Today I am feeding as mob of 240 steer weaners MAXI PELLETS manufactured by Supreme Stockfeeds who are located at Guyra NSW Australia. Supreme Stockfeeds manufacture a large range of feeds suitable for many differing situations and stock type.

We use a forklift to fill the feeder however every property has a different set up and there are many ways to do this without spending huge amounts of money on infrastructure.

I fill my feeder bin once per week with approximataley 800kg and feed half out on Tuesday and the other half on Saturday giving the steers a rate of around 450 grams per day which is costing approximately 2.10 per week.

This is an extremel y simple way to feed. It takes only about 10 minutes to put the feed out.

These cattle came from many different vendors and were thrown together in a mob. You can see how they have quietened down with the extra handling from feeding. It takes no time at all to get cattle onto feed.

Because they are trailled on the ground, there is so much flexibility to change feeding spots or to trail towards for example a cow with a new calf so she can still get fed. Moving cattle from paddock to paddock and generally mustering them becomes so much easier. There is no fighting at a trough and all cattle have an opportunity to get a feed. The MAXI PELLET is ideal for this situation.

These pellets are high in by-pass protein as there is good dry feed available and it is necessary to utilise that dry feed by looking after the rumen and allow the cattle to get through a hard winter going forward. If not then you will be losing money. A common sight across New England properties is a herd of cattle or sheep grazing native grasses with little or zero nutritional value, losing condition whilst eating valuable fibre resources naturally grown. I fail to see the point in spending $100,000 on a herd of cattle only to end up with a herd worth $60,000 after a few months. With the expenditure of a very little per head, animals can be kept in good condition giving the owner so many more options as the season warms and other feed comes away. The option to intensify the feeding is one that could be taken. Whichever option is taken for your livestock, you can be very sure that lifting livestock from an undernourished condition back to their original condition and then better, is far more difficult and costly than to have spent a little on keeping their condition up the whole way through.

I can see that my options for these cattle are many and I can decide which way to go as the season progresses. They could be finished in a more intensive feeding situation making room for other stock, or in the case of a drought. They could be sold into the grain supplemented market if I was to change their ration as the Spring feed comes away. They can be sold as very good store catle if need be. My original thought was to purchase and hold until I can make that decision but my aim was to take them up to 450kg and sell into the feedlot market. We’ll just have to see.