beef
Alternative feed strategies required to combat increased input and production costs
High-energy feed alternatives can help improve margins With barley and urea prices at an all-time high, beef finishers will face diminishing returns unless they adopt alternative feed strategies and improve feed conversion efficiencies over the summer, warns KW Feeds. “With barley costs surging upwards of £300 per tonne and urea availability and costs extremely volatile, many beef producers will stop finishing unless they consider alternative feed strategies,” explains Dr Anna Sutcliffe, regional ruminant technical manager at KW Feeds.
The soaring production and input costs have put more pressure than ever on beef producers to control feed and input costs, with many looking to extend the grazing season and make more use of forage, moving away from cereals-based diets. “The danger is too many will become over-reliant on relatively low-digestibility grass, which cannot be converted into liveweight gain (LWG) as efficiently as the best dry, moist and liquid feeds,” she adds.
Complementing lower feed value feeds with the best value alternatives, capable of lifting nutrient density, increasing palatability, driving intake and reducing sorting will not only increase growth rates, but also cut the cost per kg LWG. “Higher quality feeds may cost more per tonne, but they’re often better value because they supply more nutrients per £ spent and are converted into growth more efficiently for a lower overall cost per kg of LWG,” says Dr Sutcliffe.
According to Dr Sutcliffe, feeds like processed bread can often be a better choice than bought-in cereals when it comes to supplying starch, whilst the moist feed C*Traffordgold is a great value source of energy, protein and digestible fibre that also promotes intakes. “Moist feeds add palatability to rations, which can help lift intakes. The high energy moist distillery feed C*Traffordgold can promote very efficient growth by supplying both energy as digestible fibre, plus moisture to increase ration palatability,” she adds. “The key is to feed what you need. Make best use of the feeds available by combining them into highly efficient, high value feeding systems. Failing to do so can add significant feed costs per kg liveweight gain,” concludes Dr Sutcliffe.
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