Farm Fact Friday: Information to know regarding Feed Tags

Hello everyone welcome back to another Farm Fact Friday! The end of the week and we are seeing sunshine which is much different than the beginning of the week with the cold and the rainy. So we’ll take it today we’re going to talk a little bit about understanding feed tags and if you watch the episode with Blaine and Chance where they talked about their feeder calves and getting them ready for the fair they may mention the part of their project where they have to complete a book and in that book they have to learn parts of a feed tag and what that feed tag is telling them. So today I just wanted to touch briefly on what is on a feed tag and kind of compare it to something that we we see on a day-to-day basis and may not have a full understanding of but similar type of concept.

So when we go to the grocery store and we’re buying items off of the shelf , some just pick what they want because they know what tastes good or they’ve already got their diet figured out others will be very conscious about what is on that nutrition facts label because it provides us with very valuable information related to the contents inside. So as we all know it indicates how many servings are in the container, what a serving size is whether we follow that or not is much to be decided. It also tells us you know calories and the fat content cholesterol how many carbohydrates are in there what’s the protein level. So all of that information is important as well as the ingredients and the vitamins but what we do with that information may revolve around our knowledge base and whether we care or we don’t care well. The same thing is true about a feed tag it tells us a lot about the information related to what we’re going to give our animals and it’s important to read these labels because all cattle don’t necessarily require the same things. What you feed a heifer, a young heifer is much different than what you feed a mature cow. If you look at hogs what you feed a piglet is much different than what you feed a boar, if you are farrowing your own pigs. So the importance of a feed tag has the information that you need to make sure your animal is getting the right thing. So this is just a printout of the anatomy of a feed tag which you can find online it kind of points out the different areas but I kind of want to just touch on on some of them for you so the next time you see a feed tag you can take a take a glance at it and say oh I never realized that or oh maybe I need to pay attention to this.

So at the top it’ll have a product name it’ll probably include the brand name as well if the feed is medicated it would also indicate that in the product name super important if you have to have any period of time if they have had medicated feed to make sure that that medication is cleared out especially if it’s time for them to go to slaughter that would be very very important. Underneath that there is a purpose statement and the purpose statement literally tells who that feed is for. So like I said a mature cow and a young heifer would not get the same feed same thing with you know a baby would not need the same nutrition as an adult. So that’s very important to make sure that you’re feeding it to the right population of your animals, it does include the active ingredient with which you know for medications we’re familiar with this. The active ingredient is what helps us, this active ingredient is also important here the next two pieces are a guaranteed analysis and then followed by the feed ingredients. So let’s take up in the guaranteed analysis there is a two line items that say calcium, one has a minimum and one has a maximum and it says minimum of five percent maximum of six percent. So that tells us that but down in the feed ingredients it tells us how specifically the calcium is in that product and for this one in particular calcium is provided by calcium carbonate. So there’s other ways that you could get calcium but the feed ingredients tell us exactly how beyond that there is a manufactured by and distributed by. Now these can be one in the same or they can be different there are feed companies that manufacture the feed but then distribute it full and then it goes to a distributor who actually puts the feed out there. So you may have two pieces of information here if you go to the back side of this particular tag this tag comes from Purina it has directions for use.

So how the product is really intended and then it has feeding and management instructions, so in this part it would be similar to what we would know as the serving size and then there’s you know always information about storage and disposal. So typically this will say store in a cool dry place but just so that it’s not left for anybody to kind of decipher on their own it’s spelled out right here and then the final thing is precautionary and any warning statement. So while we probably just glance over this stuff if we pay attention at all especially if you’re just getting started or not familiar with what that feed is intended for it’s important to have a grasp. Now if you go, you know to your next time to buy the feed you’re not going to look at the label every time but there are manufacturers that change combinations from time to time just like they do for food. So that’s something that you don’t want to just constantly ignore. It’s worth you know reviewing from time to time. So hope you guys find that helpful, I know there’s so much in the world to consume and we get kind of confused about what to pay attention to but when you’re dealing with animals and wanting the best for them it is important to know what you’re providing to them. So with that I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your Friday a great weekend and we’ll check you back next week for another Farm Fact Friday take care.