March 2011 for web.indd - OVK

grazing systems will yield better performances than a
conventional system. It is better to keep animals in a
small camp for a day than to let them graze as they like.
Pastures must not be grazed before the regrowth is 20 cm.
The animals have to move from the camp when the
average length of the pastures is 10 cm. This will insure
that the pastures are utilized properly and not under- or
over grazed.
As described earlier the pastures cannot supply in the
total nutritional demand of the animal. Therefore the
farmer must supply some supplemental feed to ensure
the best performance possible. The aim must be just to
supplement and not to substitute the pastures.
It is important to ensure that the supplemental feed
constitute not more than 15 to 20 % of the daily intake
of the animals. Because of the high rumen degradable
protein content of the pastures the aim must be to
supply more undegradable protein.
Undegradable protein sources are cotton, soy and sunflower
oilcake. It is also better to have a combination
of natural protein sources rather than one source. The
reason is the different sources have different amino
acid content and to get the best mix of amino acids for
maximum performance they must be mixed together.
The energy content of pastures is very low and therefore
the farmer must supply energy. The starch in the energy
40
sources are also a problem when feeding animals on
pastures. The reason is that when the starch content is
too high, it triggers the brain to tell the animal to stop
eating grass because it feels its stomach is full, thus the
intake of grass drops and also the performance.
The more energy sources a farmer can use the better,
because this will ensure a better utilization of the energy
and will ensure a better performance. It is of utmost
importance that the supplement contains all the necessary
minerals and vitamins. It also must contain an
ionophore to enhance the digestion of starch.
To improve performance and lower cost, a feeding pro -
gram must be followed. This is to ensure that the farmer
does not under- or oversupply nutrients. The steers
must grow at a rate of at least 500 g/day before the supple
ment can be made available. Before this they must
only get a normal phosphorus lick.
When they grow faster than 500 g/day, the supplement
must be available at 1 500 g/day/animal. The supplement
must be available for at least 120 days to ensure
a good growth and fat deposits. If the animal’s fat de -
posits is not up to standard, then extra energy (chop)
Contents
can be mixed with the supplement to ensure the right •
grading (A2 or A3) at slaughtering.
Any system has pros and cons. The pros of veld fat ten ing
are numerous, like more natural meat to the con sumer, no Inhoud