The arena action might be the main event, but go behind the scenes at any major rodeo and you’ll find a whirlwind of cowboys, livestock, equipment, arena crew and more working to put on the show.
For the bucking and roping stock contractors, keeping their animals healthy and at peak performance is priority number one. Both at home and on the road, quality nutrition plays a major role in achieving that goal. In the last few years, several well-known stock contractors and rodeo programs have turned to distillers grain cubes and pellets for a cost-effective, high-energy feed.
Clarendon College Rodeo
Bret Franks, head coach of the Clarendon College Rodeo Team in Clarendon, Texas has been using DDG cubes on the 60 head of practice horses he keeps on site for the team’s saddle bronc and bareback riders. With that many horses on hand, his feed bills were getting out of control before he made the switch.
“It takes a lot of horses to do what we do for our bronc riders. We worked out a sponsorship with MasterHand but even if we had to buy the feed, it would still cut my feed cost in half. I was feeding 5-6 lbs of regular cake and the horses were just maintaining. On the MHM cake, we feed 3 lbs, the horses do better and it’s the same cost or cheaper.”
Franks says the horses perform just as well or better than they did on previous rations.
“We buck at least 30 head twice a week, that’s a lot of outs on a horse. Those practice horses are as good the last time we buck them as they were the first time, and they’ll have 35 or more outs on them in a year.”
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Beutler & Son Rodeo Company
Known for some of the best bucking stock in the industry including the infamous mare, Killer Bee, the men behind Beutler & Son Rodeo know their stock. After starting slowly on the ranch with their herd of broodmares, Bennie and Rhett Beutler said they could see the difference and quickly started feeding DDG cubes to their main bucking stock.
“We really saw the difference this year, we’ve got broodmares that before we were feeding alfalfa and sweet feed just to maintain through the winter, and this year the only time we fed hay was when there was snow on the ground,” Rhett said. “We just feed the DDG cubes 3-4 lbs a day 5 days a week and man they look like they’ve been running on wheat pasture.”
It took a while for the crew to adjust to the significantly lower feeding rates.
“At first I thought ‘man, that’s not enough feed,’” Bennie said. “You know, we’ve always fed 10-12 lbs and now we’re feeding 2-3 and it took me awhile to get used to that! But the horses look as good as they ever have.”
Keeping bucking stock performing their best on the road can be challenging, but Rhett said their horses look fit and have plenty of energy, even the ones with a few more years under them.
“We have horses that are bucking at 23 and 24 years old and buck like they are 12 years old,” he said. “They’ve got that energy and that life to them; they don’t look like a 23-year-old horse. They look just as good and are scoring just as high as these younger horses.”
Rockin B Ropings
Kipp Boggs with Rocking B Ropings provides roping cattle for many major events and hosts countless jackpots and roping series in Oklahoma and Texas. For his program, he’s found the biggest value of the DDG cubes is in reselling his calves.
“Once we get through roping these calves, they’ve been through a pretty tough life, and they’ve started going backwards,” Boggs said. “What we used to feed was like a 14% pellet and the calves would get fat and pretty but wouldn’t grow. With these DDG cubes, they don’t get that fat, they grow and get big, almost look like calves coming off wheat.”
Boggs said he has seen a significant difference in the resale value of his calves at the salebarn once they reach the 250 lb mark.
“Without a doubt, these DDGs cubes are the best to really get the calves to grow.”
Better Nutrition, Better Performance
Just like any other livestock operation, stock contractors know the value of quality nutrition when it comes to health and performance. Distillers grain cubes provide the concentrated energy and protein these livestock need to meet the demands of the rodeo life. Plus, the highly digestible cubes are low in starch, helping reduce digestive problems and requiring fewer pounds fed per day.
If you’re interested in learning more, call our sales team at 405-777-9135 or email [email protected].
