The drought will have lingering effects on cow-calf producers well into next year, especially in the areas of forage quality and availability. Any technologies, management practices or additives that can help us better use forages we have on hand should be evaluated to determine if their benefits will outweigh their expense. Probably the most predictable forage utilization responses observed are those directly affected by protein supplementation, particularly on low quality forages that are less than 8% crude protein. If you have lower quality forages, the addition of supplemental soluble protein that is degraded in the rumen provides an improvement in forage digestibility and often times increased forage intake. This provides added energy to your cow-herd from the forages that you have on hand in two ways. Cows will digest more nutrients from the forage and they will consume more of these low quality forages.
You should make sure that you are selecting protein supplements that contain ingredients that are digested in the rumen. Mark Robbins wrote an earlier Blog related to the use of Non Protein Nitrogen (NPN) ingredients like urea as a ruminally degradable protein (RDP) source. Rumen microorganisms that ferment/digest fiber need a certain level of nitrogen available in the rumen that comes from the diet. Urea is one of the lowest cost means of providing this first limiting nutrient in order for fiber digesting microflora to work efficiently. A mix of other natural protein ingredients can then provide more slowly degraded protein to the rumen that will be used as microorganisms grow and ferment forages. If you use supplements that contain high levels of ruminally undegradable protein (RUP) such as feather meal, blood meal or corn gluten meal among others, you should be aware that much of the protein supplied by these ingredients is not digested in the rumen and therefore are not made available for rumen microorganisms. The key is to fix up the rumen first and then if additional protein is required to meet animal requirements, supplements with high levels of RUP can be optimally used.
As one looks at additives that can help improved forage utilization for Beef cows, the list is generally not very long. Particularly when looking for products that are labeled for mature beef cows. We did, however, find a marked improvement in forage digestibility with a natural dehydrated brown seaweed meal called Tasco®. This work was conducted at North Dakota State University and the results published in the peer reviewed Journal of Animal Science 2005 83:2938-2945. A digestibility study was set up to evaluate several feed additives on low quality forages (CP of 6%). The steers were provided either no supplement, a 40% CP supplement (19% as NPN from urea) or the same 40% CP supplement that contained the Tasco seaweed meal feed additive at 10 grams per head per day. Supplements were fed at .77 lb per head per day, typical of CRYSTALYX® low-moisture block supplements.
The results of the study showed that protein supplementation of low quality hay increased dietary intake and digestibility as we would typically expect. We also showed that when Tasco seaweed meal was added to the protein supplements, we saw an additional improvement in organic matter digestibility which came predominantly from NDF or fiber digestibility improvements. The increase in digestibility was approximately a 10% improvement over and above the increases already observed with protein supplementation and resulted in an additive benefit. This means that if a cow is consuming 25 lbs of hay or forage per day she will realize an added 2.5 lbs of forage digested, just with the addition of Tasco® in the protein supplement.
As you are looking for economical ways to stretch your limited forages, first consider protein supplementation and for added returns make sure to ask for CRYSTALYX® Tasco® 35-CP supplement from your local CRYSTALYX® dealer. The additional benefit from Tasco® seaweed meal will pay dividends as the value of forage increases. Let CRYSTALYX® Brand Supplements help you get the most out of your forage supplies.
