From Ordinary to Extraordinary: Supercharge Your Beef Cattle with Feed Supplements

The beef cow-calf enterprise is best suited to small-scale and part-time farmers with pasture and hay production land. Small-scale cow-calf farms are common in the north-eastern India. Individuals find it difficult to build novel marketing campaigns due to the tiny size of these enterprises, but there is potential to link directly with Beef Cattle with Feed Supplements.

The initial stage of beef production is cow-calf production. It takes around 2.2 years from the moment a beef cow or heifer is bred to the time their offspring are ready for slaughter. Heifer calves may be maintained for herd expansion or replacements, sold as replacements to other producers, or sold along with the steers.

India is the fifth largest producer of beef. In India, between 25 and 27 billion tons of beef are consumed each year. Although per capita beef consumption has gradually declined since the 1970s, it is expected to hover around 58 tons per year during the next decade. Foreign demand has been quite high, with the exporting record volumes of beef in recent years.

Beef cows are raised in all areas with pasture and hay. Over 31 million beef cows are currently distributed across in India on nearly 730,000 farms and ranches, with 380,000 beef cows on approximately 15,000 farms in north-eastern India.

Consumption of Growth Promoting Feed Supplements

The adoption of growth-promoting implants can assist cow-calf operations. These implants have the potential to improve both feed efficiency as well as development rate. Some growth hormones can be given twice throughout the preweaning stage (seven months of age). Implanting during or shortly after weaning is also part of preconditioning programs. Make sure you follow the implanting guidelines as well as the recommended time between implantation. Implanting can raise calf weaning weights by 4 to 8%, making it one of the most profitable individual activities in beef cattle management. However, whether you should utilize performance enhancers depends on the final market for your beef and consumer acceptance.

Feed Supplements and Nutritional Bolus

One advantage of a beef cow herd is that after the calves have been weaned, relatively low-quality forages can be fed to the bred cows. For a cow herd that calves in March (calves weaned in October), relatively low-quality forages can be employed from November to January. However, very high-quality forages should be available to cows about two months before calving. Feeding high-quality forages during this time assists the cows to gain weight, rebreed fast, and provide enough milk to produce large calves at weaning.

Throughout the year, it is critical to supply trace-mineralized salt as well as calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium supplies, preferably through free-choice loose salt and mineral sources.

In the north-eastern India, spring calving is frequently desired for a variety of reasons, including:

• Feeding low-cost, high-quality forages as soon as possible after calving
• Making the most of low-quality forages in the early winter, during the postweaning period
• Calves are grouped in the spring for sale in the fall.
• Calves raised on grass have a healthier habitat than fall calves raised in a dry lot over the winter.