Molasses-Urea Block Supplementation of Beef Cattle on the Barkly Tableland of Northern Territory During the Dry Season

Abstract

One challenge of nutrition of cattle in extensive situations in Australia is to supplement the pasture deficiencies to achieve better productivity. 'Productivity' includes increased fertility, decreased mortality of breeding cattle and calves and increases in growth rates leading to decreased time to sale. The use of multi-nutritional supplements in the form of blocks is one method used to try to achieve this increase in productivity. The problems with conducting research to verify what effect the supplements are exerting, especially on properties in the Northern Territory, are: 1. The sizes of individual paddocks are usually so large that a regular total muster of animals is impractical 2. The unhandled nature of the animals precludes the use of invasive techniques or sophisticated procedures and the effect of the stress of handling becomes significant 3. The setting up of controlled experiments in the extensive situation is very difficult. This has often led to short-term experiments, examining retrospective parameters, to achieve measurable responses. The measurements made are usually short-term weight gain and branding rates. ... This study was undertaken to ascertain if it was possible to establish the intake pattern of this supplement and verify the intake over a number of samplings up to 12 months apart.