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“If you are changing from hay to canola silage, for example, include only about 25 percent canola silage (dry matter basis), in the total ration for the first inclusion. Keep it at that level for 3 or 4 days, to allow the animals to adjust to the different texture and taste. You will see a difference in the manure. It will be looser—softer and wetter. If the manure is not watery and appears normal, it is then safe to increase the silage to 50 percent of the ration. After a few days you can take it up to 75 percent, and than on up to 100 percent, giving the animals a chance to adjust to each new level. This type of gradual switch-over also works for any kind of forage,” he explains. The gradual switch accommodates a change in rumen microbes and enables their population to change and get into balance to handle the new feed.

Sometimes grain is cheap enough to replace some of the hay, if hay is expensive. Barry Robinson, an independent consulting nutritionist in Alberta, says oats are cheaper, per unit of energy, especially if you can feed $130 ton oats compared to $130 ton hay. “Most years, forage is a cheaper way to winter cows, but there are times that the cost per unit of energy is cheaper with a grain. In some regions oats or rolled barley will be used this winter in feeding programs just because hay is so expensive,” says Robinson.

“When you increase the grain in a ration, it should be increased no more than one pound every second day,” says Yaremcio. “If you are changing from 8 to 12 pounds, you need to take at least 8 days to accomplish this. Again, watch the manure. If something is going wrong and the animals are experiencing acidosis or digestive upset, the manure will indicate a problem. If manure gets loose when you’re increasing the grain, reduce the amount being fed by about 3 pounds and let the cattle settle there for a week and then try increasing it again—no more than one pound every 2 days,” says Yaremcio.

Avoid Feeding Spoiled Silage
Some stockmen who put up silage or have access to silage can use it to stretch hay supplies. Care must be taken, however, to avoid feeding spoiled silage, or cattle may have health problems or reduced feed efficiency.

“Do NOT feed the black material on top of the pit or along the walls. Studies at Kansas State showed that including even 5 percent of this black, spoiled material in the total mixed ration reduces rumen function and results in a reduction in average daily gain of approximately half a pound of daily gain when backgrounding or finishing cattle,” explains Yaremcio. You should scrape off the black material and spread it out in the field as fertilizer for next year’s crop.

Calcium Concerns
Stockmen who feed grass/alfalfa hay often use a straight 1 to 1 (calcium/phosphorus) mineral supplement. “If they change to grass hay, they usually use a 2 to1 mineral, to increase the amount of calcium fed. If you feed dried distillers grains, barley malt pellets, corn gluten feed, or other by-products, the phosphorus levels have at least doubled and may be 4 times higher than you’d find in grain (which is also high in phosphorus). Calcium will be deficient in these rations if you don’t adjust the mineral. Feeding a 2 to 1 mineral won’t solve the problem. If you’re adding 4 or 5 pounds of dried distillers grain to get more energy and protein into cows’ rations (since the dried distillers grain may be 42 percent protein), the phosphorus levels may be anywhere from 1 to 1.2 percent in that ration. That will be 3.5 to 4 times higher than you’d find in barley, oats, wheat or triticale,” says Yaremcio.

“To solve that problem you need to feed between 2.5 and 3 ounces of calcium carbonate or limestone per head per day. The problem with feeding limestone is that it’s not readily consumed by cattle. Mixing it with fortified trace mineral salt and vitamins improves intake. To further improve intake, add 8 to 14 percent dried molasses to the mix. The dried molasses can help regulate intake. If cows are not eating enough of the mix, increase the molasses. If they are eating too much, reduce the amount of dried molasses,” explains Yaremcio. “To increase calcium levels in any feed ration, you don’t need an expensive mineral mix when a $4 or $5 bag of calcium is more beneficial in balancing the ration.”

Watch Sulfur Levels
“Some of the distillers by-products can contain high levels of sulfur due to processing and concentration of the nutrients that remain. Different regions have different water quality. When feeding distillers by-products or canola greenfeed (which can contain higher sulfur levels than traditional forages) the total sulfur content of the ration can be 0.4 percent of higher,” says Yaremcio.

“Once you get above .4 percent, the rumen environment changes and the population of microbes that produce the B vitamins is reduced. If rumen pH drops too much, these bacteria may be eliminated. This creates a situation that can lead to severe vitamin B deficiency, which can result in ‘polio’ in cattle. When feeding canola or brassica hay or silage, you should have no more than 50 percent of the total dry matter intake consist of these feeds. Mustard crops may have higher levels of erucic acid and glucosinolates, which can create more problems for cattle,” says Yaremcio.

Nitrates
Farmers traditionally add nitrogen fertilizer to certain crops, to optimize yields. If crop germination is poor or growing conditions are cool in spring, the nitrogen use by the plant will be limited. “If mid-season rains cause un-germinated seeds to emerge or existing plants to have a second growth spurt can this may create nitrate problems. In some situations, crop maturity is delayed and it is cut for silage. If the crop is cut during cool, cloudy conditions, nitrate levels may be quite high in these plants. When using any alternate or by-product feeds, it is important to have a feed test, including tests for nitrates,” he says.

Some crops are caught with early frost. With a killing frost there’s no accumulation of nitrates and the plants are safe to feed. The vascular bundle within the plant is killed (as well as the leaves) and there will be no more transport of water and nutrients from the roots to the upper plant.

“Nitrates become a problem when you have a light frost and the plant keeps growing. The vascular bundle within the plant is active, roots are pushing nutrients and water up into the plant, and being supplied to the leaves—but the leaves are damaged and cannot convert the nitrate into protein as efficiently as prior to the frost damage, so it builds up in the leaves. The maximum concentration of nitrates in that plant, after a light frost, will occur roughly 4 days after the frost. From day 4 to about day 10 to 14, the nitrate levels will decline and go back to normal as the plant recovers.”

If you cut a crop the first or second day after light frost, the risk of nitrate accumulation is greatly reduced. If you can’t harvest it that quickly, wait at least 10 days before cutting, to make sure nitrate levels are safe again. The problem with waiting that long is that you might get another frost during that 10 day waiting period. “If you get a killing frost while nitrate levels are still high, this locks in the high nitrate level and it will not dissipate; you’ll be stuck with nitrates in that crop,” explains Yaremcio.

“If you end up with feeds that contain high nitrate levels, mix them with other feed and dilute the nitrates to make it safer. If you are introducing high nitrate feeds to cows, do it gradually. After about 5 to 6 days the rumen bacteria will adjust and multiply, and be able to detoxify a greater amount of nitrates per day. The safety margin then increases,” he says.

At the same time the bacteria are changing, the number of red blood cells in the body also increases. “When cows are subjected to a low level of nitrates in the ration, the amount of red blood cells increase, but this may take 14 to 21 days to occur. The animals do adapt and become able to handle higher levels of nitrate,” he says.

The old rule of thumb was that anything higher than half a percent of nitrate was toxic. “If cows have sudden exposure to high nitrate feed, the half percent concentration is where you’ll start to have problems. But if cattle are allowed adequate time to adjust to eating 25 percent of the ration as high nitrate feed, and the amounts are gradually increased over a 2 week period of time, then you can probably get up to .75 or even .9 percent without any problems. The adjustment period is crucial,” explains Yaremcio.

Another thing to remember is that pregnant cows are likely to abort if fed high nitrate feeds in late pregnancy. Pregnant cows must deliver greater and greater amounts of oxygen to the fetus as pregnancy progresses and the fetus grows larger. “Spontaneous abortions will occur in pregnant cows when fed a high nitrate feed during those last 30 days. As calving approaches, maximum nitrated concentration in the ration should be reduced back to the 0.5 percent limit, for the last 30 and 45 days of pregnancy,” he says.

Ionophors for Increased Feed Efficiency
“If you include a low quality forage such as straw, grass seed aftermath, or low quality hay (such as slough hay) in a ration that also includes cereal grain and a protein supplement or some kind of by-product feed, adding an ionophor such as Rumensin or Bovatec will improve feed efficiency and reduce the risk of digestive upset. Every dollar spent on an ionophor will give $4 in return. With the increased efficiency, fiber digestion is better, with less chance for impaction,” explains Yaremcio.

Robinson says Rumensin can be fed in a feed pellet or added to grain or silage. “This can improve feed efficiency by about 8 percent. Rumensin always must be force fed (added to feed) rather than offered in a free-choice mineral mix—or some cattle will eat too much and others won’t eat enough. Even if over-consumption of Rumensin doesn’t cause physical harm to the cattle, you won’t obtain the feed efficiency if their rumensin level is bouncing all over,” explains Robinson.

Dr. Dick Fredrickson (veterinarian with Simplot ranches and feedlots, located at Grandview, Idaho) says Rumensin can be added to a protein supplement cube or pellet, which can be fed to cattle on winter range or eating low-quality forage like corn stalks. “This can greatly increase their feed efficiency. If you feed 75 milligrams of Rumensin per cow per day, efficiency and utilization of forage goes up 5 percent. At 150 milligrams per cow per day, efficiency goes up 10 percent, and you can do this for just pennies per day,” says Fredrickson. Salt is added to the pellet product, to limit daily consumption to proper amounts. If you use any feed containing Rumensin, however, remember that it is very toxic to horses.

Chaff Piles and Straw
Chaff aftermath collected after combining can be used as feed. “How good it is will depend on the amount of weed seeds in it, and light kernels of grain within the chaff pile. If you let a lot of the light grain kernels go over and be collected in the piles, energy and protein content will be higher. Some chaff values will be about 55 percent TDN and about 8 to 9 percent protein,” says Yaremcio.

Grass seed straw can also be used as forage. “Fescue and timothy seed aftermath are common in some regions. You can treat this forage as you would a low to average quality cereal straw when developing a ration. It will be 5 percent protein at best, and 40 to 45 TDN. The calcium to phosphorus levels in these feeds are fairly low compared to higher quality hay, but they are useful as a filler. In mid-pregnancy this kind of straw can provide 30 to 50 percent of the ration, whereas in late pregnancy it should make up no more than 25 to 30 percent of the ration,” he says.

“Pea straw, lentil straw, chickpea straw, etc. are all in the legume family and will have energy content just slightly lower than that of cereal straws, but protein levels will be in the 7 to 9 percent range. Calcium content can be up to 1 percent. The calcium-phosphorus content is similar to good alfalfa/grass hay, but it doesn’t have the energy or protein. The secret to using this is to try to capture as many leaves/pods as possible when harvesting, to keep the quality up,” he says. Any crops with second growth in the straw will have green plants mixed with mature stalks, and can be good feed.

It pays to feed test whenever using any non-traditional, damaged, frozen or unusual feeds in a ration, since these can create imbalances if the nutrient content is not known.

Importance of Protein
When using any low quality roughage (low on protein) such as straw or corn stalks, a protein supplement makes it work better. “In actuality you are not feeding the cow; you are feeding her rumen microbes so she can adequately digest the forage,” says Fredrickson. “Rumen function is critical; we have to feed the microbes that are key to digestion of lower quality forage.” The rumen microbes utilize minerals and protein to make enzymes that help them break down and digest forages.

There are many ways to add protein to a cow’s diet, including commercial protein supplements or pellets, or small amount of alfalfa hay. “Do not use urea to add protein to a low quality forage diet. The cow needs starch to convert urea to protein. Low quality roughages do not contain much starch, so the urea volatilizes and passes out of the rumen as nitrate and is excreted in urine. You get no protein benefit and wasted your money, and the urea in this situation can also be harmful to the cow. There have been some documented cases of nitrate toxicity when using urea to supplement low quality forages,” explains Fredrickson.

Alfalfa is a good protein supplement for cows on a low quality forage diet. Beef cows should consume about 2.5 percent of their body weight per day in forage. Forages with low protein content (straw, mature dry grass, corn stalks, etc.) reduce digestive efficiency by as much as 30 percent. “Cows on low quality forage cannot eat enough per day to maintain body weight and develop a fetus. By supplementing with protein so the total diet contains 7 percent protein, the cow’s intake will increase, and so will the digestibility of the roughage,” he says.

“A protein supplement, whether it’s alfalfa hay or a pellet, can be fed every third day (tripling the amount fed). The cow’s rumen can get by just fine on this periodic protein supplementation,” explains Fredrickson.

Look at All Options
There are no magic formulas when winter feed supplies are short or become extremely expensive. The viable options will depend on the crops (and possible by-product sources) available where you live. “It’s worth looking at some non-traditional options,” says Robinson. “Rather than looking just at hay, take a look at grain costs and talk to a nutritionist who might be able to help you figure out a ration using something you hadn’t previously considered. There are always ways to feed differently, and you may learn a strategy to be more efficient—and might want to continue with it in better times, for reduced costs of production,” he says.

Some stockmen might find it feasible to purchase wheat that’s been frosted, or some low-weight barley. “There may be some off-grade grains at discounted prices that will fit nicely into a backgrounding or cow ration to help reduce costs,” says Robinson.

“Some people truck their cows to regions with more feed, and trust someone else to winter them. For this to work, there must be a very good contract and understanding between the parties. You need to research the person and facilities where your cows will winter. Make a few trips there during winter to monitor the program and make sure everyone is on the same page,” says Robinson. Sometimes it’s cheaper to move the cows to the feed than to move the feed to the cows, but you need to make sure the arrangement will be satisfactory.

Grazing crop aftermath will also work, but many stockmen don’t take full advantage of this. “They don’t take the opportunity to communicate with farmer neighbors about doing this. The stockman might ask his neighbor if he could run an electric wire around a quarter section of crop residue and graze it,” he says.

There may also be pasture available in areas with no water, where cattle can lick snow for water. “Some of the healthiest cow herds I consult for lick snow all winter. They do very well on this, once they learn how,” explains Robinson.