Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Hosted by members of the University of Minnesota Extension Beef and Dairy Teams, The Moos Room discusses relevant topics to help beef and dairy producers be more successful. The information is evidence-based and presented as an informal conversation between the hosts and guests.
Welcome to the Moo's Room. It's a hot one in the Midwest again, 90 degree Fahrenheit temperatures, high humidity. I think as I do this Sunday afternoon, it feels like 107 degrees Fahrenheit. So it is a hot one out there. We talked about heat stress, trying to figure out how to reduce heat stress in cows and calves last week, and here we are again.
It's, uh, well, hopefully everything stays cool and we don't lose too much production or have too many effect on animals, but it, it can be pretty harsh out there. But today I wanted to talk a little bit about beef on dairy again. I did some extension events here in Minnesota on beef on dairy crossing and early life nutrition in calves and talked about a few of the studies that just came out, and I kind of wanted to share some of those today just so you know what's happening in the beef on dairy world from a calf perspective and some ideas that are, are happening.
You know, the markets may be a little bit soft on some of the beef on dairy crosses. If I look at Albany, that's central Minnesota Dairy calves are 800 to 1150. The beef on dairy cross calves, 1200 to almost 1700. So it's a little bit less here in the central part of the state. If we go to southern Minnesota, Zumbrota, Holstein calves, dairy calves, 800 to 1250.
So about the same as Zumbrota. The beef on dairy cross is 1400 to 2000. So beef on dairy cross is maybe a little bit more from a market value in southern Minnesota than it is in central Minnesota. So the market is soft and maybe just a touch, but not too bad. But let's talk about some of the early life nutrition from a beef on dairy perspective.
We have some studies from the University of Minnesota and then one from Iowa State that I'd like to discuss. It's kind of interesting results that we found. I think when we talked with farmers, though some of the biggest reasons for selecting beef on dairy is looking at conception rate of dairy cows, trying to improve the conception rate of their cows, trying to improve calving ease, and really semen price.
Semen price is one of the biggest reasons that bulls and breeds are used on dairy cows. And most of the time, AI representatives are really driving sire selection and not necessarily is it good, is it bad? Well, there's a lot of challenges associated with it because sometimes the farmers want cheap semen and good calving ease bulls, but the feedlot wants muscling, ribeye, marbling, and yearling weight.
So it's kind of this dichotomy going on between the beef and the dairy world about how to get good beef on dairy crossbred calves. But let's talk about some of nutrition, early life nutrition, and some of the studies that have been done as well
So there was a study done at the University of Minnesota that really looked at trying to optimize growth of beef on dairy cross calves So what, what was the study? So this was just recently published in Journal of Dairy Science Communications. So they had forty Angus Holstein crossbred calves, all sourced from one farm.
They were raised at our Southern Research and Outreach Center here at the University of Minnesota in Waseca, so southern Minnesota. It was a fifty-six day trial, so at forty-nine days pre-weaning followed by seven days post-weaning. So these calves were weaned about forty-nine days They were fed about six liters of milk for the first 42 days, stepped down to about three liters a day from day 43 to 49.
So six liters, about a gallon and a half a day They were fed eighteen percent crude protein starter, and that was offered ad libitum. So what were their treatments? Well, they had a standard control, and that was a twenty percent protein, twenty percent fat milk replacer. And then they had what we would call a high performance one, twenty-four percent crude protein, twenty-four percent crude fat.
So basically, they split these calves. Some got a twenty/twenty, and others got a twenty-four/twenty-four. Now, when I talk to farmers about this, obviously some people are like, "Really, a twenty/twenty?" Well, I think that a lot of people still in the dairy world are feeding a twenty percent protein, twenty percent fat milk replacer.
And we've been doing that at our research center for many years in Waseca as a control. I would say well on twenty-five years we've been feeding a twenty/twenty
So what are the differences that we see in the milk replacer formulations from a energy and a protein perspective? Well, twenty-four percent more crude protein, about twenty-three percent more fat, and increased mega cals up two point one from a net energy perspective. So just more energy in the twenty-four twenty-four milk replacer Okay, so what did, what did they find when they compared these beef on dairy cross calves?
Well, for the 24/24 milk replacer, they found increased starter intake, and we'll talk about that in a second, but they found a 23% increase in average daily gain and a 10% increase in gain-to-feed ratio by 56 days, so at the end of eight weeks
If we look at average daily gain, so the control about one point two pounds per day
So that's about .55 kilos per day, and the 24/24 calves were about .68 kilos per day, so 1.5. So everybody could be like, "Well, that's not very good growth on those calves." Well, I think the goal is to have starter intake be the definer of growth in these calves, and not necessarily milk replacer. So we might feed a little bit less energy in the milk replacer, and hopefully the starter will grow.
But it's okay. I wish the growths would've been a little bit higher. You know, I'm pushing 2.0 in some of my beef and dairy cross stuff, but I'm feeding way more energy, way more energy. So maybe on a limited energy diet, they do pretty good. But overall, the crossbred calves gained more on a higher energy diet.
So really, it was pronounced in two weeks to a month of age, and that was a 46% increase in average daily gain
If you think about from a frame size perspective, the twenty twenty calves, six point four centimeters per day, and the twenty four twenty four calves about eight centimeters per day in frame size. So the crossbred calves on the higher energy had twenty five percent faster hip height gain. So they just grew much faster from a frame size perspective So what about dry matter intake?
If you look at dry matter intake, so this enhanced early development from this twenty-four twenty-four actually stimulated greater feed consumption from starter intake in the late pre-weaning phase. So overall, total dry matter intake increased by about thirteen percent. We saw the really drastic increase in dry matter intake about twenty-eight days of age.
So about a month of age, that's when the twenty-four twenty-four calves really started to increase in starter intake. And from a month to weaning, so four to eight weeks, we saw a ninety-five percent increase in starter intake for these calves that were on the twenty-four twenty-four. Now, the control calves, they consumed dry matter intake and increased as well.
But the calves that were on the twenty-four twenty-four actually had increased starter intake as well. So they grew much better. Increased starter intake, you know, the calves were fed all the same milk, the same amount every day, but we really saw the growth really came from starter intake So if you look at energy conversion and feed conversion, well, the twenty-four twenty-four calves were more efficient, and they had better gain-to-feed ratio, so ten percent increase in gain-to-feed, eleven percent increase in gain per M cals of net energy, and they just had more gain per pound of crude protein that they consumed, about ten percent.
So these calves just grew much better. So in the final conclusions, basically, we saw a twenty-three percent increase in total weight gain, twenty-five percent increase in frame growth, ten percent increase in feed efficiency. So upgrading to a twenty-four twenty-four for these beef on dairy calves was highly efficient, and it really proved to be able to maximize the growth of these beef on dairy crossbred calves, and hopefully that translated into some feedlot value.
Now, we didn't keep these calves in the feedlot. They were sold afterwards, so this was just an early life nutrition study
But let's talk about a recent report that came out from Iowa State University that talked about early life nutrition. So what did they do? They had 120 head. They were fed for 465 days, so that's young calves to harvest, basically. And they had, these were all Angus by Holstein steers, and they were fed together Following weaning, and they had a common diet that was fed after weaning.
So they had a high starch pelleted ration, a low starch pelleted ration, a high starch TMR, and a low starch TMR And that's what they were fed early in life
So what did the TMR ration consist of? Well, corn, dried distillers grain. It had ryelage, so rye silage, corn silage, and that was it. So we had more forage, so corn silage, rye silage, and some corn. The finisher diet was about sixty percent corn. The TMRs early on in life about twelve percent corn, and the pellet was about twenty percent corn.
Mostly the pellet was wheat mids and corn
So they were fed this starter diet through the first s- sixty days, so eight weeks of life, and then they went on to a receiver diet, so day sixty to a hundred and twenty. And then after a hundred and twenty days, they were fed the same common grower ration and the same finishing ration. So really, the study really tried to figure out what the differences were from an early life perspective and how that affects growth and harvest later on in life So what did the study find at Iowa State?
Well Between the high starch and the low starch weaning weights, no difference. So basically, pre-wean calves showed limited response to the starter starch content, frame size, average daily gain, all identical. So really nothing in the first sixty days of life. However, if you look at day sixty to one twenty, now if you look at average daily gain, the pelleted calves outperformed the TMR calves.
So two point three to two point four pounds per day versus one point five to one point seven five. So they just had more growth, about a half a pound more in average daily gain if you were on a pellet compared to a TMR. And then the dry matter intake, obviously the calves that were on the pellets consumed more dry matter intake, so twelve versus about six and a half So basically we wanted rapid growth.
We chased carbohydrates through the corn, and both pelleted groups had higher body weights throughout this 60 days after weaning Now, if you look at late stage finishing and what happened from a late stage perspective, well, the calves that were on a high starch ration kind of started to slow down in growth.
And really by the time two hundred and forty days post weaning, the low starch TMR cattle continued to increase in body weight and may have been fed even longer. But at harvest, about sixty pounds more in growth for the low starch TMR versus the high starch TMR calves
So what about at harvest? Well, not much difference in carcass weight, except the low starch TMR had higher carcass weight, about forty pounds more on the low st- TMR calves. They had twenty percent prime compared to ten to fifteen percent prime in the other rations. Gross value, so value of that carcass was about a hundred dollars more for the low starch TMR calves.
So these low starch TMR had higher carcass weight, had a highest percentage grading prime, and had more revenue per head
If you look at it from a net return perspective, so they factored in feed, yardage cost, the low starch TMR calves were four hundred and sixty-seven dollars. The high starch TMR about four hundred and eighty-nine. So they had the TMR fed dairy crossbreds had greater net returns compared to the animals that were fed pellets.
Low starch TMR pellets, or excuse me, low starch pellet, three hundred and forty-two dollars. So low starch TMR had about a hundred and twenty more dollars in net return compared to a low starch pellet. So while the high starch TMR had slightly higher returns due to cheaper feed costs, so it's cheaper to feed these animals with a little bit of TMR and forage.
However, they had a little bit higher liver abscess rate. And we-- The study talked a little bit about liver abscesses. They had thirty-one percent liver abscesses in the high starch TMR diet, whereas only about four percent in the other groups. So in the end, feeding a low starch eighteen percent starter in the nursery phase, so the first sixty days of life, followed by a forage-based TMR, really established superior rumen health for healthier calves and greater finishing quality So the low starch TMR cattle had a higher late stage dry matter intake.
They had the heaviest final body weights and the highest carcass growth
So it's interesting that there were calves that basically they were fed a TMR and they had the best finishing rate as well as the best revenue in the end. So hopefully, you know, we must pay attention to early life nutrition on these beef on dairy crossbred calves. And we'll talk about that maybe into the future as well as we continue to do some studies here in Morris.
We've got some embryos being born this fall that are purebred Angus and we're going to compare them to Angus times dairy crossbred calves fed ad libitum or eight liters. And we'll kind of get into that later on in life. But we're going to do some beef on dairy crossing studies that are comparing our crossbreds to native beef.
And I think it's going to be an interesting study. So hopefully you learned a little bit about early life nutrition today and some of the studies that are coming out from a beef on dairy crossbred perspective. And I think they're going to only gain in traction as we move along. And we're going to do some exciting stuff here in Morris as well.
So with that, if you have any comments, questions, or scathing rebuttals, feel free to contact me at The Moo's Room. That's T-H-E-M-O-S-R-O-O-M at UMN.edu or find us on the web at University of Minnesota Livestock Extension or UMN WC ROC Dairy. And with that, I hope you stay cool this week. Bye.