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Feeding Baled Corn Residue
With drought cutting into forage supplies and driving up hay prices, cattle producers may be looking for more affordable winter feed options. Nebraska Extension Beef Systems Specialist Mary Drewnoski says baled corn residue can be a good alternative for beef cows and help stretch limited feed supplies this winter.
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[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
Corn residue has become a staple of cattle feed, and on today's program, extension beef system specialist, Mary Dronowski, talks about the quality and nutrient content of bailed corn residue, what producers should know about how it affects performance.
[Mary Drewnoski, Nebraska Extension Beef Systems Specialist]
Well, I think I'd be remissive.
I didn't start the conversation with the idea that if you can graze it, that's always the best.
But if for some reason you can't graze it, you know, bailing is another way to make use of it.
And the same principles sort of apply, right?
So when we think about corn residue, one of the key things that people need to understand is that the husk is the best part, right?
It has the highest digestibility, in fact, it is better than the best hay that you possibly have in terms of how much energy it would provide to a cow.
And then you have the leaf, which is kind of the next best, and it's probably like medium quality hay in terms of its energy value.
And then you have the stock, which is very lowly digestible, and the cob, which is also fairly lowly digestible, in fact, carbon stalker, probably about equal in terms of the energy value.
So, When we think about bailing it now, if we think about this grouping of material, right?
It's not all the same.
And so depending on your management, you can change the composition of that bail.
And so one method that has been used in the past, and instead of raking and bailing, and getting all that stock, and into that bail.
Essentially, they were just saying, just turn off the spreader and then just bail the window behind the combine.
Now that reduces the amount of material that you bail from the field, really by about half.
So in, in some of our studies, when we did kind of a conventional rake and bail, we would pick up about 77% of the residue in the field.
And if we did the combine tailing method or the easy bail method, we get about 34%.
So, you know, basically we reduce it by about half.
But what you're collecting is the better material in terms of the energy value for the cattle.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Mary says different parts of the corn plant delivered different amounts of energy.
She says because of those differences, it's difficult to determine overall quality level.
[Mary Drewnoski, Nebraska Extension Beef Systems Specialist]
There's kind of 2 things to understand.
One is that how you are going to feed it does affect how you would actually view the quality, so to speak.
So if you're thinking about like grinding and and feeding like in a TMR, um, then what is currently present in the bail is the true, uh, quote unquote quality of the bail.
Usually when we think about conventional bales, we can run anywhere from about 40 TDN to about at most 45 TDN, so just really good quality would be essentially equivalent to wheat straw.
So thinking about that, you know, it's not the highest quality stuff in the world.
So conventionally bailed.
Usually like, if I'm going to use a number, I usually use 42 as my guess.
The challenge with corn residue is that because it is this grouping of a bunch of different plant parts, it is impossible, really, to get a good estimate, just using normal lab analysis, because a lot of labs will use the fiber content, in particular, what we call the acid detergent fiber, to say how much energy or how digestible that feed stuff is.
And unfortunately, when we think about corn residue, the husk has just as much ADF as the stock.
So they are wildly different in terms of their digestibility and thus energy, but yet if you just do a normal lab analysis, you couldn't tell the difference between them on the ADF scale.
So, I would say, you know, we really don't have a great way to get a good number in most cases, but 42 is kind of the number I usually use if it's conventionally bailed.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
We'll hear more from Mary on this topic of bailed corn residue on a future almanac program.
For Nebraska, extension almanac.
I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IE&R Media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
Thanksgiving Turkey Label Definitions
When shopping for your Thanksgiving turkey, you may notice labels like “organic,” “hormone-free” and “free-range.” But what do those terms actually mean? Nebraska Extension Educator Cindy Brison breaks down common turkey labels and explains what consumers should know before heading to the checkout.
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Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
Roasting a giant turkey for Thanksgiving is part of our national tradition.
Well, what exactly are you getting when buying the bird for your holiday, and what do certain words on the label actually mean?
Words like organic, free range, or natural can be quite confusing because consumers might think they need something definite.
But in reality means something else.
On today's almanac, extension educator Cindy Bryson explains what these words actually mean, as we begin a series of programs, focusing on what certain words mean on your turkey packaging.
She starts the series by explaining what exactly is a fresh turkey?
[Cindy Brison, Nebraska Extension Educator]
You know, it's confusing to people, fresh, fresh is something that is in the refrigeration, unit, at a grocery store.
It is capped at 26 degrees or higher, so no lower than 26 degrees.
Grocery stores because they maintain that temperature can keep fresh poultry for more than a few days.
If you decide to buy fresh poultry, your refrigerator can't keep it that cold.
So you have to cook your fresh turkey within one to 2 days.
So temperature is a big thing.
So fresh means you're going to buy it.
You don't have to thought, which is great, but then you need to cook it as soon as possible.
So you can't buy it.
You know, the 2nd week in November and decide to hold it in your fridge until Thanksgiving.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
The word organic is a very specific meaning when it comes to food production and labeling.
Cindy tells us the environment, feed, and other considerations turkeys must have in order to be labeled organic.
[Cindy Brison, Nebraska Extension Educator]
Organic has a lot of aspects to it.
If you buy an organic bird, whether it's a chicken or a turkey or a duck, the producers who raise the poultry, must feed products that are 100% organic.
So whatever they're feeding, your turkey for Thanksgiving needs to be 100% organic.
Um, but they are allowed to offer vitamin and mineral supplements too, which is which is fine.
You need to think about this.
If you buy an organic turkey.
That means that it has never been fed, any antibiotics.
It's never had anything else.
So if, if an organic farm is raising organic turkeys and one of the turkeys gets sick.
Producers will have to pull that turkey and treat it.
It will have to have antibiotics.
It will have to have whatever it's needed to get healthy.
So then that turkey is pulled out of organic production, and it goes into general production, which is fine.
Either are fine.
It is a choice.
Organic poultry are required to have access to the outdoors year round.
They may be temporarily confined due to, you know, bad weather, something like that, or health considerations.
So certified organic, if you see that on the label, it's regulated by the USDA, um, and there are specific requirements.
Again, they have to be, you know, fed organic feed, no antibiotics, no, no antifungals, the land that the turkeys are raised on needs to be certified organic too.
No synthetic products on the, on the land they're being thrown on, no herbicides, no sanitation chemicals, nothing like that.
And that is for 3 years before they can start raising their poultry.
So when you, when you purchase an organic turkey versus, I would call them conventional turkeys, you know, an organic turkey must, or might be, probably is more expensive, but think about all that's gone into them too.
Not all turkeys that are labeled organic or USDA certified.
So check the label, carefully, you know, if it just says organic, but it doesn't say USDA certified.
It might not be.
Again, is a choice.
Does it mean it's more nutritious?
No.
Does it mean it tastes better?
Some people think, yes, some people think no.
Um, there are some people that feel that organic or turkeys that or poultry that are allowed to roam freely, you know, that they have built up more muscles than a conventional turkey, and that might be a little drier or a little tougher.
But, but that's all in how you cook it too.
You can make any turkey taste better.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
We'll cover much more on this topic of turkey labeling in future programs.
Next time, we'll examine what it means when you see the words natural and hormone free on the label.
For Nebraska Extension Almanac.
I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IE&R Media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans.
Go to extension.unl.edu.
2027 Beef Cattle Report – Animal Well Being
Keeping cattle comfortable and reducing stress may do more than improve animal well-being — it can also boost performance. New University of Nebraska-Lincoln research looks at the connection between cattle comfort and productivity. UNL Animal Science Professor Jim McDonald discusses the findings in the 2027 Beef Cattle Report.
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[Mike Straub, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
Animal welfare remains an important consideration for both consumers and producers, particularly with intensive livestock production systems, as interest grows in management practices that enhance animal well-being while maintaining productivity, there is an increased demand to identify practical enrichment strategies for Feedlock cattle.
Professor of Animal Science, Jim McDonald discusses the 2027 Beef Cattle Report, and highlights an experiment that was conducted at the Eastern Nebraska Research Extension and Education Center, using the Claustrum and Feed Law Innovation Center to evaluate the effect of stationary brush provision on beef Feedlot steer throughout the feeding period.
[Jim MacDonald, UNL Professor of Animal Science]
I think, 1st of all, there's been a lot going on.
I'm really proud of everything that's been happening in the in the beef space that we're able to report on.
I think there's something like about 36 research articles that cover the entire beef spectrum.
Um, everything from some work in in genetics, um, a lot of work in the cow calf and forage sector, quite a bit of work in the, in the feed lot sector and the meets.
And so I think it was really good organization and people did a nice job.
There's students, I should say, did a nice job of getting the reports ready to submit.
So we have a lot to be proud of, um, and a lot to share this year in our brief report.
This is our mechanism of delivering everything that we've learned over the past year directly to the producers.
Our focus audience is still beef producers here in the state in Nebraska, and the report is is directed, is written in a way that it should be directed towards them.
And hopefully in a manner that they can pick something up, um, from that report and implement into their program, um, you know, with the advice of their consulting nutritionist or veterinarian at the same time.
Today, I'll be focused on largely the feedlot studies.
And there's some cool things that we've done.
We have a former faculty member by the name of Dr. Jess Sperber, who did a lot of outreach with some television outreach, but also had a research appointment.
Had a little bit of a different idea that's very intriguing, putting brushes in feedlot pans as a way to stimulate cattle.
Um, and so we have quite a bit of data, um, that was collected this year that looks not only at performance, um, you know, transfer of pathogens, um, and then how it affects animal behavior, and they had, it had a significant impact.
I would be honest, I was surprised at how much of an impact putting a brush into a feedlot pen had.
Clearly the cattle use it, and when they use it, um, they do less other things in the pan, like scratch on the fences, um, lick the chains, right?
All of those things that cattle like to do.
Because it gives them something else to do.
The most surprising part. £9 of carcass weight, um, by adding the brush to the pan.
Um, and so, um, it stimulated some activity and, uh, you know, maybe caused them to eat just a little bit more.
Um, but certainly there's a way to pay for brushes, um, without any negative impact.
It actually slightly improved quality grades.
So there's some really cool things there, um, that I weren't wasn't necessarily expecting that uh, that's available in the report this year.
You know, our producer support is really important to us.
We work hard to put out information and come up with projects that will directly answer questions for producers.
And so, um, we're proud of this report, and we're proud of the students, um, who did all of the work, uh, to generate the data that's in the report, and we hope that it's useful to the people that it's intended for.
We take questions directly generated often at extension meetings, so we have a really close working relationship between research side in the beef cattle space and the extension side in the beef cattle space.
So if producers go to an extension meeting, for example, and have a question, maybe they can't get the answer directly at that meeting, that will make its way back to us.
Sometimes specialists have research appointments directly.
Other times, those questions are going to funnel back to us.
And so being engaged with extension is really the best way, um, to feed us questions that you have related to um, beef cattle research.
For more information on this study or an in-depth look at the 2027 beef cattle report and visit beef.unl.edu for Nebraska Extension Almanac.
I'm Mike Straub.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of INR Media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
Don’t be Scammed by Thanksgiving Turkey Labels
When picking out your Thanksgiving turkey, don't let the labels leave you guessing. Terms like “natural” may not mean what you think. Nebraska Extension Educator Cindy Brison explains which turkey labels have official government definitions and what those terms really mean for consumers.
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Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
The word natural is one of the most confusing words you can see on just about any food package.
The fact is, there really isn't any concrete or legal definition of that word on food products.
On today's program, extension educator Cindy Bryson talks about what natural means on part 2 of word definitions on your turkey packaging.
[Cindy Brison, Nebraska Extension Educator]
You know, natural is another one of those terms.
Um, It's one of those things that, you know, it, uh, to me, it's a marketing ploy, um, a product containing, so natural, a natural, a turkey or a natural, um, chicken is just a product containing no artificial ingredients or added colors, and that it's minimally processed.
So, if you buy a natural turkey, it probably doesn't have any, it hasn't been, um, injected with butter, or soy, or anything else that's going to make it, um, you know, that maybe make it more moist.
Um, so it, it pretty much is just, it's just the turkey and there needs to be a statement on there.
If you buy a natural turkey explaining what the term natural means, such as no artificial ingredients are minimally processed, something like that.
So natural doesn't necessarily have a backing.
So again, it can be a marketing thing.
Um, so be careful.
I mean, why are you looking for a natural turkey?
You know, all turkeys are natural.
They're, they're, they have to be they have to be grown.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
While it may be true that other animals that we raise for food, use certain growth hormones.
Cindy explains those products are never used in poultry production.
[Cindy Brison, Nebraska Extension Educator]
So the FDA and the USDA have prohibited the use of all hormones and steroids in poultry since the 1950s.
That means there is not a bird in the market that has been treated with hormones or that has had steroids.
People always say, well, that chicken or that turkey is huge, and they must be using steroids in there.
Nope, sorry, it's they can't use them.
They haven't been able to use them.
And it's a pretty strict thing.
They checked, they checked chickens.
They check turkeys, you know, to make sure.
Um, so it, it, so having a label that says no added hormones, um, is, is just, again, it's marketing to scare you, um, because people are, you know, people are concerned about added hormones in their food, and, and I, I totally am understanding of that, but it is a, it's a food bullying thing.
Hey, if this turkey says no added hormones and the one right next to it doesn't say anything, then this turkey must be better.
No, sorry.
It's the same thing.
You know, one of the things to think about, though, since they're not adding hormones and they're not adding, um, any steroids, is our chickens and our turkeys grow fast and grow large due to selective breeding, has nothing to do with artificial drugs.
Has to do with the type of nutrition they're being fed, has to do with their healthcare.
Nothing to do with hormones.
So, turkey is raised without antibiotics or antibiotic free.
Um, that that is all meat and poultry.
If an animal gets sick and they use antibiotics, which is the humane thing to do, it's administered in such a way that it would never be in the bird system at the time of slaughter.
So there are very strict federal standards about the use of antibiotics.
I'm kind of like when you put pesticides on your garden.
It stays right on the label.
You know, do not harvest for so many days.
It's the exact same thing with animals.
Um, you know, people, people think that there'll be lots of antibiotic residue in the meat and that causes antibiotic resistance, but they, it cycles through their system, just like it cycles through ours in so many days, it goes away.
So it's not, it's not something that you need to, um, to worry about.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Stay tuned for future programs where Cindy will talk about other definitions, including free range and cage free.
For Nebraska Extension Almanac.
I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of INR Media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
Feeding Baled Drought Damaged Corn
Thinking about using baled drought-damaged corn for cattle feed this winter? There are some risks to consider. Nebraska Extension Beef Systems Specialist Mary Drewnoski says drought-stressed corn can contain dangerous levels of nitrates, especially in the lower stalk.
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[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
This past summer was brutally dry, particularly in Western Nebraska, and continuing our examination of feeding baled corn residue, Nebraska extension beef systems specialist, Mary Dronowski, returns to talk about how that drought may have affected the quality of corn residue bailed for feed.
She says there might be a slight risk of nitrates in the stems.
[Mary Drewnoski, Nebraska Extension Beef Systems Specialist]
Failed corn.
For instance, uh, in terms of digestibility might actually be better than typical corn residue, just so you know.
But there is that risk of them being high in nitrates.
So a few things to remember about nitrates.
The number one thing, as opposed to prussic acid, nitrates are going to be higher in the stem, and in particular the lower part of the stem.
So, if you're going to grind up that material and feed it, of course, that means that you are grinding up the, the stem which could have that higher nitrate and thus you're going to be feeding something that's potentially higher nitrate.
So getting it tested is probably the 1st step.
The benefit is if you are going to grind it up, hopefully you're going to feed it with some other feeds and in the world of nitrates, dilution is a solution to pollution.
Joking a little bit, but, you know, if you can dilute it out, you might still be able to use even a high nitrate, fail, assuming, again, that you are grinding it up and you are mixing it so that you don't have hot spots.
Now, without being said, what if you're going to do what we've been talking about, which is, I'm going to stick it around bell feeder and let the cows eat it.
The thing I would point out there again is if you are allowing them to be selective, and they're eating the husk in the leaf, the likelihood that those are high in nitrates pretty low. Again, you could test it.
Um, just to make sure you might go through and select, say the husk and the leaf, and maybe even test the upper part of the stem and see what, what's my risk here in this particular scenario.
And if you are a little bit worried about it, making sure you aren't forcing them to eat all of that material, even the stuff that they normally would, uh, so that you aren't forcing them into eating stem might be of benefit.
But I will say, I don't get as nervous about nitrates in corn residue, as some people do, because I think you can manage it to where you are allowing the cattle to select the stuff that is the best quality, and it's usually the stuff that is the lower nitrate.
Now, with that being said, there's a couple other things you can do to reduce risk.
I said dilution is usually helpful, so giving them other feeds will reduce risk, of course.
Energy is your friend.
And actually, that's probably where corn residue, in general, is kind of lacking, is that often it's not very high in energy, and for the microbes that use the nitrite, which is being produced from the nitrate, and that's the toxic compound, it's actually nitrite.
There are bacteria that can use it, but they need energy to do it.
And so if they don't have energy, then you have that nitrite build up and that's what gets into the blood and that's what causes our toxicity issue.
So, One of the things that we want to think about is, do I have enough energy for those microbes, if I am feeding more nitrates?
Because if I don't, then you're going to run into problem.
So rate of intake matters.
And of course, the amount of energy matters here in this particular scenario.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Today's program was a portion taken from a recent beef watch podcast offered by Nebraska Extension.
To read the detailed article on this topic, or hear the entire interview, go to beef.unl.edu, or download from Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of I.E. And our media, and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.