Making your own protein blocks for cattle

Summary

Using lick blocks is a popular way of supplying protein to cattle. Blocks are easy to use and with plentiful supplies of dry paddock feed can be effective.

Commercial protein blocks are expensive and other, cheaper alternatives are available.

It may be cheaper and more effective to feed small amounts of high quality protein supplement direct to cattle. Suitable supplements include cottonseed meal, ‘protected’ protein meals like Nor-pro®, high-protein pellets, and lupins.

The objective with protein supplementation on dry feed is to provide crude protein (CP) at 150–300 g/day. With the highest analysis block (62% crude protein) this means 250–500 g of block per head per day.

The same result can be achieved by providing 0.5–1 kg lupins or 350–750 g of cottonseed per day.

You must choose which method is best for your production system. Alternatively you could make your own protein blocks.