Your pastures just moved into the information age.
How did it happen? With the CRYSTALYX® Supplement Scheduler, a unique, web-based program that lets you know when to replace your supplements.
Whether you have one or many pastures, you can simply input the number of barrels you place, the size of the barrels, the number of cattle in each pasture and
your expected daily intake per head per day.
The CRYSTALYX® Supplement Scheduler then calculates the approximate date you should plan to replace the supplement. This date automatically generates an
e-mail or text message reminder for each pasture and can prompt you from any smartphone.
As a result, your herd won’t run out of supplement. You won’t have to remember when you put out your supplement—or constantly check on it. And best of all, you
can maximize the utilization of your forage resources—for free.
Spring 2011 - Almost every economist has predicted that 2011 will be a very profi table year for cow-calf producers. Some have even said it will be a year for record prices leading to record profits.
Unfortunately, calves are not the only crop increasing in value. Corn too, may hit record prices this year. In an effort to minimize the cost of gain and/or minimize
the impact of $7.00 corn, feedlots will likely look for heavier cattle to place on feed. This opens up a great opportunity for stocker operators to sell heavier
calves off of grass.
“While grass provides some of the cheapest gains,” says Mark Robbins, Research and Nutrition Services Manager with Ridley Block Operations, “CRYSTALYX® supplements can drive that cost of gain even lower. By supplying nutrients that become more defi cient as the grass matures, you can maintain weight gain well past grass maturity, and even into the fall months.”
CRYSTALYX® mineral supplements work well until the grass becomes mature, or until moisture is scarce. Once the grass matures (shoots a seed head or dries out) CRYSTALYX® protein supplements will give you the best gains on grass. And don’t forget CRYSTALYX® IONO-LYX®, the only low-moisture block FDA approved to deliver BOVATEC® to increase the rate of gain on grazing cattle.
When you buy almost any product, you want to know that it is made well and will deliver what it promises. How well that product performs has a lot to do with how it is made. And that’s why CRYSTALYX® is number one in the market. Here are two reasons why:
Quality Assurance and Food Safety
CRYSTALYX® has the highest level of quality assurance in the feed industry. All CRYSTALYX® production facilities are FCI Certified, ISO 9001 Registered and HACCP Approved. No other low-moisture block manufacturer has all three of those quality-essential certifications. Check out our competitors. Look for these symbols. Judge for yourself.
Batch Cooking vs. Continuous Flow
CRYSTALYX® uses the original, patented process of batch cooking followed by a vacuum process. That means that every barrel of CRYSTALYX® has been through greater moisture and hardness controls. Batch cooking is a more expensive process, but the benefit to you, and your livestock, is a more consistent product.
Other low-moisture blocks use a less expensive continuous flow process that lacks the critical vacuum step. This results in a less consistent product, especially when it comes to removing varying amounts of moisture from molasses. When you’re considering low-moisture block supplement options, cost is certainly a factor.
But there’s short-term cost savings versus cost-effectiveness. Consistent product performance combined with the latest manufacturing technology and state-of-the industry quality assurance puts CRYSTALYX® far ahead of the competition, and gives customers cost-effective delivery of key nutrients. Every barrel. Every time.
There’s plenty of bad economic news for producers these days: rising feed costs, rising fuel costs, rising equipment costs and rising labor costs. The good news is that feeding CRYSTALYX® Brand Supplements can make a significant difference in your bottom line.
Efficiency Is the Key
There has never been a greater need to be efficient. Efficiency in the use of labor and equipment is key, especially when you factor it into your overall cost. And reducing waste and shrinkage is an important factor in feed efficiency, as is maintaining performance and having supplementation that is convenient, as well as cost-effective.
Fuel costs alone have driven producers to look at ways to control costs. So supplementing with CRYSTALYX® means eliminating daily trips to the pasture, saving time and money. One producer who has found this to be true is Jim Graves of Wheatland, Wyoming. He supplements with CRYSTALYX® and has experienced cost savings and value. “Our supplement cost is about $30 to $35 per cow, per season,” Graves said. “We like the convenience, the time savings, the use of less equipment, and the way the cows perform. It’s easier than having to feed every day, especially when you have to fight the weather.”
It’s All in the Numbers
The cost of CRYSTALYX® has increased somewhat, but not nearly as much as the cost of other feed and supplement types and their delivery. While CRYSTALYX® has gone up 22 percent, hand-fed supplement costs have skyrocketed by 41 to 150 percent. If you take a 63-day time period and compare costs between CRYSTALYX® and a hand-fed supplement, you’ll see the difference.
In 2002, the hand-fed cost for supplementation was $25.19 per cow, while the CRYSTALYX® cost was $18.23. In 2008, the hand-fed cost over that same time span was $35.47 per cow, while the 63-day CRYSTALYX® cost was $22.36. The whole story is that hand-fed costs were up 41 percent, while CRYSTALYX® costs were up only 22 percent. Meaning, the cost-per-day impact of supplementing due to an upward price jump in ingredients is not as significant when feeding CRYSTALYX.®
Consider All the Costs
If you just look at the price tag of the supplement itself, you’re not getting the entire picture. This is where CRYSTAL CLEAR ECONOMYX® can help. Start with the
supplement cost (don’t forget to factor in waste) and the delivery costs to get your total cost per head, per day. (Delivery costs include equipment, labor, delivery vehicle, and tractor costs.) The chart below shows the various costs for a cattle feeding operation, comparing the use of CRYSTALYX® VP®-30, cubes, liquid and DDGS. CRYSTALYX® is the clear winner, with a total cost difference from $1,000 to $4,200.
Producers can find out how their situation compares by going to www.crystalyx.com/calculator/cce.cfm to learn more about CRYSTAL CLEAR ECONOMYX.® You can download a free software program based on a computer spreadsheet format that provides projections to help you evaluate a supplement program and make an informed economic decision.
CRYSTALYX® is the only low-moisture block supplement program designed to get results and save producers time and money. Evaluate your costs and compare the returns. Why spend more for supplements that are expensive to deliver when the choice is clearly CRYSTALYX®?
Research during the past decade by Montana range scientist Derek Bailey has demonstrated that during the fall, cattle supplement placed at key spots on open ranges will help draw animals to graze high, rough terrain, improving overall pasture use. But one stumbling block has limited widespread adoption of this logical tool: Perceived cost of CRYSTALYX.®
Now, Bailey’s latest work demonstrates that choosing a high quality low moisture block as that supplement source — even though the up-front cost may be up to triple the per-ton cost of traditional supplements like cubes or range cake — actually shows the innovative practice to be more affordable.
Bailey compared the grazing patterns and economics of cows given either 20% crude protein cake three times weekly or fed CRYSTALYX® Brand BGF-30 barrels continuously.The barrels were tended only every two weeks.
During the mid-October to mid-December, 2002, trial on the 160 nonlactating cross-bred cows:
• Cows spent more time near the CRYSTALYX® Supplements and used higher, rougher terrain than cows fed range cake.
• The body weight gain and condition score changes of the two groups were not statistically different.
• The frequent feeding schedule necessary to use cake—even when it wasn’t hauled to the roughest terrain, as the CRYSTALYX® Supplements were—ate up all its initial per-ton cost savings…and more. The CRYSTALYX® Supplements saved 25 percent in overall daily costs.
Testimonial:
Over the course of three years, Hiram Begert, a Limousin breeder from Allison, Texas, has switched over from regular cube feeding to providing constant access to CRYSTALYX® barrels.
“With the price of fuel the way it is and the labor to haul something out there every day,” he says,“it doesn’t take long to add up.”
He may not have the precise dollar-against-dollar advantage of CRYSTALYX® on paper, but he sees his choice as clear nonetheless: If cubes were the only option, he would quit supplementing his 10,000-some acres of grazing land year-round. CRYSTALYX® is the only affordable tool to make that productivity improvement practical.
The price of fuel is more volatile than ever. As a producer, you can’t rely on the oil market to make your marketing decisions. There are factors you can control that will directly impact your bottom line, starting with transportation and fuel costs. And that’s just the beginning of the CRYSTALYX® solution.
A SUPPLEMENT PLAN WITHOUT ALL THE MILES
The cost of getting supplements to your herd depends, in large part, on the kind of supplement you choose. The cost per-ton of supplement doesn’t begin to tell the whole story. Hand-fed supplements such as grains, range cake or byproducts require frequent delivery. The uncertainty over the cost of fuel means producers have to make sure they are using the most energy-efficient supplementation method possible. Taking all the expenses involved in supplementation into your cost analysis is more critical than ever.
CRYSTALYX® low-moisture blocks are self-fed and offer controlled supplement intake. They typically last two to three weeks when recommended stocking ratios are followed. That means you can greatly reduce the number of trips needed to supplement your herd. Let’s assume you need to replace CRYSTALYX® every 14 days. With a range cake supplement, most producers will feed every two days or three times per week. If you conservatively figure your travel costs at 40-cents per mile for your delivery vehicle, you can quickly do the math and see the advantage of supplementing with CRYSTALYX.®
TIME AND LABOR FACTORS
Labor and equipment costs can also eat away at your bottom line. Again, the supplement you choose affects the labor intensity and equipment needs and expenses you’ll be paying. Hand-fed supplements increase your labor requirements, time management and handling and storage costs.
Lower-priced supplements can look desirable on the surface, but may need to be delivered more frequently. Some contain increased levels of water, while others require additional processing, storage needs or feeding equipment. It all adds up. You can eliminate costs associated with storage and delivery, because CRYSTALYX® is a self-contained supplement in an easy-to-handle steel barrel.
CALCULATE YOUR SUPPLEMENTATION COSTS
CRYSTAL CLEAR ECONOMYX® is an economic tool that fairly compares different supplementation programs. The program gives you a complete look at all your supplementation costs. It evaluates and then displays, in a computer spreadsheet format, costs that are sometimes overlooked or difficult to calculate. Download the free program here.
We all know the economic story these days. Higher prices for fuel and commodities are putting a squeeze on a producer’s bottom line. So what is a producer to do? Cut back? Change course? How about none of the above? Now, more than ever, it makes good economic sense to supplement with CRYSTALYX.®
Supplementation is still a good investment, and it is especially so in times of higher prices. CRYSTALYX® has always been a better value than hand-fed supplements, when all costs associated with supplementation are considered. It is especially true right now.
“In fact, it makes more sense today, and, ultimately, tomorrow, than it did before,” Dr. Dan Dhuyvetter, the Director of Research and Nutrition Services for Ridley Nutrition Services, said. “The nutritional benefits such as increased digestibility of forage and improved conception and weaning rates are only part of the picture. When you take into account all the costs of supplementing with a hand-fed supplement: labor, time, equipment, and compare it with the cost of supplementing with CRYSTALYX,® it’s no contest.”
Do the Math
Feeding economics are different today, with the cost of minerals nearly doubling, and hand-fed supplements up more than 50 percent. Producers looking for the most efficient method of supplementation have a clear choice: CRYSTALYX.® Why? Here are five key factors:
1) Less Labor & Equipment
2) Reduced Waste
3) Equal or Better Performance on Less Volume
4) Nutrition in One Package
5) Accuracy of Nutrient Delivery
“Even back in the days of $1.50 gas, CRYSTALYX® made more economic sense,” said Mark Robbins, Research and Nutrition Services Manager for Ridley Block Operations. “As increasing fuel costs have more than doubled, it makes even more sense. It’s just too expensive to be driving out every other day to resupply supplements, not when you can place CRYSTALYX® barrels out there, and not have to resupply for two to three weeks.”
So while the economic climate keeps changing, Crystal Clear Economics doesn’t. Figuring supplementation costs on a per-head, per-day basis and taking all costs, including fuel and labor, into account will help producers maximize their investment, no matter what they’re paying at the pump.
In the fight to hold down winter supplementation costs, producers are often advised to compare supplements based on cost per pound of protein. That’s been pretty good advice.
Some detailed budget analysis shows that if you stop there, you could still lose money by overspending on supplement delivery. Focusing strictly on the purchase price of supplements— even on a pound-for-pound of nutrient basis—means you’re neglecting as much as nearly half the total cost to supplement, depending on conditions and the supplement form.Those costs can include:
• Labor costs, including realistic values for your own time.
• Truck cost per mile.
• Tractor and other equipment needs.
• Wasted feed lost to wind and weather both in storage and during delivery.
• Overconsumption or underconsumption, caused by irregular delivery, poor intake control, or “boss cow” syndrome.
• Disruption of efficient forage use when animals stop grazing to rush the supplement truck.
• Interference with grazing distribution when animals don’t stray far from a location of repeated supplement delivery.
“You put a hired person behind the wheel, you figure out all the wear and tear and depreciation—those are real costs,” says Kansas State Animal Science Professor Dale Blasi.“But what’s harder to figure out is what are the real savings [in cutting down delivery frequency].” For the cow/calf producer who’s checking cows daily for calving progress, for instance, those costs are already “sunk.”
Still, self-fed supplements that ensure adequate nutrition independent of the cow-checking schedule offer other opportunities for managing time and labor resources:
• At times of the season when it’s not critical to see cows daily.
• At times when labor is being eaten up by other demands, such as at calving or seasonal cropping operation activities.
• For operations with low levels of calf loss and calving difficulty, which don’t demand constant cow attention.
• For producers who want a dependable, self-fed supplement available if they are unable to make a scheduled daily check.
It’s a cost/benefit analysis each operation ultimately has to conduct on its own, Blasi acknowledges.That analysis starts with thorough accounting of all the costs going into calving management, independent of supplement delivery.
RESULTS BY THE BARRELTM
Don’t believe the numbers? Run an economic analysis of your supplement choice, using your own total supplement costs, with the new Crystal Clear Economyx™ supplement calculator available on-line.Crystal Clear Economyx™ is a free software program, courtesy of the makers of CRYSTALYX® Brand Supplements.
It can help you evaluate all of the different costs looked or have been difficult to quickly calculate in the past, by hand.
Click here to download your free copy of Crystal Clear Economyx™.
I often hear cattlemen say, “With the cost of hay so high, I cannot afford to also buy a supplement.” If a supplement makes sense in your operation with lower priced forage, it only makes more “cents” with higher priced forage.
When we buy a supplement, most of us want to know what sort of payback we get from it. Supplements replace nutrients that are either missing or only available in lower than desired quantities in the base diet/forage. Supplements can also provide performance enhancing additives that are not available naturally. Supplements can provide a third return—their ability to modify the grazing distribution of the herd in a pasture. This is best accomplished by self-fed supplements that are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
These three benefits “pay” you back for the cost of the supplements, generally with increased gain, better health/reproductive performance, or more efficient production overall. The payback can vary from supplement to supplement and situation to situation.
Providing supplemental crude protein to low quality forages will boost the digestibility (release of energy). It is not uncommon for supplemental crude protein to increase the digestibility of a low quality forage by 10 percent. This gives you 10 percent more energy from every ton of forage or, theoretically, you could feed 10 percent less of the forage and achieve the same performance. Either way, you have 10 percent more forage energy than if you chose not to feed a supplement. Ten percent of $150/ton forage will always be worth more than 10 percent of $50/ton forage.
If you have two trucks and only have room to put one in a shed ahead of an oncoming hailstorm, which do you choose? The new truck worth $50,000 or the old one worth $15,000? Just as your reward today for saving a single 600 pound calf that gets sick at weaning is worth over $950 versus around $680 three years ago, your payback for using a supplement on $150 forage is far greater than on $50 forage.
CRYSTALYX® Brand Supplements, available to your herd 24/7, are an excellent way to increase the payback from your forage, no matter the forage cost. Just remember that your payback increases as your forage cost increases.
Cash Flow Considerations THEN and NOW
As I travel in cow calf regions and visit with cattlemen, I have noticed a distinct shift in their plans for retaining heifers. Last year at weaning, a heifer calf was more valuable as a feeder than a breeding animal. On many farms and ranches cash was tight due to increasing input cost. Generating some cash and paying bills by selling the heifer calf had very little risk. If a cow in the herd needed to be replaced a young cow could be purchased for about the same or less money.
This year the economic considerations for retaining heifers for replacements have shifted. Input costs have increased, most notably forage cost, but we are seeing record prices for feeder calves and replacement heifers. Projections are the nation’s cow herd will be smaller due to the prolonged drought in the southwest.
Another difference between this year and today is related to the value of ground for row crops versus pasture. People that had to decide between planting more acres verses keeping cows and pasture made their choice last fall. Those cows are not on the market today. These and other factors have pushed the value of breeding animals to the point where cash flow is not the only consideration in deciding to keep heifers for breeding stock. We now have more questions to discuss at meetings, coffee shops and sales barns.
- What will replacement heifers and cows cost in the future?
- Will raising your own replacements be less expensive?
- Is there more income potential in selling replacement heifer?
Below is a summary of some recent bred heifer sales.*
|
Date
|
Head
|
Location
|
Avg. Heifer Price
|
|
Nov. 26, 2011
|
197
|
Kingsville, MO
|
$1,760
|
|
Dec. 5, 2011
|
127
|
Fruitland, MO
|
$1,716
|
|
Dec. 10, 2011
|
250
|
Palmyra, MO
|
$2,112
|
*Sales results should not be considered “official” and were taken from posted sales data and radio market reports
Winter is coming. It’s not just a phrase on a popular premium cable TV show, it’s a fact. The leaves on the ground, the frost in the morning and the calendar tell us it’s inching closer. Whether your winter means a snow pack or grazing rye grass, the common denominator for all of us is what to do about supplementing.
More often than not, we use the cost per ton as the deciding factor when choosing a supplement program. However, we need to remember to add in other on-farm costs the cost per ton of supplement. These include labor to handle the supplement and mileage to and from the pasture. Derek Bailey, with Montana State University, looked at 2 supplement strategies, cake and low moisture blocks, to determine cost effectiveness. 160 cows were divided into 2 treatments, 20% cake fed 3 times/week and CRYSTALYX® BGF-30 offered free choice, on pasture October thru December.
The results of study showed that cattle supplemented with BGF-30 performed the same as cattle supplemented with cake while eating less. The BGF-30 cattle consumed an average of 0.70 lb (with 0.46 lb of free choice salt) whereas the cake cattle consumed an average of 1.69 lb (with 0.13 lb free choice salt). The exact driver behind the performance results was not determined in this study, but it does leave a person with a lot to think about. Another interesting observation in this study is pasture utilization. The BGF-30 cattle were tracked utilizing pastures at higher elevations than cattle fed cake.
From this research we can pull out 3 criteria for determining the economics of a supplement.
Supplement Cost – The total cost includes cost per ton of supplement, cost per ton for delivery to farm/ranch and storage cost per ton in addition to how many pounds/head/day during the supplementation period.
Labor Cost – How many hours does it take to put out the supplement for each feeding, and how many times per week do you do this? What is your time or the hired hand’s time worth when other tasks could be completed?
Travel and Equipment Cost – How much does it cost you to drive your truck/tractor to the pasture round trip?
What it adds up to is cost of feed + cost of labor + cost of travel = total cost of supplement program. To see the numbers come together for yourself, click on the Crystal Clear Economyx® page. There you can use our cost calculator to do a quick comparison on the cost of a low moisture block to another type of supplement. Or you can download the Crystal Clear Economyx® spreadsheet and really crunch some numbers.
For more information on the research mentioned above, click on the ‘HOW IT WORKS’ tab above, then Supplementation Research and select Effects of Self-Fed vs Hand Fed Protein Supplements… under the Northern Agricultural Research Center Montana State University drop down.
I recently had a visit with a 20+ year veteran of the livestock premix business. He told me his customers seem to be just as profitable, or more so, when feed costs are high. I’m sure that statement would open up a lot of argument, but there may be some interesting perspectives before jumping to any conclusions. One of which may be that fine tuning and optimizing nutrition for the best return on investment would make sense when profit opportunities are highest (high market value of cattle) or when managing overall high input costs.
I also remember a conversation in the middle part of the past decade with a well-known stocker operator in the Eastern U.S. that said, “Yes, these cattle are costing more money right now, but they will make me more money because the gain is worth more.” It makes sense that dollar for dollar, right now looks to be a good time for stocker cattle investments. There is always risk, perhaps more now than ever, with high price volatility, but nobody can predict the future. Many marketing analysts have demonstrated that the stocker market has been profitable more than 20 years out of the past 25.
When stocker cattle were selling for $85 per cwt, a supplement program costing ~8 cents per animal per day resulting in 0.25 lbs of additional gain netted a return of 13 cents. Given today’s higher market, assuming cattle at $135 per cwt, the same supplement program that may now cost ~12 cents per head per day would net a return of 21 cents. Hmmm – I guess what worked back then works even better now? The total dollar return per head is better today, thanks to higher valued cattle. Supplementation still works and is even better now.
With feedlot cost of gain at or near record highs, it makes sense to add as much gain as possible on lower cost pasture grazing programs. Thus, there seems to be a lot more interest in the traditional yearling or stocker cattle market. Some areas of the U.S. are dry and some are wet but nevertheless, those areas with grass available should provide a good stocker cattle opportunity.
It’s probably not news that hay prices are climbing in many areas due to several factors (high demand, drought in the southern plains, and supply). With high cereal grain prices, hay and pasture supplies are not likely to increase anytime soon. In fact, pasture rental rates are under upward pressure as well.
A good supplement program not only improves gain performance but can do so without adding any significant cost of gain on pasture. Assuming pasture rental rates at roughly $20 per animal per month (highly variable depending on locale and grass type for stocker cattle) with an average daily gain of 2 lbs without a supplement, cost of gain on pasture would be ~ 33 cents per pound. By adding 12 cents per day in supplement cost and achieving 2.25 lbs of daily gain, the cost of gain changes only to ~ 35 cents. With even higher pasture rents (or lower baseline gain performance), the spread narrows and actually becomes positive.
Yes, the investment paid for stocker programs is a large one. I often wonder if lenders and borrowers overlook the additional income a good stocker supplement program can provide. After all, the additional dollars needed to purchase supplement is a real cost, but the return on those dollars is money well spent – even better spent in today’s market!