balancers

[sw]

When we were testing these bulls the other day, the vet was asking how much grain these bulls got and we got into this discussion. We have not seen any change in the semen quality with our bulls. The vet said that alot of the bulls that he tests that have been pushed for gain will have poor quality semen due to low grade vesicular stomatitis infections putting pus into the semen. He was not sure why but he has seen it and he prefers bulls to be developed slower for that reason.

 

[Faster horses]

Acidosis can be the result of many things. Weather, feed stress, protein, starch, but most likely excess protein.

Remember, cattle do not eat percentages, they eat grams, pounds, tons, but not percentages. Never have, never will.

 

[passin thru]

One thing I want to touch on.................forage fed animals.

Some forage can be an ultimate feed, nothing more needed. The term forage fed leaves more unansered question than it aanswers. That being said, forage fed is the right track........I don't want to add any feed that can raise the cost of those cattle.
If I feed forage to the cattle a opposed to winter grazing I use what forage I have. Some years it might be not much more than filler other years it might it might be the ultimate in feed value. Depending on the quality can determine if a supplement is required.
One year it was awful dry and I fed the cows what I had, it was oat hay. I never saw such fat cows. The other thing is.......someone will say "I just gave them a little bit of grain". Now I have learned that little can mean different things to different people. I know one guy that called 12 pounds of grain "a little bit of grain". I don't know about you but I call that a heck of a lot. :shock:

 

[QUESTION]

Fh read a book weather does not cause acidosis :roll: My point was that a balanced ration that is not too hot will not cause acidosis even if fed free choice. Feeding rolled oats from a self feeder with a pelleted supplement constituant will get bulls fat or at least mine do and they are not burnt out , their feet are not over grown, they walk well,their fertility is excellent and are in excellent condition to go out and breed cows. But you seem to think because an animal eats grain they automatically are burnt out or get acidosis also commonly known as grain overload not wheather overload. When people talk about a percentage of something in a ration they are generalizing to make a point that a raition isn't feeding entirely one thing ie) 20 lbs of steam rolled corn and no supplments or acess to hay ot silage or straw. I am not saying people don't feed too hard sometimes or that people feed too hard for the way others run their cattle but there is no right or wrong way to feed cattle as long as the final product is a animal that is healthy and productive.