Feed mixing evaluation program 1

Feed Mixing Evaluation Program“Candy for Cows”

Al Ulmer, LaMoure County Agent

Karl Hoppe, CREC Livestock Specialist

Local Situation LaMoure County has

12 feedlots Approximately 40,000

head capacity Approximately 15,800

cow/calf pairs Two dealers in county

selling mix wagons Approximately 105

producers with mix wagons

Local Situation Use a lot of low quality feeds

• Corn stover• Prairie hays• Straw

A lot of co-products available in the area (within 100 miles)• Spuds• Corn syrup• DDGs and WDGs

Local Situation Contacted by producers about feed

wagons wondering if they were getting good mixes• Concern's were mixing antibiotics, minerals

and vitamins and other feed additives Al and Karl do a lot of on farm beef

trouble shooting

Developing The Program

Feed costs have dramatically increased

Obtaining maximum feed conversion in to cattle weight is a necessity

Improving feed efficiency involves using feeds in right combinations

Totally mixed rations improve fermentation efficiencies

Need For The Program

Education was needed to guide feed lot operators and provide the tools needed to make improvements in their operations

Producers need to reduce the cost of inputs in their operations and become more efficient particularly in the trends and marketing of calves

Need For The Program

Making a Total Mixed Ration (TMR) requires adequate mixing

Program was designed to evaluate on farm mixing performance

Program benchmarks mixing performance and then developing solutions to improve mixing

Consequently animal performance should improve

Implementing The Program

A “hands on” on-farm mixing evaluation

Follow up farm visits with a written evaluation to include: • feed sample nutritional reports• coefficients of variation (CV) report • letter with suggestions on how to fine tune

their feed mixing operation


One on one feedlot visits with “hands on” mixing evaluation

Used edible markers• Candy corn • Good and Plenty

Candy Markers Not all candies work well

• Looked at M&M couldn’t afford them Used Candy Corn and Good & Plenty (G&P) Goal was to have 1 piece of candy for

every 1 pound of dry feed or 2000 pieces of candy (5 pounds) into two tons of 50% moisture feed

Add at 2.5 to 5 pounds per ton of mix• Candy corn = 220 pieces/pound• Good and Plenty = 390 pieces/pound

Candy Markers Wet feeds coated the candy making it

harder to find (G&P) candy corn was much easier to find

Candy Markers With dry feeds candy was much easier to

find


Had producer loaded feed wagon in their normal fashion

Added candy into feed wagon with feed mix

Mixed feed for their normal mixing time

What We Did Set 3 dish pans in bunk line

• One at the beginning• One in the middle• One at the end

Collected the pans (before the calves got to them)

Sorted and counted markers Evaluated mix wagon effectiveness of

uniform mixing of feed ration Then suggest changes to make mix wagon

to get a better uniform feed mix

Results Measured and calculated co-efficient

of variation• Candy• Dry Matter• Crude Protein• ADF (Acid Detergent Fiber)• Calcium• Phosphorous • Sample Weights

Sample of Lab ReportCandy Dry matter Crude Protein

Coeffi cient of variation Coeffi cient of variation Coeffi cient of variation

observations observations observations

First 1/3 of bunk 4 57.77 11.19

Second 1/3 of bunk 1 57.38 11.91

Last 1/3 of bunk 4 56.62 13.89

Standard Deviation 1.732 dev 0.585 dev 1.398

mean (Average) 3.00 mean 57.26 mean 12.33

Coefficient of Variation 57.74 CV 1.02 CV 11.34

CV=DEV/Mean*100 CV=DEV/Mean*100 CV=DEV/Mean*100

Goal 10% Goal 10% Goal 10%

Best 5% Best 5% Best 5%

very accurate 1% very accurate 1% very accurate 1%

Producer Follow Up Letter

The wide range of candies counted at the beginning, middle and end of the feed bunk indicate improvements can be made in mixing

There is always a need to be vigilant in doing a good job of feed mixing

Upon review of the nutritional components of the ration, mixing appears to be adequate (or not for those not meeting the mixing goal) for• Crude protein ADF, Calcium and Phosphorous


Mixing Suggestions: • increase mixing time• blend ingredients of

smaller quantities (like minerals) with other dry feeds and mix thoroughly before adding hays and/or silages


Mixing Suggestions: • repair damaged or worn parts in the mixer • don’t over fill the feed mixer, it does the best job when

filled no fuller than 85% of capacity

Summary Candy was a great way to get the

producers interest in the project Candies are a great method to

visually see that mixing can always be improved

Reviewing the chemical analysis of the ration, is a good way to determine if they were doing a good job of mixing both the forage based and grain based rations

Educational Program Outcomes

We got operators to:• look at their feeding operations• find ways to reduce costs• better utilize their resources


Created awareness of how a total mix ration of conventional & alternative feed sources and management changes can improve feedlot animal performance

Operators learned how better feed mixing can positively affect their operation


Relationship building, trouble shooting, opportunity to discuss other production issues, and having producers see the value of NDSU extension

Questions