Lesser cow feed reduces waste

Cows often waste feed, which takes up much of the portion in production costs, and a way to reduce waste is to feed the cows less.

Producers often track hay disappearance instead of hay consumption. Disappearance includes parts of bales spoiled during storage, dropped on the way to the feeder, and wasted or refused during the feeding process.

Beef producers can influence the feeding efficiency on their operation by helping to reduce the amount of feed the cows are wasting. Research at the University of Missouri compared the efficiency of several hay feeding systems. The worst case scenario occurred with large round bales, fed-free choice without any feeder structure. In this situation the cows wasted 43% of the hay offered. Unrolling large round bales in the field did not improve things much, if a week's supply was placed at a time; losses remained in the 40% range.

Things improved significantly with feeding on a daily basis, where the amount of hay offered was appropriately matched to the dietary requirements of the group. Unrolling just enough feed to last each day reduced losses down to 12 per cent. In this situation, cattle were actively competing for each mouthful and tended to cluster around the hay as it was being rolled out, so a relatively small amount was refused or spoiled.

But feeding on a daily or weekly basis using round bale feeders reduced waste. When offering a week's worth of feed at a time, waste is reduced by 80% relative to no feeder, in the range of 5-6% of the total feed supplied. Daily feeding using ring type feeders also had low wastage, in the 5% range.

A study at Michigan State University also compared feed wastage among different types of round bale feeders. Ring and ring/cone type feeders were the most efficient, resulting in an average of only 4.5% waste, while trailer type feeders had 11.4% waste. Cradle type feeders were the least efficient, with 14.6% of the hay wasted.