Paul Beck feels that the better growing conditions for hay this past year in Oklahoma opens some opportunity to use high-quality hay as a beef cow supplement going through winter. The same may be true in your state. The Oklahoma State University beef nutrition specialist notes that Good or Premium grade alfalfa in 4x4 large square bales were recently priced at $180 per ton while Premium/Supreme alfalfa was fetching $200 per ton.
Good grade alfalfa is 18% to 20% crude protein and 58% to 60% total digestible nutrients. Premium grade is 20% to 22% crude protein and Supreme is over 22% crude protein. “With 20% range cubes priced at $10 per bag ($400 per ton), alfalfa’s nutritive qualities make it an attractive option compared to feeding cubes,” Beck asserts.
Using the Cowculator Beef Cattle Nutrition Evaluation spreadsheet, Beck explains that a 1,250-pound cow in the third trimester of gestation grazing stockpiled native range in January and February would need 6 pounds of supplemental 20% range cubes per day to meet her protein and energy needs. This would cost $1.67 per cow each day.
If the same cow was fed Premium alfalfa hay, she would need 9 pounds of alfalfa per day to meet protein and energy requirements, but the daily cost decreases to $1.19 per cow. “Both research and past experience has shown us that alfalfa is an effective supplement for wintering beef cows,” Beck notes.
The beef specialist offers several points to consider when feeding alfalfa as a supplement:
• Supplementing forage will result in reduced intake of other forages but will have less impact on forage digestion than concentrate supplements at higher feeding levels.
• Do not feed alfalfa hay every day. Cows have been known to wait at the gate when they know that supplemental hay will be delivered daily (spoiled cow syndrome).
• Provide supplements on alternating days or up to every third day to balance distance of travel and amount of supplement required. Even a high supplementation rate does not appear to disrupt grazing activity during the off-feeding days.
• Dana Zook presented “Alfalfa as a Winter Protein Supplement” as part of the Oklahoma State University’s Rancher’s Thursday Lunchtime Webinar Series on October 21, 2021. It can be viewed here.
