Cattle Feeding Program
Providing the best care possible to their animals is a top priority for livestock producers and everyone. However, providing that care while maintaining a positive bottom line is crucial to the success of an operation, just like it is in any business. As we face uncertain economic times, finding ways to offset the cost of gain is vital to staying in the black.
One way to ensure a positive ROI is to enroll your herd in one of the cattle feeding programs that exist. Producers and backgrounders often realize a premium once they market their cattle through these value-added programs.
BioZyme® Cares About Your Bottom Line
At BioZyme®, our motto is care that comes full circle. That means if we take care of the animals that ultimately feed the world, they will take great care of us. How do animals care for humans? They provide quality food, milk, and fiber and, in some cases, transportation, entertainment, and companionship. Additionally, the better we take care of them, like providing them with quality nutrition, the better they will take care of us.
That is why we created this blog. To help producers like you become more familiar with quality cattle feeding programs. We want you to be aware of programs that will help you reach your operation goals while helping your cattle stay healthy and perform.
Why is this important to us? We know that you work hard to raise beef. We know that because members of our team are in your boots – they are also raising beef, and they believe in these programs and have seen them work.
Health & Nutrition Starts from the Inside
In order for your cattle to gain and thrive, they need to stay healthy. We know that 70% of the immune response starts in the digestive tract. If we can keep the gut healthy, the rest of the animal should stay healthy. That is the reason nearly every product that BioZyme makes utilizes AO-Biotics® Amaferm®, a research-proven prebiotic designed to enhance digestibility.
When cattle digest their feed better, they can absorb more and better utilize the nutrients available to them. Research shows that Amaferm—on average—increases fiber digestion by 17%. It also improves crude protein digestion by an average of 10%. Better digestion ultimately saves you money. Amaferm is an important part of your cattle feeding programs.
“Amaferm’s mode of action gives any producer the opportunity to improve their profitability. When your feed is utilized and absorbed more effectively, you can maintain on less feed or capture the value of extra performance in your operation,” Chris Cassady, Ph.D., BioZyme Director of Beef Technical, said. “This doesn’t even factor the additional benefit of gut health and immunity from an improved microbiome.”
A Research-Proven Solution
Amaferm, the key ingredient in most of our products, is research-proven to increase digestibility. As a prebiotic, it stimulates the growth of beneficial gut microbes. Research shows that it increases average daily gains by one-quarter (.25) pound per day.
Wouldn’t you like to keep your cattle healthy and increase your calf weight gain per day by one-quarter of a pound just by providing a mineral with Amaferm?
Amaferm Keeps Costs Lowered
One way of keeping the cost of gain at a minimum is to maximize the nutrients available from the feedstuffs you have available. Incorporating a research-proven prebiotic like Amaferm into your cattle feeding programs is going to help cattle increase intake, digestibility, and absorption, which all impact the overall feed efficiency. As John Jeffrey, BioZyme Director of National Sales, likes to say, “Amaferm will make good feed great, and great feed even better”.
“We can take a poor-quality ration and make it feed better with Amaferm. We can take a hay pile that is not that good and make it feed better. If we have the luxury of having really high-quality forage or access to some really good feed, we don’t have to feed near as much to get the same outcome. So, when we talk about feed additives, in general, any of them that help improve feed efficiency will be more magnified by being fed when feed costs are higher than when feed costs aren’t as high. We still do the same thing; it just won’t be as magnified,” Jeffrey said.
The Gain Smart Cattle Feeding Program
Backgrounders and stockers have several options to get Amaferm into their calves with the Gain Smart® mineral. Gain Smart is a line of vitamin and mineral supplements for stocker cattle that promotes healthy, economical pounds.
Gain Smart is available in 4 formulas for a variety of management scenarios. The 4 different free-choice vitamin and mineral supplement formulas for stocker cattle include:
1. Gain Smart Stocker
Gain Smart Stocker helps your herd maximize efficient gain.
It is designed for those feeding a medium to high forage diet and works well for both cool—and warm-season grasses. It is the most versatile and can be fed in multiple places under multiple conditions.
2. Gain Smart Stocker Wheat
Gain Smart Stocker Wheat maximizes efficient gain on wheat or small grain pasture.
This product is formulated for a higher-quality forage diet rich in protein and nitrogen, such as wheat, small grains , and legumes. It includes extra magnesium to help balance the nutrients in the diet and should be fed in spring and early summer.
3. Gain Smart Stocker HEAT
Gain Smart Stocker HEAT® maximizes efficient gain when temperatures are above 70 degrees Fahrenheit. It contains HEAT technology, a combination of essential oils and garlic, to support animals when heat and insects are a challenge.
Gain Smart Stocker HEAT is ideally suited for backgrounding and yearling cattle on grass and also contains plant extracts to help maintain circulation to support animal performance and gain in both heat and fescue situations. The plant extracts are research-proven to support animals’ ability to maintain normal body temperature. This mineral is ideal in the hot summer months or any time fescue is grazed. It includes garlic to deter insects.
4. Gain Smart Stocker Balancer
Gain Smart Stocker Balancer RU 1600 maximizes efficient gain and balance high-grain diets when mixing TMR rations. It includes rumensin for improved feed efficiency.
Gain Smart Balancer RU 1600 is designed for calves being backgrounded or fed in a dry lot situation on a mixed grain ration. It complements the co-products, such as distiller’s grain and cereal byproducts, and works well with fermented feed like silage. It contains no phosphorus but does have rumens. Gain Smart Balancer can be fed to heavier weights, and it is a good selection when trying to improve feed efficiency.
Save Money with Gain Smart
Here is one example of a cost-saving benefit with a summer grazing situation.
A backgrounder runs 2,000 calves in the Flint Hills of Kansas while feeding a mineral from the local feedstore that costs $20/bag delivered. The average death loss is 2% or 40 calves.
The local BioZyme dealer convinces him or her to feed Gain Smart at an investment of $32*/bag delivered, a difference of $12, with $5 of that the Amaferm advantage. Each bag has 200 servings, and the feeder plans to graze for about 110 days, so he or she will need 1,100 bags. Thus, he or she will spend about $13,200 more on the mineral program this year than in the past.
Let’s Do The Math
But wait. Using this mineral, calves will be healthier, and the death loss will be cut to 1% or 20 calves. Now, let’s look at where the feeder is financially. (*suggested retail price may vary due to freight)
Initial investment: 1,100 bags x $12 more than previous mineral = $13,200
Saved 20 calves due to increased health: $1600 each x 20 head = $32,000
$32,000– $13,200 = $18,800 profit in live calves
Another way to look at it is if you save one live calf at $1600, at $32 per bag, that one calf pays for 50 bags of Gain Smart. With 200 servings per bag, that one more calf paid for 100 calves’ minerals over a 100-day backgrounding period—healthy, efficient pounds.
Your initial investment has more than paid for itself, plus the Amaferm advantage will help your calves gain potentially fewer days on grass. Your calves should stay healthier, meaning fewer dollars spent on treatments. It’s an investment that will continue to offset the cost of gain in challenging times.
“Gain Smart will improve feed efficiency and health, which is more money in your pocket,” Jeffrey said.
Gain Smart’s Place in Marketing Programs
Jeffrey emphasized that Gain Smart minerals will help cattle reach their optimum potential without other additives that might keep them from premiums in programs like all-natural, NHTC, and other value-added opportunities. In fact, through a partnership with Superior Livestock, feeders can earn premiums through the VitaFerm® Raised and Gain Smart value-added programs, the first nutritional value-added programs that Superior recognized.
“It’s even going to be more important for folks to utilize Gain Smart to become more efficient, especially if they’re going to be participating in all-natural or NHTC programs. Producers won’t be allowed to use some of the technologies like ionophores, and they can’t use implants. If they’re forced to use an antibiotic, then that animal drops out of that program,” Jeffrey said.
This summer, 31,810 head of cattle were sold on Superior at just five of their bigger sales, all badged as VitaFerm Raised or Gain Smart fed. Producers know the value of getting calves off to a good start, keeping them healthy, and performing through quality cattle feeding programs.
The Gain Smart Difference
All Gain Smart formulas offer the following key benefits:
- Powered AO-Biotics Amaferm, a prebiotic research-proven to enhance digestibility.
- Include organic copper, iodine, and zinc for maximum bioavailability and hoof health.
- Provide nutritional support for a healthy immune system.
Give your Calves Benefits of Gain Smart
Are you looking for a cattle feeding program that not only helps your herd reach its full potential but also helps you increase your bottom line? Do you want healthy, high-performing cattle that gain weight with the most ROI? Yes, so do we! You can achieve your financial goals, keep your cattle healthy, and perform with Gain Smart.
Gain Smart‘s cattle feeding programs can help you put on healthy, efficient pounds. Gain Smart is available at one of our local BioZyme Dealers. Locate the dealer nearest you.
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