livestock Observations Can Reveal Pasture Nutritional Value

DAVIS, Ill. – Becoming a trained observer of livestock can help producers evaluate the nutritional value of their pastures.

“We pay attention to grass, but we need to pay attention to the animals and a lot of times they will tell us the same story, if we are listening,” said Travis Meteer, beef specialist for University of Illinois Extension.

“I don’t think there’s any better return to your time as being able to identify the early signs that your livestock are trying to tell you about what is going on,” he said during a presentation at the Illinois forage Expo, organized by the Illinois Forage and Grassland Council.

Manure is one of the signs that can be used to evaluate the nutrition of a diet.

“If there is too much protein, the manure is going to be vrey loose, and if there is adequate and not excess protein, a good manure pat has a dimple in the middle and solid formed on either side of that dimple,” Meteer said.

“If there is too little crude protein in the diet, oftentimes the manure pat is dry and segmented,” he said. “So, the livestock are telling you through their manure that their diet needs protein supplementation and more digestible fiber.”

There isn’t a great visual measure of energy in a ration for cattle, Meteer said during the expo held at the Eric Stiegler and Don Brown farms.

“Body condition scoring is a really good measure of nutrition for the past 60 to 90 days, but an immediate read on energy is tough,” he said.

Cattlemen can train their eyes to do body condition scoring at no cost to their operation.

“There’s a tremendous amount of research that supports when cattle are in a good body condition score, they will breed at higher rates so you will have less open cow days and that equates to a more profitable beef cow,” Meteer said.

Any cow under a body condition score of 4,the beef specialist said,is too skinny.”Cows in body condition score of 5 or 6 are ideal,” he said. “A 6 or 7 score is probably more ideal for first calf heifers, knowing that they are going to have a growth requirement when they calve.”