Supplementing Cattle Through Fall and Winter
Cattle supplemental feeding is crucial because it bridges the nutritional gap between what cattle get from their forage and what they need to thrive. This practice is especially important in the fall and winter when pasture quality and quantity decline, directly impacting the herd’s health, reproduction, and growth.
Why Supplemental Feeding is Necessary
On a summer day with fresh food available, cattle get just about everything they need from forbes, grass, and available feed. As we transition to fall and winter, when fresh options are scarce, when frosts and freezes kill vegetation, they might need some supplemental feeding options. Fall is the time to begin your plan for supplemental feeding, and you will want to evaluate and continue your plan through the winter months.
Supplemental feeding provides essential nutrients that may be lacking in their primary forage. The main goal is to meet the animal’s requirements for maintenance, growth, lactation, and reproduction without breaking the bank. It’s a strategic investment in the herd’s productivity.
The Fall and Winter Focus
The emphasis on supplemental feeding intensifies in the fall and winter for a simple reason, declining forage quality. Once grass goes dormant after a frost, its protein and energy content plummets. While there might be plenty of dry grass to eat, it’s often not enough to meet a cow’s nutritional needs. Cold weather forces cattle to burn more calories just to stay warm. This increased energy demand happens at the exact time the natural forage provides the least amount of energy.
As mentioned, frost plays a major role in pasture management and forage availability for cattle. Cool-season grasses, such as fescue, timothy, Kentucky bluegrass, orchardgrass, ryegrass, and brome, are adapted to cooler temperatures and typically grow well in the spring and fall. A light frost, which occurs at around 32°F or slightly below, usually has little to no immediate effect on these grasses, especially if daytime highs remain above 40 to 45°F. However, a hard frost, which is defined as 28°F or lower for several hours, damages leaf tissues and slows photosynthesis. As soil and air temperatures continue to drop, growth rates decline sharply. So, after the first hard frost, grass growth practically stalls out.
Warm-season grasses, including bermudagrass, switchgrass, and big bluestem, stop growing when soil temperatures drop below 50 to 55°F. A hard frost effectively ends their growing season, and the leaves will brown and die back shortly afterward.
Frost also affects forbs, or broadleaf plants, in a pasture. Many annual forbs die outright with a hard frost, while perennial forbs often go dormant shortly after repeated frost exposure. Some forbs, such as clovers, can tolerate light frost, but a hard frost typically triggers dormancy or kills the above-ground growth.
After the first hard frost, plant growth does not stop immediately, but it declines significantly. Cool-season grasses may continue limited growth if daytime highs remain in the 40s to 50s°F and soil temperatures stay above approximately 40°F. However, the amount of new growth becomes minimal, often dropping to less than 5 to 10 pounds of dry matter per acre per day compared to 50 to 100 pounds per acre per day during peak fall growth. Once soil temperatures consistently fall below 40°F, virtually all growth stops. Depending on where you are located and run cattle, you will want to manage accordingly.
Support Bred Cows
For spring-calving herds, the last trimester of gestation occurs during the winter. Nutrition during this critical period directly impacts the calf’s development, birth weight, and even its future health and performance—a concept known as fetal programming. A poorly fed cow will likely give birth to a weaker, smaller calf.
If you lean more on a fall calving herd, you should supplemental feed to keep a cow’s body condition in top-shape before the spring. A cow’s Body Condition Score (BCS) at calving is the single most important factor determining how quickly she will rebreed. The target BCS for a mature cow at calving is a 5 on a 9-point scale. So, whether your cattle are bred going into fall, or if they are going to be bred soon, you should keep their body condition in a healthy range for future calves and profits.
According to studies by Oklahoma State University, cows with a BCS of 4 or less at calving have a pregnancy rate of around 60%, while those with a BCS of 5 or 6 have a pregnancy rate of over 90%. Supplementation is the key tool to manage BCS. Supplemental feeding should start in the fall shortly after the first hard frost.
Additionally, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln estimates that for every 100 cows, moving the average BCS from 4 to 5 can result in 15 to 20 more calves being weaned the following year. At today’s market prices, that represents a significant increase in revenue.
When it comes to calf health and vigor, a study published in the Journal of Animal Science found that cows receiving protein supplementation during the last trimester had calves that were quicker to stand and nurse. These calves also had higher levels of immunoglobulins (antibodies) in their blood, indicating a stronger immune system.
What Supplements to Use
One type of supplemental feeding is using ag commodities to provide the calories needed when dormant forage cannot supply enough energy. This often is a go-to source for diversified cattle farms because commodities are on-hand and can include corn, barley, oats, soy byproducts, and other grains. Research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has shown that supplementing grains, to cows grazing low-quality dormant range improves body condition and reproductive success.
The most common deficiency in dormant winter forage is protein. Protein is essential for rumen microbes to digest low-quality forage. Protein supplements increase rumen microbial activity, which allows cattle to better digest low-quality forage. Examples of protein supplements include alfalfa hay, soybean meal, cottonseed meal, commercial protein tubs or blocks, and liquid protein products. Studies from Kansas State University have demonstrated that providing 0.5 to 1.0 pounds of crude protein per day, such as from alfalfa or protein tubs, improves forage intake and digestibility in cattle grazing dormant range.
Providing a protein supplement (like cottonseed meal, dried distillers grains, or commercial cubes) acts as a catalyst, allowing the cow to extract more energy from the hay or pasture she is already consuming. Research from Montana State University shows that supplementing with protein can increase forage intake by 10-25%.
Mineral supplementation is also essential during the fall and winter. Cattle get a lot of microminerals and trace minerals from green forage in the spring and summer. So, now it’s critical to provide sources for microminerals. Free-choice mineral mixes formulated for the specific region typically include calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, copper, selenium, and zinc. According to the University of Florida Extension, consistent mineral supplementation reduces the risk of reproductive failure, weak calves, and metabolic disorders in beef herds.
Roughage, or stored forage, is another key component of supplemental feeding. Stored forage provides the fiber base of the diet when pasture is no longer available. This obviously includes grass hay, alfalfa hay, baleage, corn silage, or sorghum silage. Iowa State University Extension reports that high-quality stored forage can reduce or eliminate the need for purchased protein supplements if it is harvested at the proper stage of maturity. You can have your hay, silage and baleage analyzed to figure out if you have a sufficient amount of protein, or if you need to provide a little more for your cattle.
In practice, producers should begin by testing forage to understand what nutrients are missing. If forage crude protein is below 7 percent, protein supplementation should be provided. Energy supplements should be added if cows are losing condition or if forage quantity is limited. Free-choice minerals should be available to cattle year-round. Feeding programs should be adjusted based on cow performance, body condition scores, and weather conditions throughout the season.
Several factors determine what type of supplementation a producer should use. Forage test results reveal nutrient gaps that need to be filled. The class of cattle being fed is also critical, as lactating and late-gestation cows have higher requirements than dry cows. Body condition scores should be monitored, with a target of 5 to 6 for cows entering calving. Weather conditions also play a role, as cold stress increases energy requirements; for every degree Fahrenheit below the animal’s lower critical temperature, energy needs can rise by approximately one percent.
When it comes to supplementing, we know research supports a protein-first approach when supplementing cattle on dormant forage. Oklahoma State University emphasizes that correcting protein deficiencies should come before adding energy supplements. Studies from South Dakota State University have shown that strategic supplementation, such as feeding high-protein supplements only two or three times per week, can maintain cow performance while reducing labor and feed costs. Balanced rations that meet all nutrient requirements remain the goal, with the National Research Council’s beef cattle nutrient requirements serving as the standard for ration formulation.
By Jessica Graham
October 2025
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