When warm weather fades to cold, Georgia’s green pastures will
also fade, and
cattlemen must prepare to feed their herds during the winter.
University of Georgia
experts say they should consider feeding their cattle soybean
hulls.
Dan Brown, an Extension Service animal scientist with the UGA
College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, said soybean hulls
provide cattle higher
protein than corn and can cost up to 75 percent less.
Brown put soybean hulls to the test on a research herd of 100
stocker cattle at the UGA
Mo
untain Branch Station in Blairsville, Ga.
Stocker cattle are cattle that farmers buy as calves, grow to
heavier weights and then
sell to feedlots. “Most of Georgia’s cattle wind up on feed
yards in the high plains
areas of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska,” Brown
said. “There they are grown
to slaughter weight.”
Beef cattle weigh 1,100 to 1,200 pounds and are 15 to 18 months
old at slaughter.
For the past three years, the cattle market in Georgia has been
down. But this year’s
season looks much better. “The market is up substantially over
last year,” Brown said.
“We expect the trend to hold over the next year.”
To make a profit, “cattlemen make every effort to keep input
costs down,” he said.
“Feed is the major cost item in beef production.”
Beef cattle diets are normally based on corn. But in Brown’s
research, steers fed
soybean-hull diet gained an average of 2.58 pounds per day,
while cattle fed a
shelled-corn diet gained 2.49 pounds per day.
Cattlemen are starting to discover the alternative feed
source. “A lot of beef producers
are using soybean hulls in lieu of shelled or cracked corn
because it’s cheaper,” Brown
said. “It’s a feed source all cattlemen can use, from commercial
cow-calf producers to
stocker producers.”
Many dairies now use soybean hulls in rations “as a very
digestible fiber source,” said
Lane Ely, a dairy scientist with the UGA Extension
Service. “They’re a valuable
component but can only be fed to lactating dairy cows in limited
amounts. Cattle still
need long-stem forage and roughage in their diets.”
Farmers can buy soybean hulls at any large farm dealership or
brokerage. However,
Brown tells them to call ahead.
“Soybean hulls are produced here in Georgia and are by-products
of the soybean oil
industry,” he said. “But many farm dealers don’t keep them on
hand due to low
demand. They can be easily ordered and readily available if
requested.”
On the downside, soybean hulls are a medium-energy-source
food. “Soybean hulls
can’t be used as a pound-per-pound replacement for corn or
forages,” Ely said. “The
cattle’s total ration still has to be balanced for all
nutrients.”
