You believe you are doing everything right, but at the time of weighing, the weight of the cattle does not match expectations. Several feelings appear at this time: frustration, discouragement, and the desire to leave livestock. If the herd does not perform as expected, failures are happening. And many of them happen in an area that may seem basic to many and very complex to others: animal nutrition. In order for you to stop wasting time and money, we have listed the 10 worst mistakes in beef cattle nutrition that impede the progress of your property!
The 10 worst mistakes in beef cattle nutrition
This is the most common error made by a rural farmer. Without nutrients, there will be no fattening outcomes. It is impossible to feed the animal only pasture until it gains enough arrobas for slaughter. Nutrition must be 100% included in the handling routine, regardless of the system, pasture, or confinement. That is, without supplements, your property will fail and your earnings will not materialize.
Give common white salt
Common white salt, while better than nothing, does not deliver the nutrients that cattle require. If you believe that white salt is beneficial to your animals, it is time to reconsider. It is best to replace it with mineral salt in the water and protein salt in the dry season. This exchange won't provide you with much work.
The mineral and protein salts are enriched with everything the cattle need but cannot find in the pasture. The main nutrients, such as calcium, phosphorus, zinc, and vitamins, are often not available in sufficient quantities in the pasture, even if your pasture is considered abundant. All these elements help not only with weight gain but also keep the cattle healthy by strengthening the body and preventing diseases that have a health and financial impact on property and animal welfare, causing pain and suffering.
Due to the potential for intoxication, avoid urea
Urea is an affordable source of nitrogen that helps animals grow weight during droughts and is regarded as one of the greatest supplements. Its effects have been scientifically verified. it with protein salt because it is so potent. The risk of intoxication is one of the primary reasons for not giving urea to cattle. It is fairly common to get testimonies from producer friends who have lost animals as a result of urea consumption with too much water in the trough or dosages that exceed the recommended level. And in trying to avoid this damage, they end up not using this nutrition, which is critical during a drought.
The safest way to give urea to livestock
- Use 49 grams for every 100 kilograms of the animal's live weight, as recommended;
- Offer urea only in covered troughs. At the bottom, make small holes so that water does not accumulate. In order not to lose the urea, place a fine net to hold the supplement. That way, the soup that forms in the trough when it rains will not form. Generally, cattle intoxication happens when the animals consume this water with urea accumulated in the trough.
- After handling urea, animals should not be placed directly in the urea trough. Urea should not be consumed by hungry animals. Place them in the pasture instead.
- Adapt the dosage as indicated. No, I'm not providing the amount right away. It is necessary to accustom the cattle's organism to adapt. For this, serve smaller doses in the first few days until the habit of consumption is established. Then follow with 49 grams for every 100 kilograms of live weight per animal.
Having troughs that are the incorrect size and height
The trough is the ox's dish. When installed in places of difficult access or out of the common path of the animals, what is offered is no longer consumed. And in this case, we have two types of losses: the cattle do not consume what is necessary for fattening, and the non-consumption of something involved financial investment.
And more than location, the right size is fundamental for an adequate intake of nutrition. An exercise that we are going to propose to you now is: are all your animals able to feed in the trough at the same time? And more than that, do they reach the nutrition offered there comfortably? If you don't have these answers on the tip of your tongue, one of the mistakes that doesn't make your livestock move forward could be here.
- The ideal height for troughs is 40 centimeters for calves and 70 centimeters for adult animals.
- Regarding the ideal width for bovine troughs, the measurement is 7 centimeters per head. For a herd of 100 cows, for example, the trough must be 2.5 meters long, with access from both sides.
Do not calculate the recommended dosage
You cannot simply put salt in the trough from the moment you receive it from the supplier or finish production on the property. There is no magic after filling the trough. It is necessary to calculate the right dosage of each supplement offered according to the number of heads. Thus, the expected effect will really appear.
For each item, calculate the following dosage:
Mineral salt: calves need to consume up to 80 grams of mineral salt per day, while adults must ingest up to 120 grams per day.
Protein salt: the protein salt dosage for calves and adult cattle is the same: 1g for each kilogram of live weight.
Urea: 49 grams for every 100 kilograms of the animal's live weight; Virginiamycin: add 0.5 kg of the product to 25 kg of mineral salt.
Incorrect storage
The quality of your nutrition depends a lot on how you store it. Feed and silage also deserve this care. Pay attention to the environment where the bags are stored. The storage location for these items cannot be an empty space on your property.
Being aware of the presence of rodents and other species that can contaminate the products stored there is essential to maintaining the animal health of your herd. We don't even need to comment on the hygiene and cleaning routines, which are mandatory.
Also, never place products and bags directly on the floor. Use wooden stakes to avoid direct contact with moisture.
Stop using virginiamycin
Those who have not yet embraced virginiamycin have no idea what they are missing. On the other hand, those who start using it routinely insert this performance-enhancing additive into the property. To get an idea of the potential of this animal nutrition directed at beef cattle.
The power of virginiamycin is very great. It improves digestion and prevents considerable diseases associated with weight gain, like acidosis and tympanism. Promotes fattening with direct handling in the trough without great demand for work.
If you need to improve the performance of your cattle, try it and see the results in a short period of time.
Consumption monitoring is lacking.
If you follow all the guidelines described above and still have no return, perhaps we have arrived at one of the worst mistakes in beef cattle nutrition that you could be committing. After all, it is not enough just to supply the trough; it is necessary to monitor what is offered.
This monitoring does not need to be done throughout the day, but going to the nutrition trough from time to time and checking if the level is lower is interesting to know the acceptance of the cattle.
There are some techniques that can be used to improve animal acceptance of the offered nutrition if it is detected that they are not consuming it. One of them is the mixture with cornmeal or molasses.
Providing the trough at inconvenient times
Trough rejection can also happen not only due to palatability but also due to extreme heat or cold.
Just fill the trough exclusively with this nutrition at the coolest times of the day, until 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m., when the temperature is lower and consumption is higher. These schedules are more pleasant and comfortable for the cattle.
Poor or non-existent planning
If you want to see results on the scale, you need to have a plan and be consistent with your nutrition.
Therefore, planning purchases or own production in sufficient quantity is part of the process of raising livestock with the expected profit. This planning can be done in several formats: monthly, quarterly, and even annual. There is no best way, just the one that best fits your routine and the current structure of your property.
