Whats a balanced diet for a dairy cow at grass?

awaywithyou

was at a thing organised by Barrett Agri the other day... and your man was saying grazed grass and nuts in the parlour was only half the story...

grass had no fibre in it.. alot feed being wasted as its going through the cow and so on and so on...

what are ye feeding the cows while there at grass??

and

whats ye're idea of a balanced diet for the cow?

bob charles

Energy input matched to energy output, however this is achieved it wont matter to the cow aslong as there is enough fibre also included. Grass alone in most decent yielding herds wont achieve this.

fatoftheland

awaywithyou wrote: »

was at a thing organised by Barrett Agri the other day... and your man was saying grazed grass and nuts in the parlour was only half the story...

grass had no fibre in it.. alot feed being wasted as its going through the cow and so on and so on...

what are ye feeding the cows while there at grass??

and

whats ye're idea of a balanced diet for the cow?

most cows at grass could do with some acid buff added to the diet. sub acute acidosis usually drops the butter fat when grass is v good and the acid buff sorts this out

vinne

How would you feed the acid buff when cows are out day and night. If i got a bag at the co op would they eat it on the nuts in the parlour?

PMU

citrus pulp is good for fibre,no need for extra protein when on grass.

vinne

PMU wrote: »

citrus pulp is good for fibre,no need for extra protein when on grass.

But if you were feeding nuts,how would you feed the acid buff. What is the best acid buff to feed?

PMU

dont know , dont feed acid buff. wouldnt need much buff with grass and 3kgs citrus. bf is 4.3 at the moment

Milkmad

Well it all depends on Wat type of cow ur running???? Any cow frm 1300gals up is goin to need supplementation of sum sort.. Most dairy nuts are full of useless materials,(how many of you no what ingredients are in ur nut) all one needs is a good three way blend. Ie. protein fiber and energy source.. Feeding acid buff is not an easy task without either a feeder or getn it included in your nut, bi card at 100-200g/ cow can be jus as effective, but more so in a TMR.
It really comes back to knowing Wat ur feeding, jus cause tis a cheap nut to buy does not mean it will b efficient to run ur cows on..quality and value 4 money has to be the the main driver behind purchased feed..

fatoftheland

vinne wrote: »

But if you were feeding nuts,how would you feed the acid buff. What is the best acid buff to feed?

some companies will put it into the dairy nuts it costs €5 or so extra per tonne

vinne

Was talking to supplier today and they will include soda in my next order 20kg per tonne.I have some very scoury cows, dosed for fluke , gave them bolus, minerial lick and iodine and sel.in the water troughs .calved ok cleaned but scoury. Some of these cows are this way for years,took blood samples dung samples soil samples nothing, maybe the soda will help,hopefuly.

fatoftheland

Soda should help but it can fizz up the rumen so acid buff is prefered but access to straw may also help as they may need some long fibre too

Milkmad

vinne wrote: »

Was talking to supplier today and they will include soda in my next order 20kg per tonne.I have some very scoury cows, dosed for fluke , gave them bolus, minerial lick and iodine and sel.in the water troughs .calved ok cleaned but scoury. Some of these cows are this way for years,took blood samples dung samples soil samples nothing, maybe the soda will help,hopefuly.

Problem with including soda, is tat wen fed nd nut it only lasts short term, wen included in winter t. M.r tey hav access to it 24hrs.. I'd say acid buff is a btr bet wit a nut, and getting either beet pulp or soya hulls as a form of fibre in the nut... Wouldn't touch citrus, have found it too acidic and can have alota toxins in it.. Again lower yielding cows seem to get away with it..Change one ting at a time, at least , if it was me I'd look at fibre b4 I'd put in any buffer
Just food for taut, have you ever considered maize silage, ideal compliment to grass, and would give you d fibre your looking for...

awaywithyou

have you ever considered maize silage, ideal compliment to grass, and would give you d fibre your looking for...[/QUOTE]


does maize silage have to be mixed with grass silage when feeding as a compliment to grass or can it be fed on its own....?

PMU

what did barrett agri recomend

Milkmad

does maize silage have to be mixed with grass silage when feeding as a compliment to grass or can it be fed on its own....?[/Quote]


No,feed it strait. maize and grass go hand n hand, maize low protein, fresh grass high protein
Fresh grass low in fibre, maize high n fibre..

Farmer Pudsey

Even though I am not in cows I would not be mad about citrus or beet pulp while at grass both contain sugar which breaks down fast in the rumen and will cause cows to scour as a source of fibre at grass I be going for soya hulls as the energy in them is carbohydrate

PMU

3-4 kgs is regarded as top limit for citrus for cows. i wouldnt be feeding any more than that with grass anyway.

Farmer Pudsey

PMU wrote: »

3-4 kgs is regarded as top limit for citrus for cows. i wouldnt be feeding any more than that with grass anyway.

The problem with citrus is there is a sugar content which is digested straight away also the fibre is not as effective as the fibre in soya hulls you would need less soya hulls to do the same job as citrus or beet also the energy in soya hulls is a carbohydrate which is slower to break down in the rumen.

However doctors differ patients die

vinne

Do the soya hulls come nutted

fatoftheland

vinne wrote: »

Do the soya hulls come nutted

they can be fairly nutty most of the time