If you are in the cattle business, you undoubtedly know the costs involved with keeping your animals healthy and well fed. Of course, the biggest investment comes from the most basic need – feed. This obvious necessity for your cattle can become expensive, but there are ways to help reduce your feed costs while maintaining a healthy and productive herd.
Records
One strategy to reduce feed costs is to keep good records of your animal’s performance and costs. You cannot manage what you don’t measure. Knowing what your costs are and where they come from allows you to identify areas you can change to reduce costs or increase efficiency/revenue. If you carefully budget prior to purchasing and keep good records of past cattle history, you can evaluate the performance and efficiency of your cattle. Oftentimes the cheapest doesn’t turn out to be the most profitable. But, eliminating the cattle or practices that are losing you money will increase profitability. Consider looking into a monitoring service or software that can help you keep better records.
Feed Management
Another important aspect of keeping down feed costs is to efficiently manage the feed grazed or fed. With proper monitoring, you should be able to reduce feed waste and provide balanced diets. You may also consider alternative feeds, like local feeds or corn coproducts, to help you lower costs. You can also include feed additives to your mix to improve feed efficiency and promote weight gain in your cattle. Letting the cattle do the work by foraging for their feed instead of harvesting and hauling it to them will reduce both labor and equipment costs.
Mineral Supplements
You can also make your feed more beneficial and nutritional for your livestock through mineral supplementation programs. Analyze the feed you currently use to determine what, if any, nutrient additions are called for. Sometimes a balancer or supplement may include more nutrients than are needed, and if you can further refine the mineral supplements you use to make up only for shortcomings in the feed supply, you may be able to more cost-effectively manage your supplement regimen.
Keeping your cattle healthy is one key to saving money. Your nutritionist and veterinarian’s suggested health programs can help reduce death and sickness and reduce costs. For more tips, check out this recent article from Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.
Of course, the best way to keep healthy cattle is to buy healthy cattle. Flying H Genetics offers top-of-the-line Grown On Grass® and ROUGHAGE ‘N READY™ bulls and females with genetic enhancements to help you find the ideal animals for your operation. Add to your herd or start your own today by calling Flying H Genetics at 308-962-6500. With the variety of different breeds available, you are sure to find what you are looking for!
