Improve profitability with veld backgrounding
FAST FACTS
Backgrounding on natural veld can lower feedlot costs for farmers.
While good-quality veld and pasture are needed for the system to work optimally, the cattle also require supplemental feed.
Supplemental feed is for growth, not fattening, and animals should not consume more than 1% of their body weight in supplements.
Backgrounding plays an important role in minimising the costs incurred at feedlots. And while backgrounding on veld takes longer, it reduces risk, since volatility in market prices can be absorbed more easily.
Prof Chris Dannhauser, a rangeland and pasture consultant, explains that weight gain can be achieved on quality pasture, but only up to a point, after which a feedlot system needs to be employed to ensure a product with consistent quality.
“However, there are plenty of benefits to backgrounding, including lower feeding costs and the fact that cattle are slowly introduced to feed bunks and water troughs. They therefore become accustomed
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