Cattle Feed

Cattle Feed:

Fed hay supplemented with grain, soy and other ingredients are given as feed to cattle.

Some facts about Cattle Feed:

• Alfalfa hay is often recommended for dairy cattle, but these may not be a suitable for beef cattle, since it can lead to bloat.
• Legume hay is high in protein and another nutritious option for cattle.
• Grass is usually the forage that composes the majority of their diet or pastured animals.
• Hay supplemented with grain, soy and other ingredients are fed to to cattle reared in feedlots increase the energy density of the feed
• Cattle raised on a primarily foraged diet are called grass-fed or pasture-raised.

Types of cattle feeds:

Grass-fed:

Most or the majority of a grass-fed diet compose of grass and other forage.
Cattle can be raised on diets primarily composed of pasture (grass) or on a concentrated diet of grain, soy, and other supplements
Meat or milk may be called grass-fed beef or pasture-raised dairy respectively when cattle reared on a primarily forage diet.
Cattle can be called free-range yet not necessarily be grass-fed, and vice versa as free range describes where the animals reside, but not what they eat
Cattle are called as grass-finished or 100 percent grass-fed, when cattle spend 100 percent of their lives on grass pasture.

Grain Supplement:

Grains are fed to growing cattle to reduce costs and get cattle ready sooner as these can get cattle growing quickly and can help cattle get fat.
Grain supplements can be used in winters and for cattle that lack access to high quality hay and grazing pastures.
Do not allow to get cattle too reliant on supplements, as this will discourage them from more nutritionally diverse pastures and foraging.

Corn-fed:

Typically, cattle raised on maize, soy and other types of feed are called corn-fed, grain-fed or corn-finished
When corn-fed cattle are raised in concentrated animal feeding operations, they are known as feed lots.
Dairy cattle can be supplemented with grain to increase the efficiency of production and reduce the area required to support the energy requirements of the herd.
Milk output, that is measured in pounds or kilograms of milk per head per day can be increased by a high-energy diet.

Barley-fed:

Beef cattle are usually finished on a barley-based diet in Western Canada.

Flax:

Flax, also called as linseed is used to make linseed oil, and the substance is mixed with other solid cattle feed as a protein supplement.  
It should be added in low percentages due to the high fat content, which is unhealthy for cattles.
Omega-3 content can be increased and marbling in the resultant beef can be improved by adding flax as a protein supplement.

Hay:

Every important nutrient for cattle can be provided by hay.
However, it has to be picked before it becomes too dry when it is at the height of its nutrient richness.
Hay must also be carefully cured and stored to prevent rot and damage to be a good food source for cattle.
Good nutrition can be offered by many hay varieties.
For example, Alfalfa hay, has more calcium and phosphorus than grass hay, but some grass hay can be high in proteins.
Mixing alfalfa with grass hay, rather than relying exclusively on alfalfa hay is recommended by most experts.
Alfalfa hay is usually recommended for dairy cattle, but it may not be suitable for beef cattle, since it can lead to bloat. 
Legume hay can be another nutritious option for cattle, since it is high in protein.

Pasture and Forage:

Forage is a plant material that include mainly plant leaves and stems, eaten by grazing livestock.
Plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops are called as forage.
Similar plants cut for fodder and carried to the animals, especially as hay or silage are also known as forage.
Forage crop can be defined as crops, annual or biennial, which are grown to be utilized by grazing or harvesting as a whole crop
All the nutrients that are needed by cattle can be provided by forage and pasture, unless the soil is depleted or the season is too early for rich grass growth.
Pasture is the most cost-effective solution for cattle feed.
It is important to test soil fertility and to maintain good watering to ensure plants are at their best nutritional density, if you want to feed your cattle with forage and pasture. 
You also need to keep an eye on the types of plants available, and monitor their maturity and their overall condition.

Concentrates:

Concentrates, such as corn, wheat, oats, barley, grain sorghum, wheat bran and liquid supplements are high in nutritional value and low in fiber.
Although ,they have plenty of carbohydrates, but are expensive than forages.
Concentrates can be great as a supplement, but cattle needs and weights should be carefully considered when offering this feed to prevent digestion issues.

Soy:

Soybean meal is used in animal feeds, mainly as a protein supplement.
It can also be used as a source of metabolizable energy. 
Soybean meal is generally heat treated during production, to denature the trypsin inhibitors of soybeans, which would otherwise interfere with protein digestion.
Mostly soybean meal is produced from the residue left after oil extraction.

Chelates:

Chelates in animal feed is jargon for metalloorganic compounds. It is added to animal feed to provide sources of various metals that help improve the health or marketability of the animal.
Typical metals salts are derived from cobalt, iron, copper, manganese, and zinc and these supplementation with trace minerals are provided is to avoid a variety of deficiency diseases. 
Trace minerals helps in many metabolic processes, such as cofactors for enzymes and hormones, and are essential for optimum health, growth and productivity. 
Good growth, bone development, hoof, skin and hair quality in mammals, feathering in birds, enzyme structure and functions, and appetite are ensured by supplementary minerals.
Deficiency of trace minerals affect many metabolic processes and different symptoms, such as poor growth and appetite, impaired immune responses, reproductive failures and general ill-thrift may occur.

Effects of feed on health:

The fat content and caloric value of the meat in most grass-fed beef  than feedlot beef, lacking marbling.
Higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and the omega-3 fatty acids, ALA, EPA, and DHA is found in meat from grass-fed cattle.
The lipid composition of cattle tissues may serve as a model for dietary lipid recommendations in treating and preventing chronic disease.

Dairy:

Palm oil can be given as palmitic acid supplements, to boost the output of milk product.
However, butter made from cows fed palm oil remains difficult to spread at room temperature.
The physical characteristics of the dairy products had undergone a significant change, such as increased hardness and increased melting point of the palm oil supplemented butter,

Taste and Nutrition:

The diet of cattle also affect the taste of meat and milk.
Animal products for human consumption from animals that are raised on pasture have shown nutritional differences from those of animals raised on other feedstuffs
The nutritional needs of farm animals can be satisfied through natural forage and fodder alone, or by direct supplementation of nutrients in concentrated, controlled form.
The nutritional quality of feed is not only influenced by the nutrient content, but also by many other factors such as feed presentation, digestibility,  hygiene and effect on intestinal health.
A mechanism through which these nutrient deficiencies can be resolved can be provided by Feed additives by improving animal rate of growth, health, and well-being.
A diet largely consisting of grain-based ingredients is given to cattle because of the higher costs of quality feed.

Health:

Foodborne illness can be a cause of Strain E. coli 0157:H7.
Grass fed animals have eighty percent less E. coli in their guts than their grain-fed counterparts.
This reduction can be achieved by switching an animal to grass only a few days prior to slaughter.
The amount of E. coli they have is much less likely to survive against stomach acid as feeding grain to cattle makes their normally pH-neutral digestive tract abnormally acidic
The pathogenic E. coli becomes acid resistant over time.
A large number of them may survive past the stomach, causing an infection, if humans ingest this acid-resistant E. coli via grain-feed beef.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy:

A risk factor for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is meat and bone meal, when healthy animals consume tainted tissues from infected animals
Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD), which is also a spongiform encephalopathy, is safe for grass fed cattle for this reason. 
Any amount of mixed feed could cause many animals to become infected as only a tiny amount of the contaminating prion begins the cascading brain disease.

Campylobacter:

Campylobacter, is a bacterium that can cause another foodborne illness leading to nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fever, headache and muscle pain.
It is found in 58 percent of cattle raised in feedlots versus only 2 percent of pasture raised and finished cattle

Medicinal and synthetic products:

Various substances such as glycerol, growth hormones, veterinary drugs, feed additives or nutraceuticals are also included in cattle feed to improve production efficiency.

Antibiotics:

When antibiotics are routinely given to livestock it contributes to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Antibiotic resistance is a naturally occurring phenomenon throughout the world due to the overuse and/or inappropriate use of antibiotics.
Ionophores are the most common form of antibiotics  which were originally developed as coccidiostats for poultry, and prevent coccidiosis in cattle as well.
Ionophores helps improving both feed efficiency and growth rate, and lower methane production.
It acts as growth promoters due to an increase in food and water uptake and increase the digestive effectiveness of the animal. 
Antibiotics are used for therapeutic purposes in the clinical treatment of infections  in the cattle industry.
These are also used prophylactically for disease prevention by controlling the growth of potentially harmful bacteria.
There is an increased efficiency of the farm because of the effectiveness of antibiotics in the treatment and prevention of diseases which results in reduced costs for cattle producers, and for consumers.
Antibiotics are also used in disinfection products and antibacterial cleaning products used in farm and veterinary practices.
Bovine respiratory disease, which is the most common reason for antibiotic therapy, has risk factors common in both feedlot and pasture finished production.
Regulatory agencies and measures are there in place in order to ensure that foods produced do not contain antibiotics at a level which will cause harm to consumers due to concerns about antibiotics residues getting into the milk or meat of cattle.

Growth stimulants:

Improved feed efficiency, carcass quality and rate of muscle development are the benefits of using growth hormones.
Plentiful meats can be sold for affordable prices by the use of growth hormones.
Bovine somatotropin, also known as bovine growth hormone, is a naturally produced protein in cattle. 
Recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST), also known as recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), is a growth hormone that can be produced using microbes with modified (recombinant) DNA.
Artificial hormones and those naturally produced by the animal itself can not be distinguished with testing.
The use of growth hormone is linked to a number of human health problems, such as precocious puberty or cancer.
All veterinary drugs used in food production processes should pass tests and regulations set by the Veterinary Drugs Directorate (VDD) and are enforced by the Food and Drug Act of Health Canada. 
All food products in Canada are monitored by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) by sampling and testing by veterinarians and inspectors working on behalf of the provincial and federal governments
The food supply is monitored to condemn and destroy any product that is unacceptable.
A residue found by the CFIA should be substantially below the Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) which is acceptable for safe consumption.
This is the maximum amount of a drug residue that can be in a food product at the time of human consumption based on Acceptable Daily Intakes (ADI).
The ADI level is the highest amount of a substance that can be consumed daily throughout a lifespan without causing adverse effects can be determined from toxicology studies.
The hormone levels between implanted and nonimplanted animals can not be distinguished.
The three natural hormones (estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone), are naturally present in cattle and humans.
Zeranol, melengestrol acetate, and trenbolone acetate are the synthetic alternatives which have been approved by the VDD for use in Canadian beef production.

Effects of feed on health:

Inflammatory effects are suppressed by flax seeds from bovine respiratory disease (BRD) that often affect stressed cattle during transport and processing which can lead to lung tissue damage and impair the performance of the cattle resulting in a low final body mass at slaughter, or premature death. 

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For milk production, body upkeep, and overall health, dairy cows require a well-balanced diet. The most significant input, cattle feed, must be delivered at optimal levels of quality corresponding with the animal's production. What is fed and how it is fed have a significant impact on the amount of milk produced by the animal. The amount of feed given to cows is determined mostly by the amount of milk they produce, as well as their weight, ambient temperature, and activity levels. As of late, many farmers are feeding compound cattle feed mixed with dry fodder and green grass to their dairy animals on a regular basis. This boosts productivity while also lowering milk production costs and increasing net profit.

Benefits of Cattle Feed

• Cattle feed offers the protein, energy, minerals, and vitamins that animals need to develop, maintain, and produce milk. It is beneficial to offer extra cattle feed to pregnant animals in order for the foetus to develop properly.
• It boosts reproduction efficiency, milk output, and milk fat content.
• 1 to 1.5 kg of compound cattle feed should be fed daily to growing animals.
• For every litre of milk produced, milking animals should be fed 2 kg of compound cattle feed for body maintenance and an additional 400 g to cows and 500 g to buffaloes.
• In addition, during the last two months of pregnancy, pregnant animals should be given 1 kg compound cattle feed and 1 kg good quality oil cake.