2. LaMoure County has
12 feedlots
Approximately
40,000 head capacity
Approximately 15,800
cow/calf pairs
Two dealers in county
selling mix wagons
Approximately 105
producers with mix
wagons
3. Use a lot of low quality feeds
• Corn stover
• Prairie hays
• Straw
A lot of co-products available in the area
(within 100 miles)
• Spuds
• Corn syrup
• DDGs and WDGs
4. Contacted
by producers about feed wagons
wondering if they were getting good mixes
• Concern's were mixing antibiotics, minerals and
vitamins and other feed additives
Al
and Karl do a lot of on farm beef trouble
shooting
5. Feed costs have dramatically increased
Obtaining maximum feed conversion in to
cattle weight is a necessity
Improving feed efficiency involves using
feeds in right combinations
Totally mixed rations improve
fermentation efficiencies
6. Education was needed to guide feed lot
operators and provide the tools needed to
make improvements in their operations
Producers need to reduce the cost of inputs
in their operations and become more
efficient particularly in the trends and
marketing of calves
7. Making a Total Mixed Ration (TMR)
requires adequate mixing
Program was designed to evaluate on farm
mixing performance
Program benchmarks mixing performance
and then developing solutions to improve
mixing
Consequently animal performance should
improve
8. A “hands on” on-farm mixing evaluation
Follow up farm visits with a written
evaluation to include:
• feed sample nutritional reports
• coefficients of variation (CV) report
• letter with suggestions on how to fine tune their
feed mixing operation
9. One on one feedlot visits with “hands on”
mixing evaluation
Used edible markers
• Candy corn
• Good and Plenty
10. Not all candies work well
• Looked at M&M couldn’t afford them
Used Candy Corn and Good & Plenty (G&P)
Goal was to have 1 piece of candy for every 1
pound of dry feed or 2000 pieces of candy (5
pounds) into two tons of 50% moisture feed
Add at 2.5 to 5 pounds per ton of mix
• Candy corn = 220 pieces/pound
• Good and Plenty = 390 pieces/pound
11. Wet feeds coated the candy making it harder to
find (G&P) candy corn was much easier to find
12. With dry feeds candy was much easier to find
13. Had producer loaded feed wagon in their
normal fashion
Added candy into feed wagon with feed
mix
Mixed feed for their normal mixing time
14. Set 3 dish pans in bunk line
• One at the beginning
• One in the middle
• One at the end
Collected the pans (before the calves got to
them)
Sorted and counted markers
Evaluated mix wagon effectiveness of uniform
mixing of feed ration
Then suggest changes to make mix wagon to
get a better uniform feed mix
15. Measured and calculated co-efficient of
variation
• Candy
• Dry Matter
• Crude Protein
• ADF (Acid Detergent Fiber)
• Calcium
• Phosphorous
• Sample Weights
16. Candy Dry matter Crude Protein
Coefficient of variation Coefficient of variation Coefficient of variation
observations observations observations
First 1/3 of bunk 4 57.77 11.19
Second 1/3 of bunk 1 57.38 11.91
Last 1/3 of bunk 4 56.62 13.89
Standard Deviation 1.732 dev 0.585 dev 1.398
mean (Average) 3.00 mean 57.26 mean 12.33
Coefficient of Variation 57.74 CV 1.02 CV 11.34
CV=DEV/Mean*100 CV=DEV/Mean*100 CV=DEV/Mean*100
Goal 10% Goal 10% Goal 10%
Best 5% Best 5% Best 5%
very accurate 1% very accurate 1% very accurate 1%
17. The wide range of candies counted at the
beginning, middle and end of the feed bunk
indicate improvements can be made in mixing
There is always a need to be vigilant in doing
a good job of feed mixing
Upon review of the nutritional components of
the ration, mixing appears to be adequate (or
not for those not meeting the mixing goal) for
• Crude protein ADF, Calcium and Phosphorous
18. Mixing Suggestions:
• increase mixing time
• blend ingredients of
smaller quantities (like
minerals) with other dry
feeds and mix
thoroughly before
adding hays and/or
silages
19. Mixing Suggestions:
• repair damaged or worn parts in the mixer
• don’t over fill the feed mixer, it does the best job when filled no
fuller than 85% of capacity
20. Candy was a great way to get the
producers interest in the project
Candies are a great method to visually see
that mixing can always be improved
Reviewing the chemical analysis of the
ration, is a good way to determine if they
were doing a good job of mixing both the
forage based and grain based rations
21. We got operators to:
• look at their feeding operations
• find ways to reduce costs
• better utilize their resources
22. Created awareness of how a total mix
ration of conventional & alternative feed
sources and management changes can
improve feedlot animal performance
Operators learned how better feed mixing
can positively affect their operation
23. Relationshipbuilding, trouble
shooting, opportunity to discuss other
production issues, and having producers
see the value of NDSU extension
