Feed Use Estimation Worksheet for Beef Cattle

Farm Business Management Update, December 1997

By Jack Dunford of the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Virginia Tech

We have another dry year across most of Virginia and many livestock producers have limited forage supplies going into the 97-98 wintering period. I dug out an old spreadsheet that I developed during the 1994 drought to help beef producers estimate feed requirements for wintering their beef herds. This decision aid has been converted to Excel, has been dressed up a little bit, and has had a few additional features added. The sample printout following includes the computations for a fictitious beef herd. About 18 additional round bales of a low-to-average quality hay are needed for mature dry cows, and 56 better quality round bales are needed for lactating cows and growing heifers.

Rations are balanced and entered for each class of livestock on the farm (maximum of ten classes can been accommodated). The program tallies the total requirements of up to six feeds for a given number of head over a designated period. Near the bottom of the sheet the number of tons of each feed stuff on hand is entered the feeding and storage losses need to be estimated, as a percent, and the program will compute the additional bales of hay, bushels of grain, tons of litter, etc. that is needed to satisfy the nutritional requirements for the herd. This information can be used to determine a feed conservation program for the herd, a culling program, or the like.

If you are interested in this Excel decision aid, contact me at dunford@vt.edu and I will send you a copy. This worksheet would work for sheep (or emu, llama, ostrich, etc.) producers as well: change the title of the spreadsheet depending on the interest of clientele you are educating. This decision aid was updated to demonstrate in the Beef/Sheep CCW's in the Northwest and Northern districts, but it can also be a useful tool in advising individual livestock producers. It could also be used as the basis to develop information for a short talk at a forage conference or a livestock production meeting. If you are interested in this decision aid, you are welcome to use it as you see fit.

FEED USE ESTIMATION WORKSHEET FOR BEEF CATTLE
FOR: Jones Herd				DATE: 25-Nov-97
			AVAILABLE FEEDS Pounds Required Per Head Per Day
Gp. No.	Group Description		MIXED HAY-L	MIXED HAY-H	ALFALFA HAY	CORN	OTHER	OTHER
1	DRY COWS		28.4
2	LACTATING COWS			31.8
3	900 LB HEIFERS			22.8		4.0
4	700 LB HEIFERS			18.0		4.0
5	WEANED HEIFERS			12.9		4.0
6	BULL GROWING				15.0	10.0
7	BULL MAINT		38.4			4.0
8	OTHER
9	OTHER
10	OTHER
		Days Fed	Pounds Required Per Head For Period
Gp. No.	Group Description		MIXED HAY-L	MIXED HAY-H	ALFALFA HAY	CORN	OTHER	OTHER
1	DRY COWS	150	4320	0	0	0	0	0
2	LACTATING COWS	150	0	4770	0	0	0	0
3	900 LB HEIFERS	150	0	3420	0	600	0	0
4	700 LB HEIFERS	150	0	2700	0	600	0	0
5	WEANED HEIFERS	150	0	1935	0	600	0	0
6	BULL GROWING	150	0	0	2250	1500	0	0
7	BULL MAINT	150	5760	0	0	600	0	0
8	OTHER	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9	OTHER	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10	OTHER	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
		No. Head	Tons Required Per Group
Gp. No.	Group Description		MIXED HAY-L	MIXED HAY-H	ALFALFA HAY	CORN	OTHER	OTHER
1	DRY COWS	31	67.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
2	LACTATING COWS	37	0.0	88.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
3	900 LB HEIFERS	8	0.0	13.7	0.0	2.4	0.0	0.0
4	700 LB HEIFERS	9	0.0	12.2	0.0	2.7	0.0	0.0
5	WEANED HEIFERS	38	0.0	36.8	0.0	11.4	0.0	0.0
6	BULL GROWING	8	0.0	0.0	9.0	6.0	0.0	0.0
7	BULL MAINT	3	8.6	0.0	0.0	0.9	0.0	0.0
8	OTHER	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
9	OTHER	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
10	OTHER	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
			Total Tons of Feed Available & Required
			MIXED HAY-L	MIXED HAY-H	ALFALFA HAY	CORN	OTHER	OTHER
Food Available			80.0	150.0	9.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Feed Required -- No Losses			75.6	150.8	9.0	23.4	0.0	0.0
Food & Storage Losses			20%	20%	10%	0%	0%	0%
Feed Required -- After Losses			90.7	181.0	9.9	23.4	0.0	0.0
Balance (Tons)			-10.7	-31.0	-0.9	-23.4	0.0	0.0
Weight per Unit*			1200	1100	55	56	1	1
Additional Units Needed*			17.9	56.4	32.7	835.7	0.0	0.0
* Examples of Units:        Large Round Bales        Conventional Square Bales        Bushels					Developed in 11-97 by: Jack Dunford, Extension Agent Farm Business Management Augusta Extension Office

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