Optaflexx improves carcass weight much more than live weight, so the current return on 300 gms of Optaflexx for 28 days would be $10.60 live and $23.23 on a dressed basis. The biggest issue is that it works best on cattle that are sold as whole pens on the same day. Sorting cattle out of the pen makes it hard to decide when to start. If you only do one sort and then a clean out, you can start it ~10 days prior to first sale and shoot to get the second sale done by day 35. We use to believe that if we pulled it out of the ration we would lose any weight gained. Zoetis did some interesting trial work, and found that whatever weight is gained on a beta agonist (their's is ActoGain, same chemistry as OptaFlexx) is kept. At their feedlot conference last September they reported trial work that showed the additional weight gained will be maintained even if you pull it out of the ration and sell the cattle 2-3 weeks later. |