For mild climates, usually 3-4 lbs. of an energy concentrate (in addition to protein) will be required for a bull calf to gain 1 lb./day through the winter. This assumes good-quality range grasses (such as grama grass) or hay.
Can you feed Bulls in the winter?
Winter Feeding Is Simple With respect to mature bulls, winter feeding is rather simple. The feed requirements are essentially the same as for a dry cow. The only complication would be if you're fall calving and use bulls for breeding during the winter. In this case they may need additional energy (more on this later).
What is the best way to feed Bulls?
Winter bull feeding. However, as a practical matter, a protein/vitamin/mineral supplement designed for dry cows will maintain bulls quite nicely, and bulls will simply eat more of whatever grass or hay is provided to compensate for their needs.
How do you take care of a bull after breeding?
After the first breeding season, bulls may need to regain several hundred pounds of body weight depending on condition losses. Proper feeding and development of yearling bulls should continue following the breeding season in order to maintain bulls in good body condition and keep them on an increasing plane of nutrition.
Why is feeding important for young bulls?
Feed and management of these young bulls is very important, however, to ensure that they can stay sound and fertile. Mark and Della Ehlke raise purebred Herefords and Angus near Townsend, Montana. They have a spring and a fall calving herd; they manage each of those groups a little differently.
What is the best feed for bulls?
Silage from either corn or sorghum is also a great roughage source for feeding bulls. Silage is particularly useful during the development phase and can be used during the transition phase. Obviously, pasture is a primary choice for roughage in a bull diet.
What should I feed my cattle in the winter?
Forage and/or Hay Characteristics Forage quality is important, but you can get through the winter with decent quality roughage (i.e., hay, stockpiled introduced pasture and/or dormant native grass) if you have enough of it and your cattle (mature cows) are in the right physiological stage and condition.
Do bulls Need grain?
Grains. Almost the opposite of roughages, grains provide lots of energy to the bull, but not much fiber. Common grains used in bull feeding are corn, milo, barley, and oats. You don't need a lot of grains to fulfill a bull's energy needs, so it's mixed with roughage to help fill them up.
How much grain should I feed my bull a day?
The gain for yearling bulls prior to the breeding season should be about 2 pounds per day. This would require a diet containing 10-11% protein and 60-70% TDN (dry matter basis) which could be supplied by 6-10 lbs. of grain per day and full-feed of medium quality hay.
Do cattle need hay in winter?
Hay is the most commonly used winter feed for beef cattle, but it's also the most expensive. Each cow requires a daily intake of 40 pounds of round-baled hay, which amounts to $1.61 if pricing hay at $80 per ton.
Do cows need salt blocks in the winter?
Cattle need salt in the winter Just to be sure keep a salt block available at all times anyway. It's a cheap way to let the cattle balance their own minerals when they feel they need to.
What is bull's diet?
Bulls and cows are the same species, so a bull's diet consists mostly of grass and other wild foliage just like cows. As well as grass, farmers will often supplement a bull's diet with additional grasses and grains over the winter to help them meet their considerable energy requirements.
Can you leave a bull with cows year round?
The good news is: It is possible to leave bulls with the cows year-round and still maintain a calving season of three months or less.
How do you fatten up a bull?
Fattening of bulls requires a quality diet. This means doing high quality hay and having it in your store, making silage, making a concentrate to improve on protein and energy nutrition and also having minerals and vitamin sources that can be bought as premix. Total mixed ration way of feeding is also encouraged.
Do bulls eat carrots?
Carrots are quite palatable and readily consumed by cattle. Carrots have 91% the metabolizable energy value of corn, on a DM basis. There is a popular press report that indicates 40% of a feedlot diet DM as carrots did not cause any deleterious affects.
Do bulls eat hay?
They include things such as silage, grass, and hay. Although not particularly nutritious, roughages will give the bull enough fibers so that it has good digestion. As such, they will keep the animal's tissue healthy. Therefore, these substances should represent the majority of the bull's diet.
What can I feed my bull to gain weight?
Cool-season annuals, such as small grains and ryegrass, can support gains up to 2.5 pounds per day when managed to keep forage in a vegetative stage of growth. When using conserved forages, such as hay, baleage, or silage, in bull development rations, a forage analysis is needed.
How often should cows be fed in winter?
Preliminary studies also suggest that lower-volume supplements (1 to 2 pounds per head per day) may be fed every third day without affecting rumen function. As an example, if cows are fed 2 pounds of a supplemental feed daily, feeding every third day means providing 6 pounds per head.
How much grain should I feed my cow in the winter?
Cows will voluntarily consume about 2 percent of their body weight or 24 pounds per day. The 24 pounds is based on 100 percent dry matter.
What is the cheapest way to feed cattle?
“Corn residue is one of the lowest cost forages on a cost per pound of energy. That's why mixing a high energy and protein feed like distillers' grains with a low quality forage like corn stalks is so cost effective. Distillers' is often a low-cost source of both energy and protein.
What do farmers do with cows in the winter?
While the cows are acclimated to the cold temperatures, below-zero wind chills will impact their stock in a negative way. If the Berndts hear a winter storm forecasted, cows are herded to the sheltered woods a short distance north of the home place. Here the cowherd is sheltered from the wind and nestled in the hills.
When feeding bulls, the main thing is to assess your goals for those animals, says Dr. Bart Lardner
Winter feed requirements will vary depending on whether the bulls are weanlings, yearlings or mature bulls. Photo: Heather Smith Thomas
Analyze feeds
Producers may also need to provide mineral supplementation and perhaps vitamins if forages are deficient. It’s crucial to increase energy levels during cold weather, and especially important to provide enough protein to enable rumen microbes to process and create heat energy from forages.
Forage-grown bulls
This can be a good compromise between selling yearlings (which often means overfeeding young bulls) and having to wait and sell two-year-olds.
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How to prevent frostbite in bulls?
“To prevent [scrotal] frostbite, bulls need adequate dietary energy, and a good windbreak like trees, a coulee, or a manmade windbreak with about 20% porosity (which works better than a solid barrier that the wind goes up and over). Bedding is also important, so bulls are not lying on frozen ground or in a snowdrift, or sleeping in a wet, filthy environment.” Bulls that are covered in frozen mud and manure lose much of the insulating quality of their hair coat.
Do bulls need care?
Bulls need as much care and attention through winter as your cow herd to make sure they stay healthy and will be ready for the next breeding season.
Can an older bull beat a younger bull?
“The older bull might be dominant during the breeding season, but maybe he doesn’t have the energy or desire in the winter to put up with an aggressive young three-year-old that’s trying to come up through the pecking order. The older bull might be able to beat the younger bull, but he just doesn’t want to get into a scrap.”
Can bulls get lice in winter?
Lice can be an issue in winter, especially if bulls were not deloused, or if delousing was done too early in the fall. In either case, they may start rubbing out their hair before spring. In this situation, they should be treated for lice (or treated again). You don’t want them rubbing their hair off in cold weather and losing that insulating hair coat.
Divide bulls by build
Davis points to winter nutrition habits as key to maintaining an optimum body condition score.
Limit cold stress
Winter months can result in cold stress for bulls. This stress could influence fertility during the next breeding season.
Make them move
Exercise before the breeding season is important to make sure bulls are physically ready for breeding, Davis says.
Why is nutritional management important for bulls?
For bulls to achieve their full growth potential and successfully perform as a breeding bull, nutrition al requirements must be met.
How much weight do bulls need to be weaned?
For example, the Alabama Beef Cattle Improvement Association requires a minimum 205-day adjusted weaning weight of 550 pounds and a weight per day of age (WDA) of 2.5 pounds for entry into the North Alabama Bull Evaluation Center. Producers should consult with a veterinarian to develop an appropriate vaccination plan during this transition period (refer to Vaccinations for the Beef Cattle Herd, Extension publication ANR-0968). Following are nutritional factors to consider when developing bulls post-weaning to the yearling stage.
How much should a 600 pound bull weigh?
For example, a 600-pound bull with a projected mature weight of 1,800 pounds should weigh 1,350 pounds as a 2-year-old (1,800 pounds × 75 percent of mature weight = 1,350 pounds). In general, this requires a growth rate of 2 to 3 pounds per day during this time period from weaning to yearling stage.
What happens if a bull is not weaned?
If nutritional needs of a bull from weaning to yearling are not met, bull growth rate will be reduced and pubertal development can be delayed.
How much should a bull weigh at 2 years old?
The desired rate of gain can be determined by evaluating weight at the beginning of the development period and at projected mature weight. Bulls generally should reach 75 percent of their mature weight at 2 years of age. For example, a 600-pound bull with a projected mature weight of 1,800 pounds should weigh 1,350 pounds as a 2-year-old ...
How much weight should a bull gain?
To achieve this goal in most cases, yearling bulls may require 1.5 to 2.0 pounds per day gain following a 60-day breeding season.
What is free choice feed?
Free-choice feeds are generally offered using self-feeders in pastures or drylot settings. If using self-feed programs for bull development, consult a nutritionist to ensure proper formulation of feedstuffs that ease the transition of bulls from a more forage-based diet to a higher-concentrate feed ration.
What is the feedlot for bulls?
The feedlot has large pens and the bulls get some exercise. The pens are on a slope and they have to travel up and down. They are fed a ration that contains chopped hay and straw, along with a bull developer pellet. This program has worked very well for spring-born bulls, for about 20 years.
Why feed a bull a moderate ration?
Feeding a moderate ration and not pushing them too much helps avoid foot problems and fat in the scrotum (which interferes with fertility). “We want to feed them almost to that limit, to find the bulls that can gain well and stay sound.”. They sort themselves out, in terms of which ones can do it.
How much weight do bulls gain in a day?
The Ehlke pastures contain some legumes and provide adequate nutrition. Young bulls will gain at least 3 pounds a day just on pasture and also have plenty of exercise. This is an ideal situation for growing bulls.
How much weight do Charolais bulls gain?
Some bulls were gaining four or more pounds per day, which can be detrimental to future fertility and soundness. Although most stockmen realize fat is unhealthy ...
Why do bulls keep overfeeding?
Although most stockmen realize fat is unhealthy for a bull, they still tend to buy the biggest, best-looking animals, and many breeders keep overfeeding them because it’s harder to sell a bull that isn’t carrying extra weight.
How often are bulls weighed?
The bulls are weighed a couple times while on test, to see how they are doing as a group, and as individuals, to know if feed should be adjusted to have them gaining a little more or a little less. “The bulls are continually monitored; your eye will tell you a lot,” he says.
Can bulls have liver abscesses?
These bulls can end up with liver abscesses, damaged claws and feet, and in some cases permanent reduction in number of sperm produced and often poor semen quality. “There is no sense in grossly overfeeding bulls in the post-weaning period,” he says.
