PSI-8 Evaluation of two burning dates and addition of spices on stocker cattle gains on tallgrass native range

Abstract

Burning pastures in April has historically been a method to increase stocker gains for summer grazing in Kansas, yet is becoming an issue from smoke management. Finding alternative burning windows along with feed options that maintain a similar gain to April burns is important from producer’s perspective. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate spices/essential oils and timing of pasture burning on growing steer gains. 281 steers (292 ± 28 kg) were randomly assigned to one of 8 pasture of tallgrass native prairie in a completely randomized design model. The treatment structure was a 2 x 2 factorial where the first factor was pasture burning date at two levels (March and April) and the second factor was free-choice mineral type (control (CON) or spices (SPICE)). Spices include garlic oil and a 4-spice blend (Solus, Wildcat Feeds LLC, Topeka). Steers were weighed at the start and end of 90 d grazing period. Total gain, average daily gain, and final body weight were evaluated. There was no interaction between burning time and mineral type (P > 0.10) for average daily gain, total gain, nor final body weight. Steers on pastures burned in April had a 0.16 kg/d ADG advantage over burning in March which resulted in 14.3 kg more gain over 90 d (P < 0.0001). Steers on SPICE averaged 0.06 kg/d and gained 5 kg more (P = 0.02) than steers on CON mineral. Burning in April results in greater steer gains than March burning and feeding a mineral with spices increase gains, yet these two are not additive. Addition of SPICE mineral may be one method to allow producers to extend burning window and maintain cattle production.