Understanding wet hay

By Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University ExtensionMay 26, 2015 | 4:12 pm EDT
Drover's Cattle Network
After several years of drought, rain in Oklahoma is allowing cool season forages to grow in abundance. Harvesting and baling cool season crops such as fescue and wheat hay is a challenge during a wet spring. The timing of the rains can make it difficult for cattlemen that are trying hard to put quality hay in the bale for next winter’s feed supply. All producers that harvest hay occasionally will put up hay that “gets wet” from time to time. Therefore, ranchers and hay farmers need to understand the impact of “wet hay” in the tightly wound bales.
Extra moisture in hay can cause heat inside the hay bale or hay stack. Heat produced by the bale comes from two sources: First) biochemical reactions from plants themselves as hay cures. (This heating is minor and rarely causes the hay temperature to exceed 110 degrees F. Very little if any damage occurs if the hay never exceeds 110 F.); Second) Most heat in hay is caused by the metabolic activity of microorganisms. They exist in all hay and thrive when extra moisture is abundant. When the activity of these microbes increases, hay temperature rises. Hay with a little extra moisture may not exceed 120 degrees F., whereas, wetter hay can quickly exceed 150 degrees. If the hay rises above 170 degrees, chemical reactions can begin to occur that produce enough heat to quickly raise the temperature above 400 degrees and the wet hay can begin to burn and cause fires. Be wary of the fire danger of wet hay and store it away from buildings and other “good” hay just in case this would occur.
Heat damage causes hay to be less digestible, especially the protein. Heat damaged hay often turns a brownish color and has a caramel odor. Cattle often readily eat this hay, but because of the heat damage, its nutritional value might be quite low. Some ranchers have reported that “the cows ate the hay like there was no tomorrow, but they did very poorly on the hay”.
Testing wet hay may be very important. Determining the internal temperature of large bales or stacks of hay should be done carefully. Make certain that checking the temperature in suspicious hay is done safely. Read the E-Extension Fact Sheet “Preventing Fires in Baled Hay and Straw.”
Testing the protein and energy content of stored wet hay will allow for more appropriate supplementation next winter when that hay is fed. Moldy hay could be a source of mycotoxins that could present several health problems for cattle. Many animal disease diagnostic laboratories can examine feedstuffs for mycotoxins or can recommend laboratories that do such testing.

The Incentive for Feeding Cattle Longer

Written by Larry CorahPublished on 06 May 2015
Progressive Cattleman

Some trends in the cattle industry we can predict, but others surprise us – like the magnitude of the upswing in cattle prices over the past few years. But when grain prices slumped in 2014 and cattle prices headed still higher, it shouldn’t have surprised anyone that we started adding days on feed (DOF) to feedlot cattle.
Just how many days have we added, and what has been the impact?
Noted cattle analyst Shawn Walter of Professional Cattle Consultants plots this data monthly from the millions of cattle fed by his extensive network of cooperators. According to his recent feedlot newsletter, the longer DOF trend began last July. We added five to 10 days in July and August, and by the first quarter of 2015, we had extended that by another 15 to 20 days.
You would logically expect to see a link to lighter placement weights, but it’s not there. We are placing heavier cattle on feed, and more than 30 percent of the 2014 placements exceeded 800 pounds.
As Walter notes, with fed cattle prices in the $1.50 to $1.60 per hundredweight (cwt) range and the cost of gains being around $.90 per cwt, the economic incentive says add as many pounds as possible. What makes this work even better is that 75 percent or more of those late pounds is in carcass weight, which is more profitable on the formulas and grids that account for most fed cattle marketing today.
As you would expect, this has driven carcass weights to all-new heights, with steers up 14 pounds and heifers 12 pounds for the year.
What are other impacts of adding days? Well, here are some things you likely did not know about longer feeding periods.
Our Certified Angus Beef feedlot database shows that for every 20 days that cattle are on feed, the percentage of choice and prime carcasses increases 3 to 4 points. Most of that is choice, but for a premium brand such as Certified Angus Beef, the increase in acceptance rates is 2 to 3 percentage points.
At the 2015 Plains Nutrition Conference, University of Nebraska animal scientists presented an abstract on the impact of longer DOF on carcass parameters and profitability. Good data on this was hard to find until now, so this is a valuable research contribution.

They allotted 114 crossbred steers to three feeding pens. One group was harvested at a normal finish end point of a half-inch fat cover, which turned out to be 142 DOF. A second group was fed another 21 days (163 DOF) and a third group 43 extra days (184 DOF).
The key economic impact (see Table 1) was the increased carcass weight, up 31 pounds and 80 pounds, respectively, for the two longer-fed cattle groups. Perhaps surprisingly, quality grade increased only slightly as marbling was 31 points higher for the longest-fed cattle. But keep in mind individual genetic potential plays a big role in grade as well, and that boost in marbling suggests a bigger impact on the share of cattle grading prime and premium choice.
As would be expected, yield grades (YG) were elevated, up to 31.6 percent YG 4s and 5s for the long-fed group. But in spite of that, profitability was significantly higher for the longest-fed cattle – by more than $50 per head after all added costs and discounts were figured in.


Larry Corah
Consultant
Certified Angus Beef LLC

Proper injection sites to remember at calf-working time

By Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University ExtensionMay 05, 2015 | 1:52 pm EDT

The month of May is traditionally the time when “spring round-ups” take place. This is the time that large and small cow/calf operations schedule the “working” of the calves. As the majority of the calves reach their second month of life, it is time to castrate the male calves and immunize all of the calves to protect them against blackleg. Also the new information suggests that in some situations, calves may be vaccinated for the respiratory diseases, i.e. IBR and BVD. Check with your veterinarian for vaccination advice.
Correct administration of any injection is a critical control point in beef production and animal health. There is a negative relationship between meat tenderness and injection sites, including injection sites that have no visible lesion. In fact, intramuscular (IM) injections, regardless of the product injected, may create permanent damage regardless of the age of the animal at the time of injection. Tenderness is reduced in a three-inch area surrounding the injection site. Moving the injection-site area to the neck stops damage to expensive steak cuts. Therefore, cow/calf producers should make certain that their family members, and other hired labor are sufficiently trained as to the proper location of the injections before the spring calf-working begins.
Give injections according to label instructions. Subcutaneous (SQ) means under the skin, intramuscular (IM) means in the muscle. Some vaccines (according to the label instructions) allow the choice between intramuscular (IM) and subcutaneous (SQ). Always use subcutaneous (SQ) as the method of administration when permitted by the product’s label. Remember to “tent” the skin for SQ injections unless instructed otherwise by the manufacturer. Proper injection technique is just one of many components of the Beef Quality Assurance effort that has had a positive impact on the entire United States beef industry.
Another important aspect of the Beef Quality Assurance effort is keeping of accurate treatment records. Treatment records should include:

· Individual animal/group identification

· Date treated

· Product administered and manufacturer’s lot/serial number

· Dosage used

· Route and location of administration

· Earliest date animal(s) will have cleared withdrawal period

· Name of person administering the product

Treatment records for cattle should be stored and kept for a minimum of three years after the animal(s) have been sold from your operation. Beef producers are encouraged to learn and practice Beef Quality Assurance Guidelines. You can learn more about the Oklahoma Beef Quality Assurance program by going to the website: http://oklahomabeefquality.com/ The Oklahoma Beef Quality Assurance Manual can be downloaded from that site. Examples of treatment records to be kept and stored are available from the Oklahoma Beef Quality Assurance Manual or the Oklahoma Beef Quality Assurance program website.