Sheep Feed

Early last fall, our Hubbard Feeds representative stopped by the ranch to give us a heads up on the new Blueprint® mineral program. We were very interested in the technology and research behind Blueprint. We discussed the program with ranch owner Tony Marletto and we decided to feed Blueprint 8 West to our heifer calves and first-calf heifers. The results from the heifers on Blueprint were the best we have ever had. On the 63 head of heifer calves we had a pregnancy rate of 100% and on our 79 first-calf heifers we only had one open. This was much better than the competitor’s high-end chelated mineral we continued to feed our mature cow herd, which only had a pregnancy rate of 89%. We are definitely going to continue on the Blueprint program.

We started feeding the Blueprint 6% Phos low-moisture blocks (LMB) about two and a half years ago and have seen our conception rate go from 94% to about 96%. Our calving interval has tightened up, and the calves are more vigorous at birth. We have also observed improved fertility tests and increased scrotal circumference in the yearling bulls and improved semen quality in the mature bulls standing at stud.

Calves were 23 pounds heavier than they had ever sold, even in years when they fed creep feed. The Kopren calves were a highlight of the sale that day. “We used the same bull battery, no new genetics, and the same group of cows,” he said. “The only difference this year was Blueprint, and it paid off!

We are always striving to improve our reproductive rates in our herd. We use a heavy amount of AI and embryo transfer technology in our program, so take-rate and overall reproductive quality in our herd are paramount. Live kids on the ground are our measure of success, and this makes nutrition a key factor in all the phases of our reproductive program.

We have been feeding Blueprint® exclusively for 12 months. Our percentage of live kids from the recipients has increased.

Our embryo harvest rates, and the overall quality of the embryos and their viability, has dramatically changed. In our recipient herd of females, our embryo take-rates went from 11 out of 20 to 19 out of 20. The health and vigor of the recipients, donors and the offspring have also maintained or improved with Blueprint®.

The improvement that we have seen in live kids on the ground this year has been incredible.

I like several things about Blueprint® minerals – they’re coarse, superior products that perform well and they offer a good selection with a consumption rate that is right on target for most. Blueprint also incorporates a lot of technology that other products don’t. Fescue is a big issue in my area and since switching most of my customers to Blueprint products, we have seen better conception rates. Plus, the cost difference equates to pennies per day and customers are saving money in the long run by not having to deal with health issues and open cows. I also like Hubbard’s level of service. There are not many companies or representatives out there willing to offer as much assistance and it’s no comparison to those I’ve dealt with in the past.

I feed Blueprint® Fescue Mineral and Blueprint with Bio-Mos®. Since starting my herd on these products, I have experienced no fescue, calving or scours-related issues. When I last AI’d all of my heifers and cows, on first service I had 72 percent bred, and on second service 85 percent were bred, a significant improvement.

We were struggling a lot with losing calves to scours. We wanted to lessen the severity of our scours and have fewer impacted days. When we started on the Blueprint® Milk Replacer, there was a noticeable difference in our calves instantly. The product was easy to mix, and the calves seem to really like the taste of it.

Getting pigs off to a fast start after weaning is important. Jeff Schmitt noticed that after switching to Hubbard’s Powerstart program, his pigs had better bloom and their health and performance is tremendous. “The sow unit I get pigs from switched to Hubbard Feeds a few years ago”, says Jeff.
“ I really liked the way those pigs looked, so I made the change on my farm and have been very happy. I’m feeding Powerstart to my nursery pigs and DesignRite Blueprint to my finishing pigs and the days to market continue to improve.

We have been buying our mineral from Hubbard Feeds for years, but last December our sales representative suggested we use Blueprint® through the winter into breeding season. The Blueprint technology and potential was interesting, and the price was also very comparable, so we gave it a try. We saw good health on the cattle, but what really sold us on the Blueprint program was the fact that we had a 100% pregnancy rate in a 52-day bull turn out.

After testing our feed quality using Alltech’s 37+ test, and having a group sell 100 pounds lighter than originally predicted we knew there needed to be a change in how we feed our cattle. Our cattle consistently had low intakes except for the group fed Hubbard Feed’s Stressguard. Those cattle had high intakes along with better gains. We started to incorporate in a couple of more pens and were seeing even more positive results. Now all of our cattle on feed have Integral A+ incorporated into their rations.

We have been buying our mineral from Hubbard Feeds for years, but last December our sales representative suggested we use Blueprint® West 8 through the winter into breeding season. The Blueprint technology and potential was interesting, and the price was also very comparable, so we gave it a try. We saw good health on the cattle, but what really sold us on the Blueprint program was the fact that we had a 100% pregnancy rate in a 52-day bull turn out.

We had applied BulletProof® to some of our millet hay back in 2018 that was baled at 23% moisture. My neighbor jokingly asked if I was going to disc around the bales so that when they started burning, they wouldn’t start a prairie fire. Today, the bales have some greenness and no sign of mold. It has stored well, and the cows are still eating it. I also used Bulletproof on our silage and we haven’t had any spoilage throughout the pile.

I will not put silage up without using Bulletproof and will utilize it on hay when needed.

I decided I wanted to step-up the nutrition on my cows, so in the spring of 2018, I switched to the Blueprint® program with Actigen®. I have been very pleased. We kept the cows on Blueprint with Actigen through summer and over the winter. Since being on that program, we’ve had really good conception rates. This spring, they bred back in time despite the challenging muddy, wet and cold conditions.”

“We used Blueprint with ClariFly® this year on the registered cows and saw no pink eye. I also did the pink eye implant. The calves looked super and they were clean. I went down there one day after a rain and the cows were packed up around the corner because it was humid and there was mud and there were hardly any flies.

We currently use Blueprint® Calving Mineral with Bio-Mos® and Blueprint Fescue Mineral with Altosid® IGR on our operation. We started using the calving mineral to combat scours in first and second season calves and scours just seemed to disappear. Despite some wet springs, calves have experienced stronger starts and have a lot more vigor. We then decided to give the fescue mineral a try. Even in the heat of the day, cows will be out eating and our tail loss has really improved. We were also having trouble with wind blowing away our previous mineral because it was too fine, but we don’t experience this issue with Blueprint because it is more coarse and consistent.

Early last fall, our Hubbard Feeds representative stopped by the ranch to give us a heads up on the Blueprint® mineral program. We were very interested in the technology and research behind Blueprint. We discussed the program with ranch owner Tony Marletto and we decided to feed Blueprint to our heifer calves and first-calf heifers. The results from the heifers on Blueprint were the best we have ever had. On the 63 head of heifer calves we had a pregnancy rate of 100% and on our 79 firstcalf heifers we only had one open. This was much better than the competitor’s high-end chelated mineral we continued to feed our mature cow herd, which only had a pregnancy rate of 89%. We are definitely going to continue on the Blueprint program.