Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation senior beef cattle extension officer Ken Murphy at Rockhampton said many livestock managers had committed to dry season supplementation programs during winter.

“Demand for available molasses has now exhausted supply and with no access to molasses and urea (M8U) supplementation, producers must look for alternatives to enable cattle to survive on remaining pasture that has little or no nutritional value,” Mr Murphy said.

“There are still some commercial liquid mixes being marketed that contain molasses and dunder but this form of supplementation has insufficient energy and protein content to sustain lactating cows.”

Mr Murphy said cattle producers will now have to work with stockfeed suppliers to source whole cottonseed or copra meal, copra pellets or other limited lines of protein meals.

“Cottonseed is also in short supply and stocks will not be replenished until ginning of the 2010 cotton harvest gets underway in March,” Mr Murphy said.

“Whole cottonseed fed at 2-3kg/head/day for lactating cows or 2kg or less for dry cattle depending on seasonal conditions will provide enough protein and energy to maintain the animals.

“When feeding copra products, 1kg/head/day will maintain a breeder.

“If resorting to a grain supplement, cracked sorghum or wheat fed at a rate of 3-4kg/head/day into troughs will carry them through or alternatively use a self feeder and reduce the grain flow to match the required intake.”

Mr Murphy said there was no doubt that early weaning was a recommended management option to save the breeders.

“Small calves in the 60-80kg liveweight range can be safely fed with a 19-20 per cent high protein weaner mix containing monensin as an active ingredient to prevent coccidiosis (scours),” he said.