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It is well known now that many farmers are facing fodder shortfalls coming into this winter. For farmers who haven't yet established if they are in the red or in the green, completing a fodder budget is an absolute necessity.
Those who have completed a budget have now begun identifying ways to make up for a fodder deficit. One of the ways of cutting back silage requirement is to feed a higher level of concentrates. For animals earmarked for slaughter, ad-lib finishing is something that should be considered.
However, as you will learn, ad-lib finishing needs to be planned from an early stage and there are many factors that must be got right:
Planning
The most important aspect of finishing cattle is to have a proper plan in place. After all, failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
It is not as simple as putting cattle into the shed and feeding them concentrates at random. First of all, it should be decided what age you plan on slaughtering your animals, and as the current markets dictate, the younger the better.
Best practice is too work out the target slaughter date and work backwards, planning for regular weighing and dietary adjustments along the way.
Measure
It is vital to constantly monitor the performance of the cattle being finished. The first step in doing this is to measure the weight gain of the animal.
The target weight gain per day for animals during the finishing period is 1.9kg in bulls, 1.3 in steers and 1.1 in heifers.
After this, measuring the amount of feed taken in by the animals is another worthwhile undertaking. While measuring accuracy can be difficult, being aware of the amount of feed being given to an animal, less the amount of feed left behind by the animal (if any), will give a pretty good indication.
Facilities
Ad-lib feeding should take place indoors at all times. It is not possible to get animals on a full ad-lib diet if they are at grass.
Having animals indoors allows for the controlled feeding of concentrates and roughage. There is no correct facility for feeding cattle but there are certain characteristics that a shed must have.
First and foremost it needs to be safe and secure. Animals on ad-lib, particularly bulls, are very strong and very heavy. Penning and gates should be strong to prevent damage to people and to other animals if they mix.
Facilities should also keep cattle clean. There are increased pressures coming from factories to have clean animals, so whether it is slats or straw bedding being used, the pens need to be dry and free from large amounts of dung.
Animals also need space. Overcrowding will negatively impact an animal’s performance as they cannot lie-out to thrive. However, too much space is also an issue in some sheds, as animals have too much room for activity.
Finally, any ad-lib facility should be bird-proof, or at least the feed face should be bird-proofed to prevent feed spoilage and risk or harmful feed contamination.
Overall diet
On average, animals will eat about 2.0-2.2% of body weight per day. The five components of an ad-lib diet are energy, protein, fibre, minerals and water. The ad-lib system is suitable for short finishing periods of approximately 60 to 90 days for steers and heifers, and up to 180 days for bulls. After this length, the weight gain in animals can drop off.
Ration
The best ration is not necessarily the cheapest – it is the feed that is going to make an animal reach its performance targets and keep the animal healthy. The two key components to look out for in an ad-lib finishing ration are energy and protein.
Energy intake is the main determinant of liveweight gain of cattle. Therefore, maximising energy intake is important. In terms of protein, for finishing steers, heifers and bulls, the aim is for 11-12% CP/kg diet DM. A ration must also contain buffer and yeast in the mix to help prevent rumen problems.
If self-mixing a ration, it is important to remember these key components and a specialist diet should be drawn up. It is also vital to ensure the mix is consistent each day.
Water
The most important component of a healthy diet is water. Water is the number one negative on Irish farms when it comes to ad-lib finishing. There are two factors: the cleanliness of water and the availability of water.
A finishing animal eating 14kg to 15kg of dry matter will drink up to 60l of water each day. Drinkers should be big enough so cattle can stick their mouth in and drink freely – small bowl drinkers are not sufficient.
Straw
While concentrates are the main component of a finishing diet, they would be rendered useless without the correct inclusion of straw in the diet.
When feeding meals ad-lib, ensure that animals receive at least 10%-15% of their dietary dry matter as straw, hay or grass silage, in order to maintain rumen function. Ideally, straw should be chopped to a length of 5cm and included daily in a consistent total mixed ration (TMR) to reduce sorting, if a diet feeder is being used.
Minerals
The inclusion of minerals is something that should be considered. Minerals can have a significant impact on the performance of finishing animals, with the potential to gain an extra 60g/head/day.
The three major benefits that can be achieved through minerals is that they produce beef cheaper, produce better carcase weights and they maximise liveweight gain.
There has also been research to suggest that the effect of antibodies, administered through vaccinations, is amplified with the use of minerals in an animal’s diet.
Health
If an animal is not healthy, it will not thrive, regardless of how much feed is being given. When addressing animal health, prevention is always better than the cure.
With this in mind, a health plan should be put in place before housing. Clipping backs and tails and using a lice pour-on is necessary. After this, several options must be considered with your local vet. Dosing for worms is recommended at housing and even a booster for clostridial diseases is common practice.
Where animals are being purchased in, vaccination for pneumonia should also be strongly considered.
Diet changes
When talking about rumen health in a finishing animal, the main thing to avoid is acidosis. Acidosis is caused by a rapid lowering of the pH within an animal’s rumen caused by a dietary problem. The pH within the rumen should be kept above 6.
Best practice to maintain rumen health is to avoid sudden changes of diet. However, for many farmers, the diet alteration period can actually be too long which results in time being lost. A feed introduction and build-up period should be no longer than three to four weeks.
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