Cheaper animal feeds.....

reilig

Anyone got any solutions for cheaper animal feeds.

Because of soil conditions, growing any crop on our farm other than grass (and rushes) is out. Bought 6 ton of meal this week for €275 a ton. Its a high protein mix with plenty of soya, barley and some maize. I feed 2kg per day per head to 9 month old weinlings and give them as much silage as they will eat. The silage is 70+ DMD so is pretty good quality.

I'll have 30 good weinlings to sell in March. They will ready for grass finishing and should leave some money if prices don't freefall. The thing is I want them to leave more money. People out there have to alternatives to what I do - buying mixed feed from a Mill.

I have storage for about 15 ton of feed, it can be blown in, but I worry that it might go off - I feed about 3 ton a month on average over the winter months - which includes to 50 ewes.

What do you finish weinlings with on your farm? What sort of weights / prices would you be achieving?

Does anyone buy barley / oats from the combine or from a farmer who has rolled and stored it instead of buying from the middle man? How do you transport this? How do you store it?

Anyone feed beet or maize as an alternative and how do you find this?

Anyone doing anything else innovative for finishing cattle / lambs??

nilhg

I don't want to sicken you but I'm currently being quoted €133 for dried wheat ex farm, that's a big fall from last year or even from harvest, (I sold my winter barley for €190 in the last weeks of June, it wasn't drawn till the end of August).

There is still quite an amount of forward bought stock in the millers system, that probably accounts for some of the high price you are being charged.

We roll our own cereals and mix them with soya, citrus or distillers depending on the relative price. This is fed to weanlings and fattening cattle along with grass and/or maize silage.

reilig

nilhg wrote: »

I don't want to sicken you but I'm currently being quoted €133 for dried wheat ex farm, that's a big fall from last year or even from harvest, (I sold my winter barley for €190 in the last weeks of June, it wasn't drawn till the end of August).

There is still quite an amount of forward bought stock in the millers system, that probably accounts for some of the high price you are being charged.

We roll our own cereals and mix them with soya, citrus or distillers depending on the relative price. This is fed to weanlings and fattening cattle along with grass and/or maize silage.

I had a idea that that was around the price. I find that a lot of the stuff coming from the millers is of poor quality and contains only a little barley oats or wheat (which are expensive) and a lot of what is cheap to make up the bulk and the weight. I don't buy anything that comes in a "nut" form for my cattle anymore - cause you just don't know what's in them. I'm just looking testing the water at the moment to see what other people are doing and using and I hope to put something in place over the next 6 months so that i will be able to buy the feeds thet I need direct from the grower rather than the miller - even if it means that I have to travel 50 miles with the tractor and trailer to collect.

thetangler

reilig wrote: »

Anyone got any solutions for cheaper animal feeds.

Because of soil conditions, growing any crop on our farm other than grass (and rushes) is out. Bought 6 ton of meal this week for €275 a ton. Its a high protein mix with plenty of soya, barley and some maize. I feed 2kg per day per head to 9 month old weinlings and give them as much silage as they will eat. The silage is 70+ DMD so is pretty good quality.

I'll have 30 good weinlings to sell in March. They will ready for grass finishing and should leave some money if prices don't freefall. The thing is I want them to leave more money. People out there have to alternatives to what I do - buying mixed feed from a Mill.

I have storage for about 15 ton of feed, it can be blown in, but I worry that it might go off - I feed about 3 ton a month on average over the winter months - which includes to 50 ewes.

What do you finish weinlings with on your farm? What sort of weights / prices would you be achieving?

Does anyone buy barley / oats from the combine or from a farmer who has rolled and stored it instead of buying from the middle man? How do you transport this? How do you store it?

Anyone feed beet or maize as an alternative and how do you find this?

Anyone doing anything else innovative for finishing cattle / lambs??

I am in the exact same position. I am paying around €270/ tonne for crunch 6 tonne drops.
Can you buy rolled wheat direct farm to farm and will it flow from a bin ?
Minerals is the one input you loose farm to farm are they expensive ?
Another option is to join / form a buying group which in theory makes no sense as this was the idea behind the co-op's. But they seem to have forgotten this ?

reilig

thetangler wrote: »

I am in the exact same position. I am paying around €270/ tonne for crunch 6 tonne drops.
Can you buy rolled wheat direct farm to farm and will it flow from a bin ?
Minerals is the one input you loose farm to farm are they expensive ?
Another option is to join / form a buying group which in theory makes no sense as this was the idea behind the co-op's. But they seem to have forgotten this ?

I don't have a bin, I have a fully lined and insulated shed/store that can hold 18 to 20 ton. I shovel the meal into a wheel barrow and feed from that. I can split the shed and get 2 different types of feed. I have an option of blowing in feed or I'm sure that I could auger feed in from the top. I don't think minerals would be too expensive - I read in last week's journal that there goes about €10 of minerals into 1 ton of animal feed taht you buy from the miller. At least if you were giving it to them yourself, you could be sure that it wasn't spared in comparison to the stuff you get from the miller.

As far as I can recall (and my figure might not be perfectly right, but its near enough), the journal suggested that Miller's are making €60 to €80 a ton more than they say they are making with the current prices that they are paying for their inputs. ie. they say that they have a margin of €25 per ton, but in actual fact, this is close to €100 per ton in some cases. They are encouraging farm to farm sales - that's what tempted me to start this thread.

To answer your question, you can buy wheat barley and oats direct from farm to farm, you often see it advertised on the journal, and I'm sure it would flow from a bin, but I would worry about it heating or going off in a bin - I would hope to set up some type of aeration/fan system in my storage shed if I buy it to keep it fresh and aired. My biggest problem is that i live 50 miles from anywhere that grows any crops. How do you draw it? A lorry load would definitely go off in my shed. I would need to be able to split it with neighbours - but none have facilities for it. If I draw it with my own tractor and trailer, how do I get it into the shed with no blower or auger?

There has to be savings to be made though - and I intend to suss it out.

snowman707

We presently paying €210 for barley/distillers/soya cw minerals mix delivered in bulk,

have been quoted €250 for H.E. 17% dairy nut delivered bulk

& €250 for 17% sheep/lamb ration collected in bags ex. mill.

I notice now the miller is insisting on payment within 60 days, .....previously 4- 6 months credit was no problem.

changing times i reckon.

nilhg

Sourcing rolled wheat/barley on a farm to farm basis should be no problem, the logistics would be easily enough sorted, there are plenty of semi-idle lorries about. Fully dried (14% mc) rolled cereals should last a couple of months at least if the storage area is good, it will flow quite well if the openings are large enough (we have no problem tipping out through a grain chute on our trailer).

A wheat or barley and soya mix works well for most stock and would keep the system simple.


I'm not sure that the millers are making a fortune, its getting harder and harder to get paid on time (grain contracts are usually 10 days from date of contract, sometimes you can be due payment before shipment) from most of them and the lorry drivers all complain of delays at ports and stores while the finances are sorted.

I think they all have a big problem with slow/non payment of accounts and the banks are keeping them squeezed on the other side.

The rumor now doing the rounds is that the banks don't want to finance any extended merchant/co-op credit to farmer customers for next season.

reilig

nilhg wrote: »

Sourcing rolled wheat/barley on a farm to farm basis should be no problem, the logistics would be easily enough sorted, there are plenty of semi-idle lorries about. Fully dried (14% mc) rolled cereals should last a couple of months at least if the storage area is good, it will flow quite well if the openings are large enough (we have no problem tipping out through a grain chute on our trailer).

A wheat or barley and soya mix works well for most stock and would keep the system simple.


I'm not sure that the millers are making a fortune, its getting harder and harder to get paid on time (grain contracts are usually 10 days from date of contract, sometimes you can be due payment before shipment) from most of them and the lorry drivers all complain of delays at ports and stores while the finances are sorted.

I think they all have a big problem with slow/non payment of accounts and the banks are keeping them squeezed on the other side.

The rumor now doing the rounds is that the banks don't want to finance any extended merchant/co-op credit to farmer customers for next season.

I ordered 6 ton of feed yesterday from a merchant. It will be delivered tomorrow. Its the most expensive mix that they have coming in at €250 per ton. It contains a high percentage of barley and soya and out of 5 places that I priced, it was the cheapest for the quality. I have 30 days credit, last year they were offering up to 6 months credit - so I guess they are putting what you say above into action now. I'm sure that like any other business, they are finding it hard to get credit from the banks. Me thinks that this is going to be the future for every business and in a way it will be a good thing as it will cut down on bad debt.

Found out last night that the IFA have set up a new website to encourage farm to farm sales. It is mainly for the sales of crops, but there is a section for animals, machinery and vehicles. The site is www.ifarm.ie There isn't much on it now, but it should take off when they get the word around about it - they will be doing a lot of promotion on the farming papers for it in the coming weeks.

thetangler

reilig wrote: »

I ordered 6 ton of feed yesterday from a merchant. It will be delivered tomorrow. Its the most expensive mix that they have coming in at €250 per ton. It contains a high percentage of barley and soya and out of 5 places that I priced, .

What else is in the mix what % protien.
It sounds ok price wise

reilig

thetangler wrote: »

What else is in the mix what % protien.
It sounds ok price wise

Its a 3 way mix of barley, soya and distillers and as a protein % of 13.7 (I think that's correct)

thetangler

Sounds about right also value wise sounds ok.
A good feed for all stock at a good price.
Wonder is there much savings to be made by joining / forming a Purchasing Group ?

thetangler

Another Point
Make sure you dose the 30 weanlings well and make sure you dose for fluke.

Keeperlit

Could someone explain the importance of "Ash " content and a suitable % to be expected in a sheep ration?

reilig

For an update, I managed to source dried wheat and barley in a 50:50 mix for €180 per ton from a Co-op in Longford. I have 2 steel tanks that I can put on a trailer after the jeep and bring 1.5 ton at a time. Its a bit cheaper than the bulk feed that I bought earlier this year.

snowman707

reilig wrote: »

For an update, I managed to source dried wheat and barley in a 50:50 mix for €180 per ton from a Co-op in Longford. I have 2 steel tanks that I can put on a trailer after the jeep and bring 1.5 ton at a time. Its a bit cheaper than the bulk feed that I bought earlier this year.

will you be adding protein & minerals to it, or feeding it as it is ?

Feed prices have come back about 10 -15€ a ton in the last couple of weeks

reilig

snowman707 wrote: »

will you be adding protein & minerals to it, or feeding it as it is ?

Feed prices have come back about 10 -15€ a ton in the last couple of weeks

My teagasc adviser recommends a 10% soya mix and a mineral mix with it which I will be mixing at the feed point.

snowman707

reilig wrote: »

My teagasc adviser recommends a 10% soya mix and a mineral mix with it which I will be mixing at the feed point.

looks good,

have you you calculated the final cost per cost per ton taking the minerals & soya into consideration ?

EDIT just done a quick calculation (hadn't time this am) with soya @ €250 pt. it would be costing about €205 pt

should be cheaper in the new year