Eliminating acidosis with Beefstock

Achieving high growth rates at grass is vital for economic beef production. But losing cattle from acidosis (more commonly known as bloat) is a problem many farmers encounter and are only too well aware of when starting cattle on feed. Harbro claim to

One of the many farmers who are delighted with the performance of their calves and feeding cattle on Beefstock is John Gill and his son, Douglas, who finishes around 450 head a year, including calves from his 170-cow suckler herd, at Brucefield, Portmahomack, Ross-shire.



“We feed Beefstock Nuts ad lib as a creep to our spring-born calves from August onwards when the feeding value of grass is beginning to deteriorate and continue until after housing when we gradually replace Beefstock with barley,” says Douglas.



“We find the nuts are absolutely safe and trouble-free to feed and they flow easily in the creep feeders. We have had no problems with acidosis since we started feeding Beefstock and the cattle perform well, with no “check” at the time of housing.”



The home-bred bull calves at Brucefield are kept entire and finish at 12-14 months of age at 370-380kg deadweight. Heifers are grazed over their second summer and finish at 17-21 months at 300-360kg deadweight. Liveweight gains of 1.4kg/day are being achieved with bulls but heifers are grown more slowly.



The March-born bull calves are creep fed from the end of August, depending on the season, and the heifer calves start on creep about a month later.



“Feeding at this stage not only keeps the calves moving but takes the pressure off the cows as the calves get older,” says Douglas.



The calves are both Continental and Aberdeen-Angus cross with Charolais bulls being used on Aberdeen-Angus cross cows and Aberdeen-Angus bulls on Simmental and Limousin cross cows. Mr Gill is finding that the Aberdeen-Angus grow just as fast as the Charolais.



All finished cattle are sold deadweight, bulls going to ABP, Perth, and bought-in steers and heifers to either Mey Selections or Munro’s of Dingwall.



Beefstock is a 16% protein complete balanced diet based on coarsely ground cereals - using a manufacturing process unique to Harbro in Scotland. Finely milled cereals present a potential risk in intensive feeding conditions. Harbro’s long-acting buffer, Alkacid, is also included to maintain optimum pH balance in the rumen and Yea-sacc to improve fibre digestion.



“Many farmers encounter bloat problems with cattle fed at grass,” says Harbro north region sales manager, David Mackenzie. “Beefstock is 100% safe and has been specifically formulated using Harbro’s Rumen Friendly Concept to improve rumen health, feed conversion and liveweight gain.”

Wednesday, 23 September 2009 12:51 pm