winter feeding

k mac

Have over 90 round bales of silage and wondered how many weanlings could i feed for the winter . They will be housed and i suppose it depends how bad the winter will be for the amount of time they will be in .

leg wax

k mac wrote: »

Have over 90 round bales of silage and wondered how many weanlings could i feed for the winter . They will be housed and i suppose it depends how bad the winter will be for the amount of time they will be in .

1 bale will feed 20 weanlings for 2 days

rliston

Would that be with or without meal?

leg wax

rliston wrote: »

Would that be with or without meal?

with or without there are so many variables as in how much meal also what size weanlings my answerwas just a rough/number

John_F

1 weanling will eat 2% of its body weight in dry matter kgs, thats the demand

, take that and a bale weighing 600-700kg fresh by 20%dm = 130kgdm in the bale x 90 bales = 11,700kgs Dry Matter in your 90 bales?? thats the supply

so from that you work how many days you can keep 1 weanling going. . . probably alot of days

leg wax

John_F wrote: »

1 weanling will eat 2% of its body weight in dry matter kgs, thats the demand

, take that and a bale weighing 600-700kg fresh by 20%dm = 130kgdm in the bale x 90 bales = 11,700kgs Dry Matter in your 90 bales?? thats the supply

so from that you work how many days you can keep 1 weanling going. . . probably alot of days

wow an easy thing made complicated:D

leg wax

John_F wrote: »

1 weanling will eat 2% of its body weight in dry matter kgs, thats the demand

, take that and a bale weighing 600-700kg fresh by 20%dm = 130kgdm in the bale x 90 bales = 11,700kgs Dry Matter in your 90 bales?? thats the supply

so from that you work how many days you can keep 1 weanling going. . . probably alot of days

so if op k mac had 5 weanlings weighing 300kgs how long would the 90 bales last

vincenzolorenzo

leg wax wrote: »

so if op k mac had 5 weanlings weighing 300kgs how long would the 90 bales last

Using John_F's figures:

The weanling will eat 2% of its body weight: 300 * 0.02 = 6kg
5 weanlings => 5 * 6 = 30 kg feed needed per day.
11,700 kg feed => 11,700 / 30 = 390 days

leg wax

vincenzolorenzo wrote: »

Using John_F's figures:

The weanling will eat 2% of its body weight: 300 * 0.02 = 6kg
5 weanlings => 5 * 6 = 30 kg feed needed per day.
11,700 kg feed => 11,700 / 30 = 390 days

sorry i dont agree and this is why facts and calculations dont work for the above number of cattle,one bale of silage is to last 23 days what % waste would there be ? i find a bale when opened will be stink by day 4, so to utilise the max out of your silage you need the correct amount of cattle to eat a bale before it goes stink ,eg 20 weanlings 1 bale every 2 days, man with 5 weanlings should have hay or other feed.

vincenzolorenzo

leg wax wrote: »

sorry i dont agree and this is why facts and calculations dont work for the above number of cattle,one bale of silage is to last 23 days what % waste would there be ? i find a bale when opened will be stink by day 4, so to utilise the max out of your silage you need the correct amount of cattle to eat a bale before it goes stink ,eg 20 weanlings 1 bale every 2 days, man with 5 weanlings should have hay or other feed.

Yep i'd agree with you 100%. I was just going through the maths based on John_F's figures. I'm no expert but i'd imagine you'd want about 15-20 weanlings to make it worth your while??? And you're right of course about waste in the bale too.

John_F

leg wax wrote: »

sorry i dont agree and this is why facts and calculations dont work for the above number of cattle,one bale of silage is to last 23 days what % waste would there be ? i find a bale when opened will be stink by day 4, so to utilise the max out of your silage you need the correct amount of cattle to eat a bale before it goes stink ,eg 20 weanlings 1 bale every 2 days, man with 5 weanlings should have hay or other feed.

Yes you are correct in saying that, this doesn't accounnt for wastage, but if you want to allow for wastage that depends on the Dry Matter of the silage, i.e. wet silage = poor silage = more waste, and also the rate at which its being eaten, but if the number of cattle were increased to a more realistic figure for 90 bales and a 90 day winter then you have 130kg available per day and weanlings weighing 300kg means 22 weanlings should eat 90 bales in a 90 day period,

you could adjust the supply figure of 11,700 like thats purly based on a bale weight of 650 and the Dry Matter of the silage at 20%,

agree totally with a man with 5 weanlings should look at feed that doesnt go off as quick, would haylage last longer???

vincenzolorenzo

But aren't you just guessing really John_F? Whatever about guessing bale weight reasonably accurately isn't there a big error in the dry matter guess? A few per cent either way with that guess will change your overall feed weight by a large margin?

John_F

vincenzolorenzo wrote: »

But aren't you just guessing really John_F? Whatever about guessing bale weight reasonably accurately isn't there a big error in the dry matter guess? A few per cent either way with that guess will change your overall feed weight by a large margin?

yes and u change the dry matter accordingly, if you wish to be so technical then do this by recording the fresh weight, putting in an oven and monitoring the weight until it stops dropping, divide one by the other and multiply by 100, but your gona have 1 smelly oven:P:P:P