Feed Requirements for Feedlot Animals

Feed bunk management refers to all aspects of the feed selection, delivery, consumption, and control of the feeding program. Researchers refer to feed bunk management as the quantity of feed offered to the quantity of feed consumed. The goal is to assure fresh, palatable, and balanced rations which are available to reach optimum (not maximum) dry matter intake. As herd production increases, you need to monitor dry food intake carefully. It is the most important factor in ensuring sufficient animal bulk and in maintaining milk production in dairy herds.

Feed bunk management does not involve feed delivery decisions alone. It also involves ration ingredient characteristics and quality control, nutrient balancing, feed processing and mixing, water quality control and other factors related to feeding presentation.

Superior livestock performance begins with quality feedstuffs and a sound nutritional program. All livestock producers should establish quality standards and acceptance/rejection criteria for all feed ingredients to account for and control variation in feed composition and quality. Systematic sampling, accurate analysis, and timely ration adjustments, based on nutrient density and moisture content of individual feedstuffs, are all fundamental to ration quality control.

Rations should be fresh, palatable, and uniformly nutritious. Spoiled or mouldy feed ingredients should be discarded; this helps minimise ration contamination and the potential for reduced intake. Unfortunately, discarding spoiled feedstuffs is not always common practice. In a recent study, growing steers were fed high-silage rations, which contained 90.0% well-preserved corn silage or 67.5% well-preserved corn silage and 22.5% spoiled corn silage (e.g., silage from the original top 3 feet in an unsealed bunker silo). Steers receiving the ration with the spoiled silage had significantly lower feed intake and lower organic matter, protein, and fibre digestibility.

Delivering the wrong ratio can lead to disaster. But mistakes can and do happen. In a feedlot, an alert feed truck driver knows that, when he loads the tractor with grain, it’s not supposed to go to a pen of bawling calves or yearlings with sale barn tags still on them.

Proper feed processing and mixing are essential for optimum feed utilisation. Adequate and consistent feed mixing will ensure that every bite of the ration is the same. Fine particles that separate in the bunk must be avoided because they can contain high concentrations of minerals, feed additives, or rapidly fermentable grain particles. Ration conditioners (e.g., molasses, fat, or water); high moisture feedstuffs; and uniformity of forage particle size can help reduce fines, sorting of ingredients, and rejection of feed.