to a classic Kansas State University study that fed zinc-methionine rather than regular zinc to breeding bulls, which resulted in a 33 per cent increase in sperm production.

Right now, the body condition scores of most of my friend’s bulls are in optimum body shape for successful breeding. Therefore, he is optimistic about the 2023 breeding season. High-fertile bulls will yield high conception rates throughout his cow herd, and each pregnant cow will eventually go on to birth and nurse a profitable calf in 2024.

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I recommend that producers assess the body condition of their cows throughout the pasture season and determine how well they are milking and how the spring calves are growing. They should also look at the condition of pastures. Good milk and high-quality pasture often diminish the benefits of good creep feeding programs.

Many people put out creep feeders in late summer, when cows’ decreasing milk production meets only 50 per cent of the growing calf’s requirements and pastures are maturing. In my experience, calves nose at the creep feed for a few weeks (starting around one kilogram per head per day) and then consumption rapidly increases until weaning, when they are consuming up to three kg. Other people put creep feeders out much earlier, as was the case last summer when drought-stricken pastures were not able to support milk production and the grass had poor feed value for calves.

Dried-out pastures make any creep feeding program more of a nutritional necessity, but given an average year with timely rainfalls, the profitability of creep feeding will largely determine the use of supplemental rations.

A look at feeding costs

I have calculated the economics of creep feeding calves for 2022, which targets 60 pounds of extra weaning weight gain in a 100-day creep feeding program. I compare it to that of a non-creep-fed animal. Predicted feeder prices this fall and current feed prices are the two main factors that determine the profitability of creep-feeding.

I have talked to several cow-calf operators and there is a consensus that an autumn calf price of $2.30 per lb. and a home-made creep ration of barley, DDGS and cattle mineral, drawn up for about $500 per tonne, puts creep feeding in profitable territory but pencils out at a nominal profit of about $20 per calf. For some, it makes creep-feeding hardly worth the effort.

It is generally assumed that creep feeding is more valuable when calf prices are relatively high, as they are in 2022. However, the truth is that higher calf prices mean greater volatility and market discounts as calves increase in weight. In my example, the price per hundredweight discount from 500 to 600 lb. feeder cattle was US$12 per cwt, which results in a prorated 60 lb. rate of about $7.20 per cwt. If this discount was narrower by only a few dollars, more profit would be realized.

Aside from current calf prices and market discounts, one of the best ways to improve the value of creep feeding is to improve creep feeds. As a beef nutritionist, I have entered in this spreadsheet three different creep rations and estimated their feed efficiencies (re: X lb. feed/1.0 weight gain), namely a cow-calf screening pellet at $400 per tonne (FE=11.00), a homemade diet (as mentioned above) at $500 per tonne (FE=8.00) and a commercial 14 per cent calf creep pellet at $590 per tonne (FE = 6.5).

Assuming the same predicted autumn calf price of $2.30 per lb., and $12 per cwt. market discount, profit per calf due to creep feeding was $ 8.20, $19.11 and $ 23.61, respectively. While all rations are profitable, they are still narrow in scope so is it worthwhile? It is interesting that the more expensive creep diet is the most profitable due to its highest feed efficiency.

A friend of mine who runs a 400-head cow-calf operation doesn’t mind that the profit due to creep-feeding his calves is near the break-even point in 2022. That’s because he retains most spring calves until February of the following year and finds creep feeding during late summer gives him the best opportunity of a trouble-free weaning season and putting calves on backgrounding diets with ease.

Peter Vitti is an independent livestock nutritionist and consultant based in Winnipeg. To reach him call 204-254-7497 or by email at vitti@mts.net.

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