Feeding fodder beet

Username John

Hello,

I am running a bit short on grass, and am planning to get a few ton of fodder beet to throw out to the in lamb ewes and replacement ewe lambs.

Those of you who have feed fodder beet - how long so you think would 9 ton last around 70 sheep?

Also - I intend to feed it whole (well, halved) on the ground out in the field.
As it'll be fodder beet, it should be a bit softer for the ewe lambs to work on.
Do people think I'll have any issues with feeding it to the ewe lambs?

Oh - I should thank Con for planting this idea in my head in his thread (even though I originally dismissed the idea when he suggested it)

Thanks for any feedback.

Conmaicne Mara

I would feed it chopped up, wouldn't feed it whole to sheep incase of teeth issues. I haven't fed it, and that's only my opinion based on talking to one guy who does. Also he had a Lifeline bucket with it.

Username John

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

I would feed it chopped up, wouldn't feed it whole to sheep incase of teeth issues. I haven't fed it, and that's only my opinion based on talking to one guy who does. Also he had a Lifeline bucket with it.

No way of choping it, and no desire to either to be honest

I'm going to chance throwing it out whole. I am a small bit worried re the ewe lambs, but the ewes should manage away fine (I hope)

dave747

Username John wrote: »

No way of choping it, and no desire to either to be honest

I'm going to chance throwing it out whole. I am a small bit worried re the ewe lambs, but the ewes should manage away fine (I hope)

Im feeding ewe lambs here and they have no probs with it, i was chopping it at the start but im not now and they are getting thru it grand

sea12

Is it grown local john. Have you a clean place to unload it. Are u collecting it yourself or delivered.

Username John

sea12 wrote: »

Is it grown local john. Have you a clean place to unload it. Are u collecting it yourself or delivered.

Local - yeah.

Clean place to unload - not really, i plan to rip it into the yard, qhich is hardcore (with a mix if mud ) but not too worried, I'll be manually moving it, as I don't have a loader.

Delivered.

Username John

dave747 wrote: »

Im feeding ewe lambs here and they have no probs with it, i was chopping it at the start but im not now and they are getting thru it grand

Hi Dave,
Any idea how long 9 ton would last?

I don't have a concept of how big a heap 9 ton of beet is to honest.

dave747

Username John wrote: »

Hi Dave,
Any idea how long 9 ton would last?

I don't have a concept of how big a heap 9 ton of beet is to honest.

couldnt put a lenght of time on it to be honest, only started feeding it here myself last year, father always feeds it and i said id give it a go. feeding bout 220 sheep and got a 15 ton load a month ago and still have a little less than half of it. make sure to cover it someway to protect from frost. i just throw a bale of straw over it and have little or no waste

Username John

Hello,

So got a load of fodder beet during the week.

Put some out. Just threw it about on the field. i halved it so there was some fresh bits exposed.
No interest, well except from the bastard crows

Yesterday I chopped some and put it into troughs with a few nuts, to get them half interested. Seems to have worked, there was the signs of some chewing at what I had put out the other day.

Dave (or anyone) - how long did it take your ewes to start eating it when you first introduced it?

Thanks.

Sheep breeder

John
We find when you give the sheep beet the biggest problem is when it runs out they are hard to keep happy, we feed small amount before lambing and ad-lib after in the shed, we had none last and made serious mistake it not getting some,

dave747

dont give them a whole lot at the start so they dont waste any and keep halving it till they get started at least anyway. Took mine about a week to get going alrite, but when the get a taste for it they will love it

Username John

They are getting the beet just less than a week now. A good few of them have copped to it now, altho not all are eating it yet.
There is still a bit more waste than I'd like. Am hoping they'll clean it out a bit better as more of them start coming for it.


They are making a bit more of a mess than I expected. Pic below shows where I threw the beet yesterday. But with all this rain I guess its not that surprising. It also prob looks a bit worse than it is really...

sea12

Username John wrote: »

They are getting the beet just less than a week now. A good few of them have copped to it now, altho not all are eating it yet.
There is still a bit more waste than I'd like. Am hoping they'll clean it out a bit better as more of them start coming for it.


They are making a bit more of a mess than I expected. Pic below shows where I threw the beet yesterday. But with all this rain I guess its not that surprising. It also prob looks a bit worse than it is really...

Lovely looking dry land john. The rain that fell over the weekend would destroy any field. When are they lambing

Username John

sea12 wrote: »

Lovely looking dry land john. The rain that fell over the weekend would destroy any field. When are they lambing

Starting St Patricks day.

There's a few thin ones which I need to pull out soon, and will separate the doubles out for feeding in a week or two.

dave747

look good john maybe try throwing out a bit lighter and spread out in the field bit more if its goin to rain might save the ground a bit, although with the showers that fell here the last few days its hard keep them mucking up the place.

Hope it works out for you and you find the beet as good as i do anyway, find its great feeding

Green farmer

I looked into beet recently and tried it out on the sheep but my girls just didn't go for it either. I don't have a chopper so just halved it, but the sheep lost interest as it kept sliding away from them.i think the trick would be to have a chopper or pulper at the start, then they would get the taste for it. Once this happened then they would go mad for it and accept it whole or chopped. I think the chopper is the key until they get used to the stuff.

Conmaicne Mara

Green farmer wrote: »

I looked into beet recently and tried it out on the sheep but my girls just didn't go for it either. I don't have a chopper so just halved it, but the sheep lost interest as it kept sliding away from them.i think the trick would be to have a chopper or pulper at the start, then they would get the taste for it. Once this happened then they would go mad for it and accept it whole or chopped. I think the chopper is the key until they get used to the stuff.

The way my friend does it is to chop it up, put it into bag with a small bowl full of ration, then mix that up in the bag. His lambs were mad for it.

Username John

I dunno, I'm kinda happy enough with how they're doing.

The one thing I have found is that pretty much all the ewes are tearing into it, but only a few of the ewe lambs.
Now, I think this is due to two things
1) the ewe lambs aren't used to being fed, so they don't automatically come to the tractor.
2) the older ewes prob bully the ewe lambs a bit, so they don't have as good a chance

I think I'll need to seperate them (ewes and lambs) and then try to push the beet onto the lambs more.

Con - I can see how your mate would find that good. I will prob do that for the lambs at the start, to get em used to it. I did it for 2 days for the ewes, and it seemed to work.