Crystalyx Block Blog

Is Colostrum Quality A Concern?

Mark Robbins — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:05:00 -1100

As a Nutritionist, I often field questions from cattlemen on calf scours, weak calves and other calving time disasters. Most all of these questions come after the problem has already set in. While we cannot control the weather that will play a large role in stressing newly born claves, we can control the management of stress in our herds.

Providing more than just “adequate” facilities/pastures for calving is one management tool that will pay dividends when trying to prevent a scours outbreak. If you are calving in or around buildings, providing a clean, dry area for the cows and calves is essential. A buildup of manure or moisture, as well as other calves that may be sick, are your worst enemies if you calve in a small area. If you calve in pastures, you can reduce the pathogen load normally seen in smaller lots or around buildings. In addition, the University of Nebraska Sandhills Calving System may provide even greater protection to newly born claves. In short, this system suggests you move the pregnant cows to a new pasture every two weeks or so. By leaving the cows with calves behind, you minimize the pathogens that can affect newly born calves in the new pasture.

Nutrition is also a management tool we all control. For spring calving cows, most forages are deficient in the trace minerals and vitamins necessary for production of good quality colostrum. Supplementation of trace minerals, vitamins and phosphorus is then absolutely essential to building the quality of colostrum that will provide the calf with a robust immune system necessary to avoid scours. Supplementation should start at least six weeks prior to calving and may be required all winter (for protein) if low quality forages are used. If you wait until scours become an issue, you will have waited too long. It takes weeks of proper nutrition to build quality colostrum.

In recent years, we have seen a number of supplements with Altech’s^® Bio-Mos^® become available to cattlemen to use pre-calving through the end of calving. Bio-Mos^® is a mannan oligosaccharide (mos) that attaches to harmful bacteria in the gut of cattle. It has been suggested that this attachment renders the bacteria harmless as it can no longer cause damage to the gut wall.

If you are worried about colostrum quality, take steps to provide some nutritional insurance. CRYSTALYX^® Brand Supplements are an easy way to affordably provide protein, trace minerals, vitamins, phosphorus and Bio-Mos^® in a supplement block that’s available 24/7, while minimizing your investment in time, labor and equipment.

Mark Robbins

Keep your Ewes and Does in Shape for Lambing and Kidding

Teri Walsh — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:12:00 -1100

Winter isn’t just for calving. Sheep and goat producers are gearing up for lambing/kidding season, too.

The last month of gestation is a key time in gestational development. Fetuses are rapidly growing and the body is mobilizing nutrients for milk production. Space in the rumen becomes a limiting factor. The rapidly growing lambs or kids push the uterus into the space normally occupied by the rumen, leaving less and less space for feed. Consequently, the dam may not have enough room in the rumen to get all her energy needs fulfilled (especially on an all-forage diet).

This negative energy balance can cause ketosis, also known as pregnancy toxemia. Pregnancy toxemia usually occurs in the last few weeks of gestation in females that are thin or fat and carrying a large single or multiples. Since the dam physically can’t eat enough to meet her energy needs, the body starts burning fat. This may seem like a great idea, but the body isn’t as efficient at burning fat for energy as it is with carbohydrates. This can result in a build of ketones in the liver and result in pregnancy toxemia.

The symptoms of pregnancy toxemia include going completely off feed, lying down and refusing to get up when approached, depression and teeth grinding. You may also notice that the dam will have a ketone (sickly sweet) smell to their breath. The negative energy balance can also be accompanied by tremors, blindness or incoordination. Treatment options for a ewe or doe diagnosed with pregnancy toxemia revolve around getting energy into the dam. This generally means sugar (glucose) delivered via drench or IV along with other electrolytes.

Providing your ewes or does with an energy source in late gestation can help prevent, or even treat, pregnancy ketosis. Molasses-based supplements, such as CRYSTALYX®, provide a readily digestible source of energy for the rumen microbes. This in turn can help increase fiber digestibility in the rumen and thus more energy available to the dam. At a time where the dam’s intake (rumen space) is restricted by the fetal growth, maximizing every bite is key.

CRYSTALYX^® offers a number of protein and mineral/vitamin supplements formulated especially for sheep and goat. Click on the 'By Species' tab above and select sheep or goat to learn more about these products.

Teri Walsh

Hay Allocation and Manure Scoring: Meeting the Nutritional Demands of the Beef Cow

Tim Clark — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:29:00 -1100

Hay quality will vary due to forage type, stage of maturity at harvest and harvest conditions. In addition to hay, feeding harvested crop residue such as corn stalk bales is common. Often a combination of different quality hays are fed at the same time using past experience and some nutritional “cow sense” helping to determine the correct blend. Cow body condition and cow contentment are used as rough indicators of meeting the dry matter intake and energy needs of the cows. Evaluating the manure is a tool that can help indicate when changes in the forage mix or supplement strategy is needed. We need to be aware that the nutritional needs of the cow will change depending on production cycle.

Hay supplies are tight due to fewer hay acres and increased demand for hay in the southwest due to drought. Supply and demand dynamics have driven hay prices higher across the country. Hay quality varied greatly due to weather challenges during growing and harvest. Forage analysis is the best way to know the quality of your hay. Using average values from forage testing labs can be misleading. Dairy nutritionists will sample forages on a weekly or monthly basis. The number of dairy quality hay samples will skew the average to the high side. A recent survey of hay destined for beef cattle was conducted in northern Missouri, southeastern Iowa and northwestern Illinois. This was not a large survey but does give an indication of the wide variation in hay protein content and relative feed value (RFV).

For 17 samples the average crude protein content was 10.32% and the available crude protein was 9.41%. The available crude protein takes into account heat damaged and bound protein that is not available for digestion.

The relative feed value ranged from 61 to 106 points for an average of 81. This is an indication that many of the samples were from quite mature forage with increased fiber content. RFV will decline as fiber content increases and the more readily digestible sugars decrease.

Manure evaluation can be used to evaluate the extent of digestion. This gives an indication of forage quality and can help determine if a change in supplement strategy is needed. The ideal cow pie would have an even consistency and be uniform in size and color. The height of the cow pie should be 2-3 inches. Manure from diet containing only low protein and low RFV forage will have larger fiber particles. This is due to poor digestion in the rumen due to a lack of readily available protein and carbohydrates. Manure can be washed through a screen to show the extent of fiber digestion. However, it is more common to flatten the cow pie under your boot for further observation. For example, hay number 8 is around 6% CP and RFV of 60 points. The cow pies from cows consuming hay number 8 would be large, very firm and stack higher than desired. Nutritionally this indicates that the low protein and high fiber content is limiting digestion. A supplement strategy that brings addition protein and carbohydrate sources is needed.

Stage of production must be considered. Relying on manure scoring alone is not advisable. Hay number 1 is around 11% CP and has a RFV of 84 points. The manure may look acceptable most of the time, but during times of higher nutrient demand, such as late pregnancy and early in lactation, the change in body condition would be greater than desired. If body condition declines excessively then breed back will be delayed.

Forage sampling, manure scoring, body condition scoring, supplement strategy and “cow sense” are tools for determining the best combination of feedstuff to meet the nutrient needs of the cow herd. Optimizing the forage blend is the most economical approach and Crystalyx® Brand Supplements offers a variety of formula options to deliver additional nutrition when needed.

Tim Clark

Body Condition Score App for your Beef Cow Herd

Dr. Dan Dhuyvetter — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:19:00 -1100

One of the more recent technological advancements with widespread acceptance is the smart phone. At one time, the use of these devices as a mobile phone was all that was really asked for. As time marches on their functionality has increased dramatically. Texting, alarms, calculators, unique ring tones, camera, email, GPS capabilities, web access, only to name a few. And if you have not been over-run by the App world, let’s just say you must not be very hip…

I actually fall into this latter category, not being very hip that is, with my reluctance to give up the phone that I have used for years since I still don’t know half of what it can do. My evaluation of the Apps or “Application Software” that first came on the scene for smart phones, was that they were basically games that provided activities to kill time. I know there were some that actually provided some useful information or performed some meaningful tasks, but I would have to say that when I saw most people using them they were trying to get a personal best at rolling toilet paper or to see how far they could fling an angry bird. Or something like that.

But when you look at the portability, connectivity, versatility and the adoption of the smart phones you just have to start thinking, “how can we use this technology to help our customers?” There has to be something that we can put together that uses such an intelligent device that can help us with improving our efficiencies, data collection, developing more visual tools for product training, managing our production and/or expenses, etc. I think you get the picture.

That is where our journey begins as we put our toe in the water for designing Apps that are applicable to the beef cattle industry. Our first efforts will be demonstrated next week at the NCBA Convention in Nashville, TN and the Black Hills Stock Show in Rapid City, SD and is available at your iPhone or Android App stores now. We have designed an App that we feel can be very useful in helping Beef Cow-Calf producers to better manage the nutrition program for their cow herd. So how can that happen with the use of a Smart Phone?

The CRYSTALYX^® Beef Cow BCS App is available on iOS (Iphone) and Android platforms (See Home Menu Screen shot).

You simply download the App and then head to the pasture and take profile pictures of your cows. You can compare them to reference photos (see App photo comparison screen) of cows that represent Body Condition Scores from 1 to 9.

Determine the BCS that best describes each cow and save it within the App for future reference. If you would like to arrange your cows by pasture, that functionality is also available. You can then use these stored images as references at any point in the future to determine how best to manage your nutrition program to make sure your cows breed and calve in a timely manner.

Visit your phone's App store or scan the QR codes below to go directly to the App market.

Android Market:

Apple (IOS) Market:

Dr. Dan Dhuyvetter

The Last Trimester in Spring Calving Cow Herds

Jon Albro — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:15:00 -1100

It’s a new year, 2012, and the optimism in the Cattle Industry continues. Spring calving is just around the corner and thus a great percentage of the 2012 Calf-crop is in the 3^rd trimester of fetal development or very close to it. Over 85% of fetal growth occurs during this stage of gestation, and nutritional demands of the mother cow are increasing at a rapid rate. Protein and energy demands increase nearly 20% just during the last month of pregnancy (see chart below).

Cow Body Condition has got to be the number one priority in a cow-calf nutrition program. As an indicator of Energy status, it affects everything from health to reproductive efficiency, and ultimately profitability. At no point is Body Condition more critical than during late gestation and early lactation. The processes of fetal development, delivering a calf, milk production and repair of the reproductive tract, are all physiological stresses. All these require large quantities of energy to enable cows to rebreed in 85 days in order to maintain a calving interval of 12 months.

Once the calf is born, its survival and immunity is dependent on receiving high quality colostrum the first 24 hours of life. Colostrum in milk provides the passive immunity to a calf from the IgG (Immunoglobulin) concentration. These immunoglobulins are antibodies that fight bacterial and viral challenges the calf will encounter until its active immunity is developed.

A cow that is in good health, adequate body condition (BCS 5-7), and is meeting nutritional requirements during the last trimester of gestation will produce adequate amounts and quality of colostrum for her newborn calf. On the flip side, cows that are nutritionally challenged and losing body condition will produce lower quality colostrum, experience more dystocia, have less vigorous calves with more health problems, and be challenged to re breed efficiently etc.

So, with Mother Nature’s help, if we have been utilizing a good supplement strategy to maintain body condition and utilize forages effectively, calving season should go well right? Yes, it should if we continue to pay attention to nutrition and continue to make best use of available forages. Now is likely the time to utilize our better quality forages or increase supplementation to lower quality forages (generally forages less than 10-12% protein).

Mineral and vitamin requirements also increase during the third trimester and are important to immune function, reproductive efficiency, etc... If byproduct feeds such as distiller grains are being utilized, mineral nutrition can be further complicated and may need to be fine -tuned in addition to simply being fed at higher levels.

For many areas of the U.S., it’s been a nice mild winter so far. For cow-calf producers, that’s not a bad thing as cold stress, nutritional stress, feeding costs, etc…, have likely been reduced from where they potentially could be. These market and environmental conditions have made it possible to get more out of winter grazing and hopefully producers have used supplement strategies to maintain or even add condition score to their cows. Now as calving season approaches, be sure to continue to pay attention to nutrition and make the best of 2012.

Talk to your CRYSTALYX^® dealer for more information. Obtain input on specific CRYSTALYX^® Brand Supplement and programs that fit the third trimester of pregnancy for your Beef Cow operation.

Jon Albro

There and back again… a nutritionist’s holiday

Teri Walsh — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:32:00 -1100

Recently I traveled to Queensland, Australia, to visit a friend of mine. She works as a consulting nutritionist to a number of feed yards in Australia and other countries in the South Pacific. I was fortunate enough to be able to ride with her to a few yards and was able to see how things are done on the other side of the world.

The fed cattle market is very different in Australia. Cattle for the domestic market are fed to a certain days on feed (65-70 days) as set by 2 domestic grocery stores. The reason being is shelf space. Each cut has a specific dimension that it must fit into and the short fed, lighter cattle have a smaller carcass that won’t exceed the dimensions of the designated space. What the consumer sees in the case, are packages of steaks which are very uniform in size that would grade select at best in the US. The cattle that won’t make it to the domestic market are sold heavier to the US and other countries.

Waygu cattle also fill a few yards around Australia. They are either pure bred or crossed with dairy beef and tend to be more heat tolerant than British bred cattle. These cattle are in the yard for the long haul. We visited a yard in northern Victoria with several pens of cattle that were over 600 days on feed, weighing in the neighborhood of 1,980 lbs. and still had days to go. The Waygu cattle are sold for the Kobe beef market. The front half of the carcass holds the most value and looking at the cattle, you can see that they are bred with that in mind. There’s not much in the rear half like you would see with British or Continental bred cattle.

The feedstuffs utilized in the yards are similar to what is used in parts of the US. Barley and wheat are the main grain sources, cereal grain hay and some silage for the roughages and the supplement is carried by liquid molasses. If they are using a distillers’ product it’s sorghum rather than corn.

When you get down to it, cattle feeding doesn’t differ that much regardless of where you are. Everyone is feeding to suit their market, using what resources they have near. All that differs is the slang used by the hired hands and the units of measure on the scale.

Teri Walsh

My Hay is Too Expensive, How Can I Afford Supplement?

Mark Robbins — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 10:39:00 -1100

I often hear cattlemen say, “With the cost of hay so high, I cannot afford to also buy a supplement.” If a supplement makes sense in your operation with lower priced forage, it only makes more “cents” with higher priced forage.

When we buy a supplement, most of us want to know what sort of payback we get from it. Supplements replace nutrients that are either missing or only available in lower than desired quantities in the base diet/forage. Supplements can also provide performance enhancing additives that are not available naturally. Supplements can provide a third return—their ability to modify the grazing distribution of the herd in a pasture. This is best accomplished by self-fed supplements that are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

These three benefits “pay” you back for the cost of the supplements, generally with increased gain, better health/reproductive performance, or more efficient production overall. The payback can vary from supplement to supplement and situation to situation.

Providing supplemental crude protein to low quality forages will boost the digestibility (release of energy). It is not uncommon for supplemental crude protein to increase the digestibility of a low quality forage by 10 percent. This gives you 10 percent more energy from every ton of forage or, theoretically, you could feed 10 percent less of the forage and achieve the same performance. Either way, you have 10 percent more forage energy than if you chose not to feed a supplement. Ten percent of $150/ton forage will always be worth more than 10 percent of $50/ton forage.

If you have two trucks and only have room to put one in a shed ahead of an oncoming hailstorm, which do you choose? The new truck worth $50,000 or the old one worth $15,000? Just as your reward today for saving a single 600 pound calf that gets sick at weaning is worth over $950 versus around $680 three years ago, your payback for using a supplement on $150 forage is far greater than on $50 forage.

CRYSTALYX^® Brand Supplements, available to your herd 24/7, are an excellent way to increase the payback from your forage, no matter the forage cost. Just remember that your payback increases as your forage cost increases.

Mark Robbins

Retaining Beef Replacement Heifers: What a Difference a Year Makes!

Tim Clark — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:37:00 -1100

Cash Flow Considerations THEN and NOW

As I travel in cow calf regions and visit with cattlemen, I have noticed a distinct shift in their plans for retaining heifers. Last year at weaning, a heifer calf was more valuable as a feeder than a breeding animal. On many farms and ranches cash was tight due to increasing input cost. Generating some cash and paying bills by selling the heifer calf had very little risk. If a cow in the herd needed to be replaced a young cow could be purchased for about the same or less money.

This year the economic considerations for retaining heifers for replacements have shifted. Input costs have increased, most notably forage cost, but we are seeing record prices for feeder calves and replacement heifers. Projections are the nation’s cow herd will be smaller due to the prolonged drought in the southwest.

Another difference between this year and today is related to the value of ground for row crops versus pasture. People that had to decide between planting more acres verses keeping cows and pasture made their choice last fall. Those cows are not on the market today. These and other factors have pushed the value of breeding animals to the point where cash flow is not the only consideration in deciding to keep heifers for breeding stock. We now have more questions to discuss at meetings, coffee shops and sales barns.

What will replacement heifers and cows cost in the future?
Will raising your own replacements be less expensive?
Is there more income potential in selling replacement heifer?

Below is a summary of some recent bred heifer sales.*

Date	Head	Location	Avg. Heifer Price
Nov. 26, 2011	197	Kingsville, MO	$1,760
Dec. 5, 2011	127	Fruitland, MO	$1,716
Dec. 10, 2011	250	Palmyra, MO	$2,112

*Sales results should not be considered “official” and were taken from posted sales data and radio market reports

Tim Clark

Good Times in the Cow Business

Dr. Dan Dhuyvetter — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 03:16:00 -1100

I had the opportunity to attend two beef industry gathering events this past week that brought together producers and beef industry partners in the plains and western United States. The first was the Outlook and Strategies Seminar offered by CattleFax that painted current and future economic opportunities in the beef cattle business and our overall economy. There were a number of talks that covered a wide variety of topics impacting the beef industry. The bottom line… It is a great time to be in the beef cow-calf business! This also has strong signals that it will not just be a year or two but indications are that it could last three to five years before market conditions begin to fall. Now, there are always regional issues that can crop up, like the recent drought in the Southern part of the U.S., in addition to other environmental or economic factors that can temper just how good of a ride the cow-calf segment of the industry will have, but right now I would have to say the future has never looked so bright!

The other event, which is always a great producer gathering in the cow-calf business, was the Range Beef Cow Symposium held in Mitchell, Neb. The Cooperative Extension Services sponsor this symposium that is held every other year and rotated between the four states of Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado. The content is focused on production systems specific to cow-calf producers and covers a wide range of topics.

There will always be certain events or market factors that could change the potential returns to cow-calf producers but more than likely plans should be made based on calf prices that are expected to average $175 per cwt. based on a 550 lb. steer calf for 2012. There are also indications or times of the upcoming year where projections closer to $200 per cwt. might be expected (see attached chart). CattleFax has shown that cow-calf producers have not only been profitable since 1997 but in the next few years they will have record profits that could range between $200 and $300 per head or higher. These profits are well over three times what producers enjoyed within the last decade.

If you have gotten to this point in the article, this is generally where many start pointing fingers to increased costs associated with inputs like feed, supplements, animal health products, fuel, cash rents, etc. There is no question that production costs have been on the increase as well. Many of the feed or supplement cost increases are a direct result in higher commodity prices that farmers are receiving for the cereal grains that they produce. Because the cow-calf industry is primarily dependent on forage systems, those producers who own or have access to low-cost forages, which can also include crop residues, will be more insulated from increases in feed costs when compared to the feeding segment of the industry. Of course, extended drought conditions can cancel this advantage once you start trucking feed to maintain a cow herd. Even though there may be some increases with inputs, the prices that cow-calf producers are projected to receive will more than outpace the increase one can expect with input costs.

So what does all of this mean to cow-calf producers. It certainly doesn’t mean that you can become more careless or pay less attention to the details of running a profitable operation. At the same time, I would say that the criteria you used to make decisions in the past, may not provide the same conclusions when you pencil in $1.75 or $2.00 calves.

Return on investment (ROI) for inputs or practices where you might have questioned their returns in the past, may now be something you should definitely be considering. One example might be simply the total value of calves. How many open cows, fewer cows calving in the first 21 days, lighter weaning weights or sick calves can you afford when they are worth $1050 versus $720 per 600 lb. calf ($1.75 vs. $1.20/lb.)? Inputs that can help you achieve added weaning weights or healthy calves are more important now, than they ever were with the dramatic increase in calf value.

Nutritional supplements, preventative health inputs, feed additives or management practices that can make sure cows produce a healthy calf and breed back as early in the breeding season as possible, more easily pay for themselves in addition to increasing calf value with improved health and/or added gains. These inputs are not only confined to the cow-herd. Supplemental inputs for stockers on forage-based growing programs should also be evaluated for improving returns. I would challenge you to take another look when your local animal health or feed rep pulls into your yard. Current beef industry economics dictate that you reevaluate the potential returns and would highly recommend that you take the time to do the math!

Dr. Dan Dhuyvetter

Weaning Calves, Methods and the use of CRYSTALYX®

Jon Albro — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:40:00 -1100

Spring born calves are now being weaned, shipped, marketed and transitioned from summer through fall to winter. The words “calf weaning” can spell fear for some producers and opportunity for others. Weaning practices or methods vary from conventional methods to ones where pre-conditioning is involved, to fenceline, two-step, or simply the “weaning them on the truck to town” method.

Weaning tips normally revolve around stress reduction. There may be an ongoing debate on which programs work the best and which fit facilities, topography, feed resources, and manpower issues. There is strong data from several studies around the U.S. that suggest fenceline weaning or low-stress weaning programs have advantages on calf behavior and performance.

Below summarizes some benefits of a fenceline weaning system for a 7 day period vs. conventional or total separation weaning from dams (source, Price et. al - Univ. of California Davis 2003)

Increased time grazing and eating in days immediately following weaning
Less time walking and more time spent lying down following weaning
Less time bawling (vocalizing)
Increased weight gain in the first 2wks following weaning (23 more lbs.) and this gain difference persisted through 10 weeks following weaning (26 lbs. more )

While the advantages above do support the practice, Fencline weaning will require well maintained fences (often a combination of a permanent and electric fence) and adequate, easily accessed water on both sides of the fence.

Whatever the practice, good nutrition is not exempt in making a program more successful. Just as important is management and perhaps the weaning method that makes the most sense for an individual operation. Even calves sold right off the cow will benefit by good nutrition prior to weaning as this will help whoever buys them in their receiving program. This may sound like it cost the seller and benefits the buyer, but calves marketed in value added programs or preconditioned typically bring significantly more money.

For years now, Crystalyx^® has highlighted a very versatile supplement product in Brigade^®. This product was first evaluated in receiving calves that are typically stressed and experience high morbidity. Volumes have been written that calves that get sick in a weaning or receiving situation do not perform as well, are less profitable, less marketable, have higher health and treatment cost, etc... One key to reducing stress and ultimately sickness in weaned calves is getting them to start on feed quicker or maintain feed intake. Several demonstrations and the experience of many cattle producers have shown the economic benefits of Brigade^®.

Using a product like Crystalyx^® Brigade^® will supply a continuous availability of concentrated nutrients in a palatable form. Even if calves are not eating normally, they still tend to consume Brigade^®. This small amount of supplement will increase appetite, stimulate rumen microbial activity and forage digestion. It will also encourage water consumption which in-turn can help improve dry matter intake. One practice that would work in both fenceline and conventional weaning programs would be to offer Brigade® to both cows and calves prior to weaning for about 1-2 weeks. This gives a head start nutritionally for calves, plus it acclimates them to the barrel so they know exactly what it is come the day of weaning.

CRYSTALYX^® Brigade^® has been recommended by many CRYSTALYX^® dealers and sales professionals as a key tool in starter programs. Make it part of yours when weaning program as it will fit all methods!

Jon Albro