alfalfa pellets and such....

[GrowURown]

Okay, the lady at the feed store didn't know a TON...but enough to point me I feel in the right direction...but as I sit here, let me riddle you this....


AS A KID, in the 80's...we feed half coastal type hay and half alfalfa free choice along with pasture to our beef steers....then whatever dad's magic feed mix was....it seemed to work, I got a really big trophy and enough cash to buy my first car out of my second steer I took to show...

NOW, PRESENT DAY ADULT.....I have a bag of purina preconditioning receiving chow for cattle and a red bag of Purinas "cattle chow"...dogs and horses get "chow"...wonder why....anyways....point being....we are mixing it half and half and offering SMALL amounts until we get her used to it..handfuls as treat at the moment...at the recommendation of the feed store owner...but then I was thinking and we all know that's bad!

I intend to provide free choice HORSE quality COASTAL hay...alfalfa is an OPTION I suppose, but here's my question...


COULD I INSTEAD SLOWLY ADD TO OUR LITTLE COWS DIET SOME ALFALFA PELLETS SUCH AS THE GOATS GET?

I prefer to deal with the pellets over the hay, it would be easy to mix a batch of feed in a barrel and not have to deal with multiple types of hay...plus I have a good connection to hay in this drought we have in Texas, and it is NOT alfalfa...but if the actual hay is better in some way I can do that too...


What do ya'll think? I want her to have the best nutrition and thus develop...well...TASTILY

OH! and the feed store lady recommended to feed the mix until the bag was gone and then switch to the cattle chow solely...something about the feed being medicated blah blah yadda yadda...the part I caught was that it's supposed to helping with shipping stress and what not and we have decent cow poos today so far, so I guess her little handful bright and early helps, who knows....

Any pointers for a lowline heifer calf aged 5 or 6 months appreciated I know I can keep her alive and healthy, but I want her TASTY TOO!

 

[jhm47]

Better to feed some long-stemmed hay to your calf. Their rumen health is better with some hay as roughage. As to the shipping fever, it is a respiratory disorder, and their stools will not be affected greatly.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

I agree with JHM. You're better off feeding hay than pellets as a main staple for your calves' diets. Horse hay is good to feed your heifer (as you found out in your other thread), as cattle are pretty indifferent to what kind of hay they get. Just as long as it's quality enough that she's going to gain on it, which she has a better chance of doing if fed a grass-legume mix or mostly-legume hay.

Alfalfa pellets can get a bit costly, plus they have to be fed carefully to your heifer because, even though she's growing, she can handle a roughage diet better than a high-protein diet. Yes, growing calves do need a high protein diet (diet should have around 18% protein, less as she gets older and heavier), but access to grass and hay should be her primary diet. Pellets can be and should be fed as supplement only if she is not getting enough nutrition, or if she's not gaining weight on the hay or pasture she has access to. Since you are raising her for meat and not for breeding, pellets should be used as supplement.

Most medicated bags of feed are those that have added minerals and vitamins for a growing calf. It's the same thing with buying medicated salt blocks: they just have added minerals for the calf to get into her system to grow. I think maybe the feed may also added anti-bloat medication, but I wouldn't be sure. I've never heard of a bag of feed being medicated to prevent shipping fever or shipping stress, so I think the lady was BS'ing you there. Shipping fever, as JHM said below, is a respiratory disease caused by stress from rough handling or from being weaned or handled in an area where there is quite a bit of dust. No amount of mineral or vitamin can prevent shipping stress: only humans can prevent it by proper handling and vaccinating.

 

[GrowURown]

Yes, hay is her main chow really, I was only curious as to whether or not I should supplement with the alfalfa pellets. AND she gets her feed, which has oxytetracycline in it...don't even know if she is eating enough to matter, but that's what it has...

Sorry, I was in a "happy cow" delirium...let me clarify....


No signs of shipping fever, breathing clear, nose clear, eyes clear and poops good...ALL separate things I checked, not lumped under one illness or anything, just each individually made me happy to see. I didn't mean they all were one thing called shipping fever, it was just the first thing I noticed...then moved down my mental checklist to healthy everything elses...ya know? Like breathing clear? CHECK Pooping normal? CHECK....just a checklist...not one thing in entirety... sorry...


I just didn't know if there was some nutritional benefit from offering the alflafa pellets OR HAY that feed didn't have besides roughage factor...we already have pellets, the goats get 'em in their mix they eat as we milk, so it's not a big deal to mix the calf a little ration that has some added also since we already keep them handy ya know?

Thank you for answering too! Replies and input are appreciated

And NO...I am NOT even thinking goat today! What a stress relief the cow really is for me...she's just so very easy and easy going compared to a bouncy young goat! A true pleasure to deal with and no worries, it's just a cow...just a cow...just a cow I tell myself...no worries....

 

[WildRoseBeef]

The thing that I worry about in medicated feeds is that there can be a higher chance of bacteria and such developing a higher resistance to such medications so that, when the animal gets sick, it won't react to it as well as you hoped. I think, once you've fed the feed to the heifer, the best thing is to not feed that to her any more and just give her the stuff that isn't medicated.

Besides, it's not worth fixing something that ain't broke, right?

 

[GrowURown]

Yes that was the plan, just go through the bag and move on to regular old feed. Just a because kind of thing I guess, I mean we treat the goat kids for cocci preventatively, so I just didn't think twice at the cattle feed I guess...but yeah, finish the bag and move on to regular ...