SE Manitoba | Schram Cattle Co - 1/13/2021 07:05
I definitely agree that I should be taking more probes per sample, but the reality is that when I'm doing a lot of different samples, usually battery power for my drill is my limiting factor.
ADF also seems to be 12.5% different, so I'm not sure the TDN formula's the problem. How do you estimate your feed quality from ADF and NDF?
Mine were done on a Friday and sat in a freezer over the weekend while hers were taken on a Monday--any idea as to whether that might change quality like this?
First point - - - - its easy - - - - get another battery!
So far I've done mine with a bump in model and by the time I was done both hips had sore areas!!!!!!!! (I can understand using less samples but its not the way to go.)
(A buddy of mine, recently deceased, tended to mutter about the poor accuracy in biologic systems - - - - if you do well its around 50% - - - now for physics and chemistry you expect to be well into the 90% range.
I laughed more than a few times but find myself wishing he were still around - - - there was so much more to learn from him!!!)
ADF and NDF - - - - sorta easy - - - - the lower the better.
Most beef guys are happy with a just under 30 for ADF and that usually means a touch under 40 for NDF.
Me - - - I'd like to get stuff where when I test what my girls eat (sheep - - - - much better selectors than cattle by the way!) the ADF is under 20 and the NDF is in the 20 to 25 range.
That kind of stuff gets digestibility way out there (better than corn in fact!)
Even an ADF in the mid 20s and NDF in the lower 30s means that your going to get serious weight gain on calves.
A part of things is that you need to have forages that are NOT predominantly stems.
That's one of the things I've found with barley and oats, greenfeed or silage, a lot of the newer varieties have stems that are far bigger than my pinkie at ground level, that means the stem material is fill and its far too high a portion of the plant IMO.
Dunno what's causing the different in tests.
My best guess would be different labs using different formulas for TDN.
One is conservative and the other is optimistic.
That's why I've gone to using ADF and NDF.
HTH |
Two feed test, one feed
