The cold, winter months not only take a toll on us, but livestock as well.
An animal health experts offers tips on how to help your herd through winter.
His tips neither require loads of money nor sacrificing desirable attributes.
Elanco unveiled Rumensin? over 40 years ago, in 1976. Bruce Hoffman, cattle technical consultant with Elanco, says the product ?revolutionized the beef cattle industry.?
?Rumensin is commonly fed on feedlot cattle and it?s the only ionophore approved for cow production. In addition to improving efficiency in fed cattle, we also save on feed costs by reducing as much as 10-percent of hay on cow-calf operations. That?s important when everybody in Iowa is feeding a lot of hay with this weather,? Hoffman said.
Even with reduced feed, Rumensin? helps cows maintain weight.
?The main thing in our cow herd, especially before we start to calve, is not to lose weight. Feed is valuable this time of year; nobody wants to feed too much. We can actually maintain weight with 10-percent less feed,? Hoffman said. ?The way Rumensin? works is (by) developing and creating more energy for cows, even (with) sometimes poor quality roughages.?
The feed additive also improves feed efficiency in a feedlot setting. Elanco research suggests Rumensin? improves feed efficiency by four-percent, providing a net return of $23.14 per head.
?In feedlots, we?re going to improve the efficiency of animals by increasing (the) average daily gain,? Hoffman said. ?Then the other benefit is on coccidiosis control. Coccidiosis is a normal inhabitant of the cow, or calf?s gut. Rumensin? controls and kills (it) in all three stages. We maintain on Rumensin?, and the nice thing is we don?t have the extra load of the organism affecting these calves.?
