Feed Mixing Evaluation Program“Candy for Cows”
Al Ulmer, LaMoure County Agent
Karl Hoppe, CREC Livestock Specialist
Local Situation LaMoure County has
12 feedlots Approximately 40,000
head capacity Approximately 15,800
cow/calf pairs Two dealers in county
selling mix wagons Approximately 105
producers with mix wagons
Local Situation Use a lot of low quality feeds
• Corn stover• Prairie hays• Straw
A lot of co-products available in the area (within 100 miles)• Spuds• Corn syrup• DDGs and WDGs
Local Situation Contacted by producers about feed
wagons wondering if they were getting good mixes• Concern's were mixing antibiotics, minerals
and vitamins and other feed additives Al and Karl do a lot of on farm beef
trouble shooting
Developing The Program
Feed costs have dramatically increased
Obtaining maximum feed conversion in to cattle weight is a necessity
Improving feed efficiency involves using feeds in right combinations
Totally mixed rations improve fermentation efficiencies
Need For The Program
Education was needed to guide feed lot operators and provide the tools needed to make improvements in their operations
Producers need to reduce the cost of inputs in their operations and become more efficient particularly in the trends and marketing of calves
Need For The Program
Making a Total Mixed Ration (TMR) requires adequate mixing
Program was designed to evaluate on farm mixing performance
Program benchmarks mixing performance and then developing solutions to improve mixing
Consequently animal performance should improve
Implementing The Program
A “hands on” on-farm mixing evaluation
Follow up farm visits with a written evaluation to include: • feed sample nutritional reports• coefficients of variation (CV) report • letter with suggestions on how to fine tune
their feed mixing operation
Implementing The Program
One on one feedlot visits with “hands on” mixing evaluation
Used edible markers• Candy corn • Good and Plenty
Candy Markers Not all candies work well
• Looked at M&M couldn’t afford them Used Candy Corn and Good & Plenty (G&P) Goal was to have 1 piece of candy for
every 1 pound of dry feed or 2000 pieces of candy (5 pounds) into two tons of 50% moisture feed
Add at 2.5 to 5 pounds per ton of mix• Candy corn = 220 pieces/pound• Good and Plenty = 390 pieces/pound
Candy Markers Wet feeds coated the candy making it
harder to find (G&P) candy corn was much easier to find
Candy Markers With dry feeds candy was much easier to
find
Implementing The Program
Had producer loaded feed wagon in their normal fashion
Added candy into feed wagon with feed mix
Mixed feed for their normal mixing time
What We Did Set 3 dish pans in bunk line
• One at the beginning• One in the middle• One at the end
Collected the pans (before the calves got to them)
Sorted and counted markers Evaluated mix wagon effectiveness of
uniform mixing of feed ration Then suggest changes to make mix wagon
to get a better uniform feed mix
Results Measured and calculated co-efficient
of variation• Candy• Dry Matter• Crude Protein• ADF (Acid Detergent Fiber)• Calcium• Phosphorous • Sample Weights
Sample of Lab ReportCandy Dry matter Crude Protein
Coeffi cient of variation Coeffi cient of variation Coeffi cient of variation
observations observations observations
First 1/3 of bunk 4 57.77 11.19
Second 1/3 of bunk 1 57.38 11.91
Last 1/3 of bunk 4 56.62 13.89
Standard Deviation 1.732 dev 0.585 dev 1.398
mean (Average) 3.00 mean 57.26 mean 12.33
Coefficient of Variation 57.74 CV 1.02 CV 11.34
CV=DEV/Mean*100 CV=DEV/Mean*100 CV=DEV/Mean*100
Goal 10% Goal 10% Goal 10%
Best 5% Best 5% Best 5%
very accurate 1% very accurate 1% very accurate 1%
Producer Follow Up Letter
The wide range of candies counted at the beginning, middle and end of the feed bunk indicate improvements can be made in mixing
There is always a need to be vigilant in doing a good job of feed mixing
Upon review of the nutritional components of the ration, mixing appears to be adequate (or not for those not meeting the mixing goal) for• Crude protein ADF, Calcium and Phosphorous
Producer Follow Up Letter
Mixing Suggestions: • increase mixing time• blend ingredients of
smaller quantities (like minerals) with other dry feeds and mix thoroughly before adding hays and/or silages
Producer Follow Up Letter
Mixing Suggestions: • repair damaged or worn parts in the mixer • don’t over fill the feed mixer, it does the best job when
filled no fuller than 85% of capacity
Summary Candy was a great way to get the
producers interest in the project Candies are a great method to
visually see that mixing can always be improved
Reviewing the chemical analysis of the ration, is a good way to determine if they were doing a good job of mixing both the forage based and grain based rations
Educational Program Outcomes
We got operators to:• look at their feeding operations• find ways to reduce costs• better utilize their resources
Educational Program Outcomes
Created awareness of how a total mix ration of conventional & alternative feed sources and management changes can improve feedlot animal performance
Operators learned how better feed mixing can positively affect their operation
Educational Program Outcomes
Relationship building, trouble shooting, opportunity to discuss other production issues, and having producers see the value of NDSU extension
Questions