Nutrition Blocks Assist in Extending Your Pasture

Many ranchers are looking for ways to extend their pastures life for their herd. At last week's Alltech ONE Conference I had the opportunity to visit with Dr. Dan Dhuyvetter, Director of Marketing, Research and Development and Nutritions Services, about the benefit of using feed blocks for your herd.

Dhuyvetter: "Some of the conditions that are ripe for requiring supplemental nutrition is monitoring the quality of the pasture — the forage — throughout the year. In conditions when things get dry normal grazing can be interrupted and availability of forage becomes limiting. As with the season of the year as you progress through the fall and winter the quality of the forage goes down. Adding supplemental protein will actually increase the digestibility or utilization of the forage and extend the timeframe that cattle can graze that forage resource."

Dr. Dhuyvetter continues with the benefits of using block delivery of supplemental nutrients.

Dhuyvetter: "Block are a supplemental nutrition or delivery form that works very well for non-confined cattle that are out on pasture that are difficult to reach every day in order to provide adequate nutrition. The block delivery in and of itself is very flexible in that it has many different types of sizes that are offered and can be in different forms to make sure that you are delivery that right nutrients at the right time to the animal."