Managing any type of livestock is a yearlong endeavor. Every day each and every animal in a livestock operation needs to be provided with feed, water, and shelter. It takes time and effort to satisfy these basic needs 365 days a year. A sizable monetary investment is also incurred during the production year meeting the livestock needs and the production goals of the business.

In most livestock operations feed cost comprise from 50 to 70% of the total expense at any one time. This is very true for beef cattle operations. The objective of any cattle operation is not to reduce expenditures on managing the nutrition of a herd, but rather to identify feed as a fixed cost at such a level as to obtain optimal production throughout a beef cow's 365-Day Cow Year (Figure 1). Her year can be divided into four periods or phases. The first phase starts with calving at two-years of age until the first-calf heifer is rebred. This first phase last approximately 80 days and is called the Post-calving Phase. The next phase is Pregnancy and Lactation, lasting about 120 days. Mid-gestation last 110 days and is the third phase. The forth phase is Pre-calving, which could last 50 to 60 days. For a beef cow operation to remain profitable, it must have cows that progress through the phases of the 365-Day Cow-Year having a healthy calf, getting rebred, weaning an optimal amount of calf weight per acre, maintaining optimal body condition, and do all this year after year until she is eight or ten years old at a minimal cost of production.

A brood cow must have an ample supply of clean, fresh water everyday; good quality forages to graze or hand-offered, sufficient amounts of macro- and trace minerals, and appropriate supplements throughout her yearly production cycle. Table 1 shows the nutritional requirements of a 1100 pound mixed breed beef cow producing 15 pounds of milk a day during lactation, for each of the four phases during her 365-Day Cow Year. Pre-calving and Post-calving are very critical times during the cow-year. These 100 to 130 days often occur during late winter into early spring. Nutritional demands are high, production stressors are greatest, management labor inputs have increased, and the environmental stressors are applying pressure both to the cow, her new calf, and the livestock producer. During the transition from late winter to early spring, feedstuffs maybe of low quality and scarce. Supplements will be needed to meet the nutritional demands during these critical phases. Pre-calving or the third trimester is when the fetus and conceptus are gaining 60 to 70% of its birth weight. This puts an enormous nutrient demand on the dam. Dry matter intake starts to decrease for the cow as she nears calving because of the growing fetus is crowding her rumen. After calving, the cow must consume enough good quality feed to meet the requirements of milk production and for repairing her reproductive organs so she can again be rebred during the Post-calving phase.

Liquid supplements are ideal for supplying essential nutrients economically and low labor input cost. Lick wheel feeders containing the appropriate liquid supplement can provide just the right amount of supplementation to each cow when she needs it the most. Free-choice feeding allows an individual cow the freedom to obtain an amount of supplement to help meet her nutritional requirements when she wants it. The boss cow and timid animals can both get their share without excessive loss of supplement. The liquid supplement itself is formulated for consumption control as well as the lick-wheel feeder itself. The act of turning the wheels in a lick tank to bring up the supplement with the cow's tongue will in itself be a form of consumption control. The lick tanks usually contain 150 to 250 gallons of product that can be easily moved to help control consumption, whether it be too little or too much. If a group of cows are eating to much, the tank can be moved further away from their water source and loafing area to deter over consumption. If they are not eating enough, just do the opposite. Lick tanks are a laboring saving device also. They only need to be filled when the tank is getting low and if the Keep Fill system is being used, fills can be put on a routine schedule such as every other week. The Keep Fill system allows for monitoring intake of supplement, scheduling fill days, tracking mineral intake, monitoring cow body condition, and even allows for observing changes in feedstuff quality and quantity. When cows start losing body condition because the quality and (or) quantity of their forage is decreasing, liquid supplement intake from a lick tank will increase. Supplement intake will decrease when forage quality and quantity improves which should improve cow condition. Number of head per wheel, usually 25 cows or cow pairs, can be adjusted to change intake, also. More animals per wheel will decrease average consumption and fewer head per wheel will promote intake.

If the cattle run out of mineral or are not getting the right amount or mineral formulation, lick tank supplement intake will increase. Lack of water, both quantity and quality will cause cows (and calves) to increase consumption of the liquid supplement. A sudden change in the weather can alter intake patterns. If the lick feeder is allowed to run empty for two to three days, supplement intake will increase on the next fill for a period of two to three weeks. It takes from 14 to 28 days for a cow to adjust their intakes between two to three pounds per head daily. Rumen microbes do not need this much time to adjust to a lick tank supplement since 80% of the fiber digesting/fermenting bugs want or require nitrogen in a non-protein nitrogen (NPN) form. But, the cow's system itself (liver and nitrogen recycling) needs time to adjust to the ruminally available nitrogen from the liquid supplement. Also, the host animal will have to adjust to the increased ruminally fermentation products and increased microbial cell mass resulting from feeding NPN containing molasses based liquid supplements.

Liquid supplements designed for free-choice feeding in lick wheel feeders are formulated with pure Louisiana sugar cane molasses, urea, phosphoric acid, condensed whey, corn steeps, trace minerals, and vitamins A, D and E. Other minor ingredients can include sulfuric acid and beet solubles. Quality Liquid Feeds liquid supplements are of the highest quality and consistency. A wide range of pasture products are offered to meet the supplemental needs of the beef cow throughout her 365-Day Cow Year. Typically, supplements with crude protein levels between 30 to 40% are used during the fall through late winter. It is during this time of the year forage quality is low or when harvested forage supply needs to be extended. Fall and winter grazed forage on pasture or stalks can also be extended with the use of a lick tank supplement. The rumen of the cow during late summer, fall, and through winter is low in available protein (nitrogen) for the fiber digesting microbes. Liquid supplements containing urea and natural protein from the molasses, steeps, condensed whey, or beet solubles supply a source of ruminally available nitrogen in the right amounts and at the right time. Quality Liquid Feeds lick tank or pasture supplements also have a unique feature in that the nitrogen contained in the urea is slowly released in a "Timed Release" fashion to allow for more complete utilization or the slowly released nitrogen by the rumen microbes. The sucrose and lactose sugars contained in the pasture supplements supply an essential source of readily fermentable carbohydrates for the rumen bugs. The "Timed Release" nitrogen, fermentable sugars, trace minerals and other nutritional factors within the molasses, all help to drive ruminal fermentation to generate more energy and microbial cells for the cow. Through increased microbial fermentation by feeding liquid supplements, marginal forages are utilized more extensively thus providing more nutrients from less feed. With good to high quality forages, liquid supplements can increase dry matter intake by improving digestibility thus allowing for more forage intake.

During the growing seasons of the year, ruminal available nitrogen or crude protein is probably not going to be limiting. The most limiting nutrient will be energy and just being able to consume enough dry matter containing needed nutrients. It is during this period of the year that liquid supplements containing moderate levels of crude protein need to be blended with liquids composed of high levels of sugars and lower in crude protein. Products such as QLF Natural 8CD would be mixed with QLF Super 40C or Pasture Plus 32/8 to make a supplement containing 10 to 24% crude protein with a more concentrated level of sucrose and lactose as the needed energy source. The grazing cows and their calves will decrease their supplement intake as the grass starts to green-up. But, if the winter supplement is blended with a natural low protein, high sugar product, intakes will increase. These blended products will supply needed energy and more natural protein during the forage growing season. As the forage matures and summer turns into fall, less natural is added to the supplement in an effort to match forage nutrients and the nutritional needs of the cattle. Blending can be accomplished either in a storage tank, delivery unit or even in a lick tank feeder. When blending, make sure the two products a thoroughly blended before offering to the animals.

Quality Liquid Feeds also offers a medicated free-choice pasture product, Super 24 Bov. It contains 24% crude protein, 27% total sugars, and Bovatec at 150 grams per ton. Consumption of this product is between one and two pounds to provide 75 to 150 milligrams of lasalocid (Bovatec) per head daily. Research has shown that pasture animals consuming this product will experience a 5 to 10% increase in average daily gain when compared to animals not receiving a similar non-medicated liquid supplement. This product should be used when more weight gain is desired during a shorter period of time and (or) extending pasture or harvested forages is needed.