Feeding Technique for High Yield and High Quality Beef Cattle

Beef cattle feeding

1. Feeding characteristics: combined with diet, the feed types and nutrients of beef cattle are basically the same as those of service cattle and dairy cows. The following characteristics should be paid attention to when raising:

Feeding characteristics. Beef cattle eat rough, swallow without chewing, and regurgitate after satiety. Most of the whole grain sank into the fundus of the stomach and could not regurgitate, resulting in the discharge of the excess material; the large root and tuber feed could easily block the esophagus and endanger life; the foreign body involved in the cow's tongue could not be spit out, especially the iron wire in the forage grass, resulting in traumatic reticular gastritis, pericarditis and so on. Therefore, the feed should be processed and removed. Beef cattle like to eat coarse feed, green feed, succulent feed, followed by high-quality green hay, followed by low-moisture silage, do not like straw roughage. For concentrate, I like to eat granules with the size of thumbnail, but I don't like powder. Beef cattle love to eat fresh feed, so they should add less and more frequently when they are fed. When getting out of the trough, clean the trough as soon as possible and dry the leftover grass before feeding. Beef cattle have no upper front teeth and will not gnaw on short pastures, so do not graze when the weeds are lower than 5cm. Cattle are highly competitive and graze each other when raised in groups, which can be used to increase the feed intake of beef cattle.

Feeding time. Under free feeding, feed for about 6-7 hours a day. If the forage grass is rough, such as long grass, straw, etc., the feeding time is longer; if the forage grass is soft and tender, such as short grass and fresh grass, the feeding time is short. When the temperature is below 20 ℃, 68% of the feeding time is in the daytime, and when the temperature is 27 ℃, 37% of the feeding time is in the daytime. According to this characteristic, night feeding is dominant in summer and house feeding in winter. When the quality of diet is poor, the feeding time should be extended.

Food intake. It is closely related to body weight, such as fattening one-year-old cattle, when the body weight is 250 kg, when the daily intake of dry matter is 2.8% of its body weight, it is 2.3%. The feed intake per unit body weight of cattle with good body weight was lower than that of beef cattle with poor body weight, and there were more healthy cattle than lean cattle. Cattle eat more short hay than long grass. The intake of grass powder is small. If the grass powder is made into particles, the feed intake can be increased by about 50%. When the nutrition in the diet is incomplete, the feed intake of cattle decreases; when the concentrate in the diet increases, the feed intake of cattle increases; but when the concentrate accounts for more than 30% of the diet, the dry matter intake no longer increases; if the concentrate accounts for more than 70% of the diet, the feed intake decreases. When the dietary fat content exceeds 6%, the digestibility of crude fiber decreases; when the dietary fat content exceeds 12%, the appetite of cattle is suppressed. In addition, a quiet environment and prolonged feeding time can increase food intake. Too low or too high pH will also reduce the feed intake of cattle.

Drink water. Under normal circumstances, the water in the feed can not meet the needs of cattle, it is necessary to supplement drinking water, preferably free drinking water. The amount of drinking water is about 1:5 according to the ratio of dry matter to water. In winter, you should drink warm water, the water temperature is not lower than 30 ℃, to promote food intake and gastrointestinal digestion and absorption, reduce body heat consumption.

Urea feeding. All kinds of non-protein nitrogen used to feed beef cattle must be pure and free of impurities harmful to cattle. Ammonium nitrate and other nitrates are poisoned because they can be converted to nitrite in the rumen, so they should never be used as a non-protein nitrogen supplement for cattle. The amount of urea fed to cattle should not exceed 1% of the dietary dry matter, or 20-30 grams per 100 kg body weight. When feeding urea, it takes more than 10 days to increase from less to more to the maximum limit. It is generally fed with 0.75 kg urea and 5.52 kg corn, and the effect is about the value of 6 kg soybean cake. It is strictly forbidden to feed urea in water to avoid poisoning. It is better to drink water after feeding urea for 1 hour.

2. Feeding method: the feed must conform to the feeding characteristics of beef cattle and be processed before feeding. If the crushed material is not fine, the cow is not easy to digest after eating, and the phenomenon of overfeeding occurs; while the concentrate is too fine, the cow does not like to eat it. Therefore, it is necessary to feed differently according to the amount of concentrate in the diet. If there is less concentrate, mix it with coarse feed; when there is too much concentrate, press the powder into pellet, or steam mature group to feed. Coarse materials should be cut short before feeding. Cattle like to eat short grass, that is, three cubits of grass, which can not only increase the feed intake of cattle, but also reduce waste. Rapid fattening, when the concentrate is more than 60%, the roughage can be cut longer in order to get proper mechanical stimulation in the rumen. Weeds and the like can be fed directly without cutting them short. Root, tuber and melon feed, cut into small pieces before feeding, can not be given as a whole, especially potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, eggplant and so on, so as not to block the esophagus. Bean curd dregs, brewer's grains, powder dregs, etc., although contain a lot of moisture, but their dry matter nutrition is similar to concentrate, feeding this kind of feed can reduce the amount of concentrate feeding. Grain husk grains, high grain shell grains, etc., can only be used as roughage. Dregs are palatable and cattle love to eat, but it is necessary to avoid overeating, resulting in stagnation of food, slow activity of forestomach, expansion and so on. Take the beef cattle weighing 400 kg as an example, the daily feeding amount of lees is 40 kg at most, 60 kg of sugar dregs, 30 kg of bean curd dregs and 40 kg of powder dregs.

3. The principle of dietary coordination: first, the nutrients contained in the diet must meet the nutritional requirements of beef cattle, and should be adjusted appropriately according to different individuals. Second, it is mainly green roughage, and the concentrate is only used to supplement the energy and protein that roughage lacks. Third, the dietary composition should be diversified to make protein, minerals, vitamins and other nutrients comprehensive, in order to improve dietary palatability and conversion rate. Fourth, the dietary nutrient concentration is moderate, in addition to meet the nutritional needs, but also should make beef cattle full and not eat, but not because the weight and volume is too large to eat. Fifth, light diarrhea feed (such as corn silage, green grass, succulent feed, soybeans, wheat bran, flaxseed cake, etc.) and Gramineae hay, all kinds of crop straw, withered grass, sorghum seeds, chaff and cottonseed cakes should be matched with each other. There should be no toxic or harmful substances in the feed. Sixth, the source of feed is rich and cheap.