ALCOHOL AND BIODIESEL BY PRODUCTS by Mike Mehren Ph.D.

High Cost of Hay Increases Problems
BY MIKE MEHREN

High hay and straw prices coupled with a very limited supply of these feeds have lead to problems in the past and no doubt will cause some problems this year. I have already been contacted about several of these incidents and will attempt to pass information along to you so that it doesn’t affect your livestock.

Rectal Prolapse: This situation occurs when the animal’s rectum is pushed outside the body. Sometimes vaginal prolapse occurs at the same time. It has several possible causes. Feeding very low protein, low quality dry roughage can cause the animal to strain excessively when trying to pass manure. If water was limited, or quite a distance from the feeding ground this would add to the problem because normal digestion and rate of passage of waste material through the body depends on plenty of water. Sufficient protein should be fed to prevent further occurrence of this problem. This can be in the form of a commercially produced supplement, grass hay, or alfalfa hay. I attempt to supplement low quality forage with 0.5 lb daily of supplemental protein if the cows are in the first or second trimester of pregnancy. The table that follows shows the intake needed of different protein sources to provide 0.5 lb of protein.

Protein Content of feed or supplement	lbs needed to provide 0.5 lb protein.
12%	4.2
16%	3.1
18%	2.8
24%	2.1
30%	1.7
32%	1.6
36%	1.4

This table can also be used to compare the cost of different supplements fed at different daily rates. Just calculate cost/lb and multiply times lbs. needed to provide 0.5 lb protein. Example: Alfalfa $120/ton = $.06/lb x 2.8 lb = $.17/head/day.

The supplement doesn’t have to be fed daily. For instance you could feed 12.6 lb of 12% hay for each animal on Monday and 16.8 lb per animal on Thursday. For a 36% protein supplement, you could feed 4.2 lb of supplement on Monday and 5.6 lb
of supplement on Thursday. It doesn’t matter if the animals eat all the feed you provided on Tuesday, they still get the benefit of that supplement until you feed again on Thursday. I don’t know that I’d use the 2 times a week feeding if all of the protein in the supplement came from NPN.

You will find the NPN content of a manufactured supplement listed on the label underneath the total protein content. It would look something like this:

Crude protein, min	36%
Crude protein from NPN sources, max.	32%

The ingredients list will show feedstuffs such as urea, mono-ammonium phosphate, or biuret.

Moldy feed can also lead to rectal prolapse, and when feed is expensive we are tempted to feed every single bale rather than discarding those with lots of mold. The logic seems to be that the cattle will only eat the ‘good’ parts of the bale. However, when animals are only being fed enough to get them by, they will eat moldy feed. There have also been reports that estrogen in alfalfa can cause prolapse, although this incidence is quite rare. Coccidiosis can also lead to rectal prolapse. I think there is also a genetic tendency to prolapse, but am not sure of this connection.

Water intake can be improved by forcing the cattle to eat more salt. Don’t do this unless you’re sure there is enough clean, good quality water close enough to do some good.

North Dakota State scientists just reported on a study that compared feeding hay on the ground vs in a feeder. They fed round bales in their study. As you would expect, the cows wasted less hay when fed in a feeder vs feeding on the ground. They also found that the cows were able to maintain better body condition when hay was fed in a feeder. Both of these findings are important to your financial body condition!

Nitrates. High levels of nitrates occur in grain hays and some grass hays. I have even encountered them in alfalfa hay that was irrigated with waste water. Unfortunately there usually aren’t any symptoms, the animals are found dead. If you do see an animal it has very labored breathing and looks like it is choking to death. This is because the excess nitrogen has replaced oxygen in the blood. Hays heavily fertilized with nitrogen or harvested under stressful condition seem to be related to the high level of nitrate in the hay. If I encounter a hay test that has an unusually high level of protein for that particular kind of hay, I recommend a nitrate test. They are quick and very inexpensive.

Test Report	Considered Dangerous
	........ in dry matter........
	Percent or PPM
Nitrate Ion	0.9	9000
Nitrate Nitrogen	.21	2100

Always use the figures provided for DRY MATTER. The Figures shown above are the lowest level reported to be toxic. Let’s say we have some sudangrass hay tested and the report comes back as follows:

	Percent
Nitrate Ion	As Fed 1.6	Dry Matter 1.8

We want to dilute that until the nitrate ion is no more than 0.45%, (1/2 the toxic level). If we had hay with no nitrates that we can feed, we would feed 50% Sudangrass with high nitrate and 50% hay with no nitrates. That would cut the nitrate being fed to a safe level.

Nitrate Nitrogen (NO3-N)

4000 ppm

4400 ppm.

Again, we want to dilute the nitrate content to 1100 ppm or less. That means that we would feed 25% sudangrass with high nitrates and 75% hay with no nitrates.

To carry that one step further, suppose that most of your hay has the 4400 ppm nitrate nitrogen and you don’t want to buy anymore hay. Cattle will adapt to nitrates if given time. This is similar to supplements with urea. Begin feeding 25% high nitrate hay and 75% no nitrate hay, then after one week feed 50% and 50% for another week, followed 75% and 25% for another week; after that you could feed nothing but the high nitrate hay.

Endophytes or Ergot. Endophytes are fungi that grow on turf varieties of ryegrass and fescue straw. Ergot can be found in grain, grass seed screenings, and grain hay. If too much is fed for too long they will have serious consequences on the health of your animals. Cold weather will intensify the effect of these fungi. Test the roughages if you will have to feed large amounts of them through the winter. Call Oregon State University at 541-737-6541 to get information about sampling, amount to send in, and cost.

Calf Health Issues. Certainly the worst problem that occurs when cows don’t receive enough nutrients prior to calving is that the calves may be born weak. A weak calf has a tremendously greater risk of infection and scours. Even if the calf survives, it will never perform up to it’s genetic potential.

Make certain that your plan to cut costs includes safeguards against the factors mentioned above. The few dollars spent testing and investigating possible sources of health problems to the cowherd will be repaid many times over at weaning.

Michael J. Mehren, Ph.D. is a livestock nutritionist building his own personal ethanol plant somewhere near Hermiston, Oregon. He may be contacted by Email @ mehrens@eotnet.net.