WAYS TO IMPROOVE CATTLE GAINS.

Supplemental feed for pasture cattle can pump up gains, but there’s a downside. You have the daily chore of hand-feeding, maybe in a remote location.

There’s a solution for that. A feed program from Kent called Exact Beef CIT (controlled intake technology) lets you control the daily feed intake, even from a self-feeder. Kent beef nutritionist Steve Sachtleben, who developed the program, lists several advantages.

• You control the amount. Exact Beef CIT controls intake through a proprietary blend of ingredients, he explains. The level of Exact Beef CIT can be varied from 10% to 90% of the total mix. It will self-limit daily intake to about 0.5% to 2% of the animal’s body weight, or 3 to 12 pounds of feed consumed per day.
• It is more economical. Previous feed-limiting programs were usually based on fish oil. Exact Beef CIT is not, Sachtleben says, so it’s not subject to availability and wide price swings.
• It fits many operations. The program can work where limiting the supplemental feed intake is desired, such as cow-calf, stocker, creep feeds, and breeding stock. 
• A pasture can be stocked at a higher rate. “The dry feed consumed from the self-feeder will generally reduce the amount of forage consumed by the same amount,” says Sachtleben. “If less grass is consumed, more cattle can graze.”
• You save on labor. Exact Beef CIT may require only one trip to the field per week to refill the self-feeder, compared with daily hand-feeding in a bunk, says Sachtleben. “It provides an economic return if you have limited time for daily feeding.”

Angus seedstock producer Brian Marshall has used the program for developing heifers and sometimes for cows, too.

The Malta Bend, Missourian varies the ratio of Exact Beef to corn to control consumption. For grazing heifers, a ratio of 60% Exact Beef and 40% corn will give 5 to 7 pounds of daily intake.
“I get an additional 1.5 to 2 pounds of gain per head per day compared with no supplement,” says Marshall. BY GENE JOHNSTON.