Additionally, feed products, rations, and conditions vary from one part of the country to another, as do individuals, which require you to consult and work closely with those guiding you. Just because something works well in Colorado doesn't mean it will work as well in Texas or Georgia. Therefore, you must adapt these guidelilnes to your area.

Cattle are ruminant animals, which means that they are capable of utilizing many plant materials that are indigestible by non-ruminants such as humans. The stomach of the ruminant animals is divided into four parts, the largest of which is called the rumen. It contains micro-organisms which break down roughages such as grasses and hay to make them nutritionally useful. This gives cattle and other ruminant animals the ability to efficiently utilize a much broader range of feeds than pigs or other simple stomach animals.

The feed that is fed to your heifer, steer, or bull will be used to meet their daily needs for the four basic classes of nutrients - energy, protein, minerals and vitamins.

ENERGY

Energy is supplied by carbohydrates and fats. The most common source of carbohydrates for ruminant animals are starch, sugars and cellulose which is the fibrous portion of the carbohydrate found in roughages such as grass and hay. Grains contain high concentrations of starch, and molasses contains high amounts of sugars. Therefore, they are both excellent sources of energy. Fats can be obtained from both plant and animal sources, but excessive amounts can disrupt the digestive system.

Energy serves two purposes in your feeding program, maintenance and growth. First, energy is used to maintain body functions and any excess energy is then used for productive functions such as growth, reproduction, lactation and fattening.

You must remember that the maintenance requirements must be met before any growth or fattening can occur. Also, if your animal is still growing, all requirements for maintenance and growth must be met before fattening itself will occur. Therefore, increassed rates of gain require an increased intake of energy. With this in mind, it is easy to understand why most feedlot rations contain a high amount of concentrates and lower amounts of roughages.

PROTEIN

The protein requirements of your animals must also be considered. Protein develops muscle, bone, organs, etc. and assists pregnancy and lactation in females. This protein is broken down by the animal's digestive system into amino acids which are then deposited into the body tissues by the blood stream. Upon the arrival at these body tissues, the amino acids are rearranged and combined with energy to form new muscle and fatty tissue.

Protein is supplied to the animal in many forms - grain, grasses, hay and feed supplements, such as cottonseed meal and soybean meal.

MINERALS

Although minerals make up only a small portion of the animal's body, they are of great importance in the growth, development, and reproduction of your animal.

The most commonly supplied minerals are sodium, calcium, and phosphorus. Sodium is supplied by a sodium chloride, more commonly referred to as salt. This may be supplied free choice in a salt box within the animal's stall or pasture. A trace mineralized salt is available that also supplies a source for those minerals required in minute amounts. Most commercially prepared rations meet the animal's needs for calcium and phosphorus, but you may wish to allow free choice access to calcium-phosphorus supplement such as steamed bone meal.

VITAMINS

As far as potential deficiencies are concerned, vitamins A, D, and E are the most important in cattle. If your cattle are receiving a green, leafy hay, green forage, or well-cured legumes, vitamin supplementation is not needed. Most commercial feeds contain vitamin supplements to ensure against possible deficiencies, but if you mix your own, you may need to add a vitamin prefix.

The primary purpose of feeding heifers and bulls is for growth, not fat. Overfeeding a breeding animal or keeping them on high concentrate show rations for an extended period of time can impair future reproduction and milking ability. If a satisfactory job is done of growing out on your heifer or bull, they most likely will have sufficient condition on show day without impairing their future reproductive capabilities.

Most of you who are feeding only one or two animals will probably prefer to purchase premixed commercial feed from your local dealer. These feeds have the necessary information on the feed tags so that you may select the appropriate mixture that will meet your animal's nutritional requirements.

Once you have selected the roughage and grain mixture that you will be feeding, the next step is to get your animal on feed. The following procedue works quite well. A common rule of thumb is that a steer or heifer will eat about 3 percent of its body weight per day of feed on an air dry basis (90 percent DM).

If your calf has not received grain before, it may take him a couple of days before he will clean up the required per day ration. One way to help the calf get started is to put the hay in the feed trough and then put the grain on top of the hay. It won't take your calf long to find out what the grain is after it noses its way through a couple of times to get to the hay.

Before you increase the amount of grain your animal is receiving, it should be cleaned up completely between feedings. Once the calf is doing this, then the grain allowance can be increased one-half lb./day until you have the animal on full feed.

BASIC RULES TO FOLLOW

1. Feed your animals by weight not volume. A quart of oats will contain considerably less energy than a quart of corn.
2. An animal on full feed should always have a constant supply of clean, fresh water. This is especially important during hot weather.
3. Keep feed and water containers clean at all times.
4. Feed your animals regularly.
5. Do not feed moldy, dusty, spoiled or poor qualilty feed.
6. Make all feed changes gradually.
7. Provide adequate shelter for your animals to protect them from exposure to extreme heat or cold.
8. Treat your animals for internal and external parasites (worms, flies, etc.) as required. Check with your veterinarian for specific requirements.
9. Feed only that amount of feed which will be cleaned up each feeding.
10. Exercise your animal regularly. This increases muscle tone as well as the appetite.
11. Keep accurate records including the amounts and kind of feed, weights, ADG, veterinary treatment, etc. This will be necessary for your record books.