Heifer finishing diets should not exceed 12% protein, according to nutrition expert Paul Mooney. Mooney was speaking at the Bandon co-op annual beef meeting on Wednesday night.

He told farmers that feeding over 12% protein to finishing heifers was a waste of money, with excess protein passed out through the urine. According to Mooney, the length of the intensive feeding for heifers should be limited to 90 days.

In the case of steers, the advice was to limit the protein content of the finishing diet to 13% and the duration of the intensive feeding period to 120 days.

Interestingly, farmers were told that when feeding straw in the diet, it must be no longer than the width of the animal's mouth. For farmers using diet feeders, not overfilling the feeder was identified as being key to proper ration mix.

Winter feeding for weanlings

The advice on feeding weanlings over the winter was to match concentrate levels to silage quality. Where top-quality silage in the region of 74DMD was available, concentrates could be limited to 1kg per head per day, increasing to 4kg where silage quality was poor (less than 62DMD).

Mooney told farmers that there was no need to include yeasts in weanling rations due to the low intake levels. Other areas critical to animal performance are feed trough management, stocking rate in the pens and access to water.

The typical finishing ration outlined by the nutrition expert was:

  • 35% maize meal
  • 25% rolled barley
  • 20% distillers grains
  • 15% soya hulls
  • 3% molasses
  • 2% minerals and vitamins

    • Where feeding young bulls, the advice was to increase maize meal and decrease rolled barley. For heifers, maize could be reduced and rolled barley increased.

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