Medicated feed refers to any feed that contains a drug for the purpose of improving an animal’s health, growth rate or productivity.
Southern States offers both medicated and nonmedicated cattle feed to help you maximize the productivity of your herd.
Medicated feed can assist your livestock in growing faster, healthier and more efficiently. It’s the ideal way to promote their overall wellbeing and guarantee you meet all production targets.
Contents
Nutrient-Rich Diets
Nutrients are essential building blocks of life, and cattle require them in abundance to perform their various tasks. Cattle feed on a variety of feedstuffs to meet this need, such as roughage (hay or grass), grains and concentrates – some more easily digestible than others.
Beef is an excellent source of several essential nutrients, such as protein, iron and vitamin E. But perhaps most importantly, energy. This fuel allows cattle to perform various tasks like growth, lactation, reproduction and movement with ease.
Utilizing an efficient and well-designed feeding program to meet production goals is paramount, but the combination of accurate ration analysis with knowledge of what your animals require sets the foundation for effective feed programming. With this knowledge and proper use of supplemental supplements, your cattle will get the nutrition they need to thrive in a highly competitive industry. It’s also wise to keep your veterinarian informed of any special requirements your livestock may have so they can provide you with appropriate medicines and supplements accordingly.
Natural Immune System Support
Maintaining a healthy immune system is the best way to protect yourself against infection and disease. It requires several components, such as an adequate diet, adequate sleep and exercise, and low stress levels.
A diet rich in antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, minerals like zinc and selenium, as well as protein can strengthen your immune system’s function. Antioxidants are chemicals that combat free radicals which damage healthy cells and impair immunity against infections and diseases.
Vitamins B-6 and folic acid are crucial in supporting your immune system’s performance. Supplementing these essential vitamins with supplements can help guarantee you’re getting enough of them.
Zinc, a trace mineral, plays several important roles within the immune system. It aids with tissue integrity, antibody production and inflammation. Furthermore, zincc may be beneficial to phagocytes – white blood cells that attack and destroy harmful organisms like bacteria.
Increased Efficiency
Feed efficiency is a significant factor that determines the profitability of beef cattle operations. It can be enhanced through use of specialty feed additives, increased forage quality and healthy animals.
On the market, there are various medicated feed products. Examples include monensin, lasalocid and ractopamine hydrochloride.
Monensin, the primary ingredient, improves milk production efficiency by encouraging fermentation in dairy cows and preventing bloat or acidosis. It can also control coccidiosis and protect against subclinical coccidiosis – the condition that leads to bloody diarrhea and the destruction of intestinal cells for lack of nutrition.
Rumensin has also been shown to enhance dry matter digestibility and the weight gain of cattle. Additionally, it helps reduce bloat and scours in feedlot cattle, while decreasing coccidiosis incidence in pigs while increasing carcass leanness. Rumensin can be purchased free-choice form for cows which is regulated by the FDA.
Enhanced Growth Rates
Medicalized feed supplements have been demonstrated to boost growth rates due to their capacity for preventing infectious diseases. Unfortunately, this practice may have also contributed to the spread of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.
Non-medicated additives, on the other hand, can enhance nutritional intake of feed to promote optimal growth rates and healthy weight gains for livestock. These nutrient-rich diets are especially beneficial to young, developing livestock.
Nonmedicated additives offer numerous advantages, such as increased efficiency, enhanced immunity and better overall health. You can find them in products like organic trace minerals, digestive enzymes, mold inhibitors and feed binders.
Beta-adrenergic agonists, also known as non-hormonal compounds that bind to fat and muscle cell receptors in animals, redirect nutrients away from fat metabolism into lean muscle tissue for increased carcass weight and feed efficiency.
