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Basic Nutrition

Nutrition is the keystone of any cattle operation because of its importance to both animal health and performance. Feed lacking the required nutrients - minerals, vitamins, proteins -- can cause stress, sickness, and even death. Product quality also suffers tremendously.

Nutrition Basics

Basic Beef Cattle Nutrition
Tom Hamilton, Beef Cattle Specialist, Ontario Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
A primer on beef cattle nutrition examining the digestive system, feedstuffs, essential nutrients, energy digestion, and ration formulation.

Nutrients for Cattle
Alberta Agriculture and Food
Well-balanced cattle diets that boost profits and minimize losses for producers.

Fibre Digestibility and Forage Quality
Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
Formulate better rations and produce cattle with more predicable performance by accurately estimating these measures of forage quality: Estimate Net Energy (NE) and Total Digestible Nutrients (TDE).

Beef Cow Rations
Saskatchewan Agriculture, Food and Rural Revitalization
Meet the winter nutritional needs of your cattle while avoiding costly overfeeding. (PDF)

Feed Nutrition Analysis

Ten Year Analysis of Alberta Cattle Feed
Alberta Agriculture and Food
A nutritional analysis of Alberta Cattle feed over the period of 1984 to 1994.

Working with your Consulting Nutritionist/Feed Mill
Alberta Agriculture and Foods
Predicting Forage Quality Values from nutrition books or computer formulas "often grossly overestimates or underestimates" nutrition values. A more effective approach is having a forage sample tested in a laboratory.

Feed Terminology

Feed Terminology
Alberta Agriculture and Food
Learn the terms used by your feed salesperson, livestock nutritionist, and veterinarian for better communication and understanding.