Back to the basics of cattle on wheat pasture

The conditions are about right for putting cattle out on wheat pasture, especially with the rain many parts of the Plains recently received. Getting back to the basics of cattle management on wheat is the ultimate way to maximize gain and use forage.

Dana Zook, northwest Oklahoma area livestock specialist, said health is key when grazing cattle on wheat and preconditioning cattle and training them to be bunk broke makes a big difference when it comes to sickness.

“Sometimes it’s unavoidable, you’re going to have sickness, but starting out with a good product that’s set to gain is important,” Zook said.

Another important aspect to remember is the planting date and seeding rate, because the wheat needs to be 4 to 6 inches tall before cattle are turned out to graze it so it can recover from grazing. Additionally, applying the proper stocking rate—anywhere from 250 to 600 pounds of beef per acre—ensures cattle will gain the desired weight each day and prevent damage to the crop. Stocking rate can be determined by the forage conditions and growth, however wheat pasture can be supplemented by another forage to stretch the nutrition to a larger stocking rate.

“If you have a moderate stocking rate, calves will gain a lot more than if we intensely stock it,” Zook explained. “There won’t be enough forage for all those cows, unless we replace some of that forage with some other sort of feed.”

Eat your Wheaties and boost gain

Crucial to properly utilizing wheat pasture is understanding the nutritional properties of wheat and how to balance them. Zook said from December to February, wheat pasture can be anywhere from 20% to 30% protein, which is one reason it is such a nutritious forage for cattle putting on muscle and pounds. However, too much protein can throw the energy side of the diet off balance. Zook suggested cattlemen provide an ionophore to enhance energy, which balances the protein scales.

“Ionophores were developed to prevent coccidiosis in the 1970s, but they also improve efficiency and gain,” Zook explained.  “There is also a derived benefit over time that helps with digestive upset such as acidosis and bloat, which are common problems with cattle on wheat pasture.”

Additionally, ionophores, which contain monensin, can be utilized in a supplement or free-choice mineral without needing a veterinary feed directive. Monensin was the first carboxylic polyether ionophore and is an antibiotic that was isolated from Streptomyces cinnamonensis. According to Zook, the cost to provide monensin, depending on consumption, is $0.01 to $0.05.

“On wheat pasture cattle we’ve seen from 0.1 to 0.2 pounds of gain per day advantage,” she said. “Over 100 days, there will be a real advantage and at minimal input as far as labor."

As far as balancing protein and energy with an energy supplement, Zook advised feeding two pounds of a monensin-containing supplement per head per day or four pounds per head on alternating days. She said this diet must include 90 to 100 millagrams monensin per pounds as fed, which can be self-fed or hand-fed. She said producers will usually provide a starch plus a high-fiber combination such as rolled corn or sorghum, plus soy hulls or wheat middlings.

“Additionally, while you’re feeding them, you should provide a mineral package with high calcium to meet all their nutritional needs,” she added. “This will really boost gain and we usually see about a half pound added to daily gain when this regimen is followed.”

Zook said the recommended mineral mix for wheat pasture calves consists of 12% to 16% calcium, 6% to 8% phosphorus, no more than 2% potassium and 6 to 12% magnesium.

Wheat provides more magnesium than cattle actually need, so calves are almost never deficient in it when they graze wheat pasture. As far as calcium and phosphorus, Zook said a good rule of thumb is to offer cattle two times the amount of calcium to phosphorus in any ration. However, the real concern in any lush growing forage, such as wheat, is potassium, and it can definitely throw other minerals off if cattle are taking in too much of it. Zook said extra potassium does not necessarily obstruct magnesium intake, but it will deter calcium absorption, which is very important for digestion and growth, so extra potassium should never be offered to cattle on wheat pasture.

Implants are another way to boost gain and efficiently, in fact average daily gain can usually be boosted by about 15%, according to Zook.

“It’s a technology that delivers growth promoting compounds that really help increase protein deposition,” Zook said. “It increases profitability extensively if you have high gain cattle, but you have to have good nutrition for them to get the benefit.”

Bloat management and stretching wheat

Because of the nutrient quality of wheat pasture, bloat is an obvious obstacle for cattle producers who run their cattle on wheat pasture.

“Wheat has low dry matter and has a lot of very digestible ingredients and that’s why it’s highly nutritious, but cattle systems don’t always handle it so well,” Zook explained. “The times that I’ve seen this the most is when the weather is cloudy and cold in January and we haven’t had good wheat growth and at the first of February, the sun comes out for a week. Cattle feel better and the wheat pasture is growing a little bit and we will have bloating issues and increased consumption.”

Zook said bloat boils down to environment, pasture and the animal. It is a risk that must be managed and can often be prevented with minerals. Zook said even basic minerals without an ionophore will help prevent bloat and improve gain.

During years when the wheat crop is not ideal, or there are more cattle grazing a wheat pasture than can be supported by just the forage alone, stretching wheat can be advantageous. Zook said producers can double their stocking rate providing ad libitum silage all the time. Additionally, producers can provide an energy supplement that is about 0.75% to 1% of body weight and replace about one-third of the forage.

“If you think you only have about 60% of the wheat forage you thought was there, it will help you maintain that normal stocking rate,” Zook said. “However, it is not cheap.”

Wheat pasture can also be used to develop replacement heifers.

“There are a variety of ways to develop heifers, but this wheat pasture method works well when you are roughing heifers after they’ve been weaned through the winter,” Zook explained. “With this method, you can expect 1.5 to 2.5 pounds of gain per day. You’re cheaply developing them, but being careful not to get them too fat.”

Zook said producers should be mindful of the time period heifers are on wheat because this method will not work for 200 days because the heifers will over develop before breeding.

“It’s good for them to put on frame size, but they can develop fat deposits in their udders that effects long-term milking,” Zook said. “We don’t want them to get too sloppy fat, because if you pull them off wheat, and you go into breeding in the spring, they need to stay on a similar nutritional level. We don’t want to put them through an extreme change in nutrition.”

Lacey Newlin can be reached at 620-227-1871 or [email protected].