“Feedlot Nutrition Made Easy – Step Up Programs”
by Chris Reinhardt, feedlot specialist
Last month we explored finishing diet roughage levels. This month we’ll explore different ways to get there.
The initial roughage level of the receiving diet is determined by the kind and background of cattle we’re feeding. If we’ve been developing calves on a moderate level of roughage (25 – 50%, dry matter basis) we can more rapidly move cattle toward the finishing ration. If we’re working with young, light weight, high risk calves we’ll have to move through the transition period more slowly. Like many issues in cattle feeding, success of the program is more often determined by management of the program than by the nature of the program itself.
The most common step up program involves a series of step up diets (either 4 or 5), starting with about 45% roughage (the #1 ration) and terminating in the finishing ration (the #5 ration; commonly 8 – 10% roughage). We then need 3 diets in between containing about 30-35% (#2 ration), 20-25% (#3 ration), and 12-15% (#4 ration), depending on final diet roughage content. The other component of the step up program is how many days to feed each of the first 4 step up rations. Again, on large, adapted cattle we can be more ‘aggressive’, meaning we can spend fewer days on each ration and on lighter, unadapted cattle we should move more slowly. A common guideline is that we will feed each step up ration a minimum of 5 days each, but we can reduce or extend the number of days depending on intake, respiratory disease or acidosis in the pen.
Being overly conservative with the step up transitions may ultimately add a few days to the total finishing program, but being overly aggressive may cause acidosis, cyclical intakes, and chronically poor intakes for the entire feeding period. This latter situation will dramatically extend the time to finish the cattle and greatly increase the cost of gain. Once again, management is much more important than what program you use. And one way to ensure good management of the step up program is to err on the side of caution.
