Precision feeding beef cattle

[RayTurner]

When you hear the term precision feeding what do you think of? It seems to be a common management practice for dairy producers, but not beef farmers. What are the common feeding strategies that you implement on your farm? Is anyone using feed mixers?

[smcgrath76]

I think a lot of feedlots are using pretty sophisticated TMRs and some cow herds. The reality is that for the cowherd most of us should be feeding less, not more. Because a cow has a rumen, they can be used for digesting low quality biomass. That kind of makes feed mixers and TMRs, etc cost ineffective. That said, I do believe most of the C/C industry could benefit from at least feed testing and basic ration balancing.
Unless you are at a large scale, the operating cost/depreciation on the feeding equipment will likely outweigh most of the gains from the added precision nutrition.