Stored Feed Needs: How Much? What Quality?

Feed resources are the largest variable expense in beef production systems outside the initial investment in the livestock. When we look at Standardized Performance Analysis (SPA) information from Texas and Minnesota, states that are at the extreme from an environment stance, the projected costs for maintaining a beef cow are strikingly similar. It is important to note that these costs include all expenses and opportunity costs. Getting back to the SPA information, in 2007 the annual cost to maintain a cow in Texas was determined to be roughly $590 while the Minnesota value was near $610 or only about $20/cow higher. Looking at the costs associated with feed (grazed, purchased, and stored) it should not be surprising that this was approximately 60% of the total costs for the Minnesota herds. Breaking this down further, stored feeds (hay/silage) and purchased feeds (grain/mineral) accounted for roughly 80% of the feed expenses. We would certainly expect this value to be lower for Kentucky due to the fewer days of winter feeding, but it does reemphasize the fact that stored /purchased feed is an expense that impacts the net return of the cattle enterprise and should not simply be brushed aside. The remainder of this paper will focus on estimating the stored feed needs from a quantity and quality aspect for beef operations. These basic concepts apply to all the species and at the end an example hay inventory sheet is attached for meat goats from Dr. Andries