What if I told you that protein tubs don't even come close to accomplishing what they are marketed for? We are sold to death on the idea that tubs provide "convenient protein" and all we have to do is drop one out in the pasture and BOOM protein requirements met. Tub promoters will often acknowledge that although protein tubs are the most expensive form of protein, that the reduced labor and consistent intakes make up for the costs. Especially for cattle in remote locations. Can't beat that convenience right!?
Their entire marketing pitch is based on 1 major assumption that underpins all subsequent claims - that protein tubs provide adequate protein.
Here is the problem though - they don't! Most of the time, it's not even close. Now I know this might be hard for some to believe. You might be thinking "I know they are expensive, but they should at least serve the basic purpose of providing protein. After all, that's the whole point of them right!?" Unfortunately, my friends, they simply don't even do that.
Okay enough conjecture, let's prove it with some basic cattle nutrition facts and simple math. Warning, I will break this down step-by-step, with all calculations shown, so if you don't like saving money, then stop right here. For the rest of you penny-pinchers, read on.
To set the stage, let's say you have a 100 head fall-calving herd in Oklahoma, with the first calves born on October 1st and the last by November 15th. By this time, in many parts of the state, depending on drought conditions and stocking rate, the grass is already gone, and many ranchers have begun their winter feeding program. Usually this consists of average quality grass hay (6-8% protein) and some form of protein supplementation. Protein supplementation is the dreaded reality on most ranches because it is expensive no matter how you skin it. The main solutions tend to be some form of feed/cake, protein tubs, liquid feeders, and less commonly alfalfa or other high protein hay. In any case, protein must be supplemented in this scenario unless you want poor milking, poor breed-back, poor body conditions, etc. You get the point.
With that settled, the next question is, how much crude protein (CP) do we actually need to supplement? According to several reputable sources including the USDA, Drovers, Beef Magazine, and others, the average mature cow size in the US today is around 1400 lbs. Now let's assume it's November 15th and all 100 cows have now calved out. Meaning, they are all in early or peak lactation requirements which is peak nutritional demand of a cow's annual production cycle.
According to Oklahoma State's Nutrient Requirements of Beef Cattle handbook, often considered the Bible for all-things cattle nutrition, a 1400lb mature cow during early lactation requires 34 lb of dry matter per day (2.41% DM) and 3.43 lb of CP per day to maintain a body condition score (BCS) of 5. If fed an average quality grass hay with 7% CP, then there would still be a 1.8 lb/day CP deficiency. Okay, so there we have it, we need to supplement enough to make up 1.8 lbs of CP. Simple enough right? Let's just throw a tub out there and call it a day. Easy enough right? Wrong!
Let's run the numbers. We will provide 3 end-members of protein tubs to fully drive home the point that protein tubs are neither cost effective, nor are they even effective at delivering adequate protein.
We will use 3 examples. Starting with one of the cheapest and the perceived lowest quality product, working our way up to one of the most expensive and perceived highest quality options:
Option 1) 200 lb Producer's Pride 24% CP Tub. $60/tub. $0.30/lb. or $1.25/lb of CP (200lbx24% CP = 48lb of CP/tub. $60/48lb = $1.25/lb of CP. Guaranteed consumption of 1-2 lbs total per day. We will use the average of 1.5 lb of consumption per head/day. This is considered a low quality tub with higher intake.
Option 2) 200 lb of Purina Hi-Fat 25% CP Tub. $120/tub. $0.60/lb. or $2.40/lb of CP (200lbx25% CP = 50lb of CP/tub. $120/50lb = $2.40/lb of CP. Guaranteed consumption of 1-3 lbs total per day. We will use the average of 2 lb of consumption per head/day. This is considered a high quality tub with higher intake.
Option 3) 250 lb Vitalix Performance 30% CP Tub. $208/tub. $0.83/lb. or $2.77/lb of CP (250lbx30% CP = 75 lb of CP/tub. $208/75lb = $2.77/lb of CP. Guaranteed consumption of 0.5-1.0 lb per 1000/lb animal. To get to the 1400lb animal equivalent, it would be 1.05 lb of consumption/day. This is considered a high quality, low intake tub.
Now that we have that in front of us, let's see what happens when we try to use each tub to supplement our protein deficiency of 1.8 lb/day of crude protein.
Option 1) Producer's Pride 24% - consuming 1.5lb/day x 24% CP = 0.36 lb of CP/hd/day actually supplemented by this tub. Resulting in a whopping 1.44 lb of CP/day/hd protein remaining deficiency!! (1.8 lb requirement - 0.36 consumed = 1.44 lb of CP deficiency)
Option 2) Purina Hi-Fat 25% - consuming 2 lb/day x 25% CP = 0.5 lb of CP/hd/day actually supplemented by this tub. Resulting in a frightening 1.3 lb of CP/hd/day protein remaining deficiency! (1.8 lb requirement - 0.5 consumed = 1.3 lb of CP deficiency)
Option 3) Vitalix Performance 30% - consuming 1.05 lb/day x 30% = 0.315 lb of CP/hd/day actually supplemented by this tub. Resulting in a staggering 1.485 lb of CP/hd/day remaining deficiency. (1.8 lb requirement - 0.315 consumed = 1.485 lb of CP deficiency)
What the heck is going on here? There's no way this can be true!? If it is true, this should be borderline fraud right!? Well, fortunately for the supplement companies, they never officially claim (though unofficially salesmen certainly do make these claims) that they are meeting cattle protein requirements - just that they are "protein" tubs. We can all agree though, based on the overwhelming marketing/promotion of these tubs that effectively imply they are the "silver bullet" for cattlemen you would think that SURELY they'd at least provide sufficient protein to meet requirements. Well, they simply don't. Not even close. In fact, they are so ineffective, that based on the calculations above, they are practically useless.
Considering tubs are also the highest cost/lb of CP option on the market, this is even more concerning. Tubs are both expensive, and borderline worthless as sources of CP.
Why is it that this is rarely, if ever, communicated to us? Well this is a classic case of people wanting a solution that doesn't exist. Supplement companies of course will still try to fill this desire by designing the best product they can, but the physical realities are hard to over come. For any of these tubs to be effective, they would have to have an intake of ~7.2 lb/head/day (7.2 lb x 25% CP = 1.8 lb of CP/day). Well obviously, at 7.2 lb/head/day for a 100 head cow herd would require 3.6 200 lb tubs/day to actually supplement their protein deficiency (7.2 lb x 100 hd = 720 lb/day / 200 lb tub = 3.6 tubs )! Again though, this is not possible as the cattle can't lick 7.2 lbs a day. In other words, even if you did want to waste all your money, it would be ineffective. So what would tubs actually cost over a 4 month winter feeding period for a 100 head herd? We will work with Option 2, the Purina Tub, to provide a cost estimate. We will calculate it 2 ways. First, what the cattle can actually eat from the tubs and second, what they would have to eat to achieve sufficient protein supplementation.
ACTUAL INTAKE
Over a 4 month supplementation period, using the Purina tub, it would cost as follows: 2 lb/head/day x $0.60/lb = $1.20/head/day x 120 days = $144/head x 100 head = $14,400 to supply "protein" tubs for the winter, that don't provide even close to enough protein supplementation to meet the deficiency. This would result in a 15,600 lb CP deficit over the course of 120 days for this 100 hd herd.
HYPOTHETICAL INTAKE
Over a 4 month supplementation period, using the Purina tub, it would cost as follows: 7.2 lb/head/day x $0.60/lb = $4.32/head/day x 120 days = $518.14/hd x 100 hd = $51,840 to supply enough protein to actually meet their deficiency. Again, this is not possible in tub form, just a hypothetical highlighting the extreme cost per pound of protein in tubs. If you are thinking to yourself "holy crap" then you are thinking correctly.
In summary, protein tubs are NOT effective means of protein supplementation in 99% of applications. So what are they good for? Should you ever buy them? Well, for the commercial cow-calf guy, the answer is essentially never. For seedstock producers, one could make a case in a bull-pen setting, tubs would serve as a "treat" to bulls, provide them an activity of licking tubs which might distract them from fighting, and it would add additional vitamins and minerals to their diet. Even then though, it would be on top of an already existing full-ration. In short, protein tubs rarely, if ever, make sense - nutritionally or economically.
Also, please do not confuse protein tubs with mineral tubs. Mineral tubs are not quite as egregious as protein tubs because they can actually provide sufficient mineral supplement, but in 99% of cases, they are also the most expensive form of providing mineral. They can work, but are very expensive.
So what is the most cost effective form of protein? Most of the time, alfalfa hay is by far the cheapest form of protein supplementation, but it requires feeding strategies to reduce competition and ensure a more uniform consumption rate. This can include strategic placement of alfalfa bales to reduce competition such as spreading them out as far as possible. Feeding more alfalfa bales at a time, less frequently, is another strategy (Figure 2). This allows cattle more access to alfalfa and less crowding/competition. Another approach unrolling alfalfa rounds (Figure 3). This works well, but requires an arm bed.
What's the cost to supplement alfalfa? Well it varies greatly depending on quality, but in Oklahoma, most of our alfalfa will average around 20% CP and costs range between $100 - $150/ton for average alfalfa hay. Sometimes less, sometimes more. We will use $125/ton. This equates to around $100 for a 5x6 bale that weighs around 1600 lbs. Assuming 20% waste of hay and 20% CP we have the following: 1600 lb x 80% = 1280 lbs of hay consumed x 20% CP = 256 lbs of CP per round alfalfa bale actually consumed. The cost is as follows and assumes that the cattle's main roughage is the same basic grass hay we started with: $125/ton (2000) lbs = $0.0625 / lb x 1600 lb round bale = $100 per round bale. The cost per lb of CP is $100 / 256 lb of CP actually consumed = $0.39/lb of CP consumed. We know our cows need 1.8 lb of CP supplementation per day so 1.8 x $0.39 = $0.70/hd/day to supplement protein x 100 hd = $70.20/day to supplement the entire 100 head herd for a day. For an entire feeding season, it would be $70.20 x 120 = $8,424 to adequately supplement the entire herd's protein needs. This is about half the cost of the actual protein tub scenario and about 4X more effective in delivering protein. Above all, it actually works. Bonus point, it would actually be even cheaper than this because we only accounted for the CP value the alfalfa provided, but the majority of the bale is roughage. Meaning that for each alfalfa bale fed, essentially 1 less grass bale can be fed (I'm rounding here). For context, a 100 hd herd would need about 408,000 lbs of dry matter over a 120 day winter which would equate to around 364 5x6 grass round bales (assuming 1400 lb bales and 20% waste). The above scenario would have required around 84 alfalfa bales. Which means 84 less grass bales would have been fed. Assuming the grass bales were $60 each, that's an additional 84 x $60 = $5,040 in hay savings. So actually, your alfalfa investment would only cost you $8,424 - $5,040 = $3,384. Incredible. You don't really get that added benefit from protein tubs because they consume so little of it. To reiterate, the only drawback with alfalfa is ensuring adequate and uniform consumption, which, can be surprisingly difficult. If only a handful of your aggressive cows are able to eat the alfalfa, then at that point it's not much better than protein tubs. This is a trial and error process to find what works best for you and your cattle.
Finally, cake is expensive, but a far better option than tubs. To cut to the chase, the most cost effective cake is the one with the highest amount of CP using a commodity mix. I recently worked with my mill to mix a 40% CP cake costing $400/ton which is $0.20/lb. This is expensive compared to most cake mixes, but cheap on a per pound of protein basis which comes out to 2000 lbs x 40% CP = 800 lb of CP / ton. $400/800 lb = $0.50/lb of CP.
We know our cows need 1.8 lb of CP supplementation per day so 1.8 x $0.50 = $0.90/hd/day to supplement protein x 100 hd = $90/day to supplement the entire 100 head herd for a day. For entire feeding season, it would be $90 x 120 = $10,800 to adequately supplement the entire herd's protein needs. It's expensive, but depending on your location, those commodities could be reduced by as much as 25-50% in cost. Most importantly, this method actually works, unlike protein tubs. It's also very easy to ensure a more uniform consumption but it does require cake feeder and likely a grain bin if you are serious about it. So the expense can be worth it depending on your set up and access to alfalfa hay.
In short, don't feed protein tubs, you'd be better off just cutting me a personal check for $14,400. You'd at least get a really good buddy out of the deal.
NOTE: I've attached 2 different alfalfa feeding options below in case you are interested. There's a million different ways to skin this cat. Work with your cattle nutritionist to come up with the plan that works best for your operation.
Happy breeding
Josh Bedell,
President & Owner
VICCI Cattle Co.
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