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Cattle Feed

  • 25-11-2009 7:18pm
    #1
    SomethingElse
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,534 ✭✭✭


    Just a quick enquiry about buying cattle feed for the winter. I'm thinking of buying a barley/citrus/soya mix to stretch out the silage bales. Has anyone used this combination before? Is it much cheaper to buy them separately and mix it myself? What ratio would I use?


Comments

  • #2
    blue5000
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,705 Mod ✭✭✭✭blue5000


    Are you feeding it to young cattle or cows or do you want to feed one ration to everything? Soya is expensive, it might be better to put some other protein source like cotton(if available)/rape/distillers in. Young cattle would benefit from the soya, you could maybe get the soya in half ton bags and only feed it to the young cattle, say 10-20%, get the barley, pulp etc delivered seperately and feed that to the older cattle, with the minerals in. If you go mixing yourself there is a whole raft of paperwork to do,

    Hope this helps

    If the seat's wet, sit on yer hat, a cool head is better than a wet ar5e.



  • #3
    vanderbadger
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,087 ✭✭✭vanderbadger


    check out a thread from the last few days about cheap ration for suckler cows and you will see lads discuss such a mix, my question is if you could get that 3 way mix for approx 150 or 160 a tonne would it be better value than 16% protein beef nut at 190 a ton?


  • #4
    snowman707
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,279 ✭✭✭snowman707


    soya prices have dropped a little lately, we are presently buying a 4 way mix .. barley, pulp. citrus and soya mix c/w minerals at €168 per ton delivered in bulk (10 ton load. 60 days credit.)

    we insisted on the beet pulp 'cos we are using up with wet bales and we are also feeding straw

    the stock seem to doing ok and judging by their dung should be thriving

    we were previously feeding barley citrus and distillers but the cattle were scouring which stopped when we changed ration and introduced straw into the diet.


  • #5
    Casinoking
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 474 ✭✭Casinoking


    As far as I know the only paperwork involved in mixing your own ration on farm is if you incorporate vitamins or minerals. Mixing your barley/citrus/soya is perfectly fine, if you want to add minerals just sprinkle them on top of the ration or silage when you're feeding it, then it isn't technically part of the ration and your paperwork problem is solved. If you're planning on using a lot then there's definitely savings to be made by buying the indgredients and mixing your own, at least you'll know what you're getting. Some of the barley I've seen in Co-ops rations this year already has been very poor quality, a lot of it isn't even rolled properly.


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