Feeding meal to housed weanlings .

k mac

Does everyone feed meal or just silage to weanlings when housed. I have 26 heifer weanlings, i usually sell about half in april/may and the rest in september for someone else to finish. Usually feed small amounts of crunch until housing and then just silage however i have been told i would be better off feeding 2 kg per head per day while housed, now i know this would be off great benefit but would the cost involved show a return . I can only buy meal by the bag and at that rate of feeding i figure it would cost 100 euro a week . Forgot to say i have good quality silage .

lakill Farm

Why not give them half that, ie a 25kg bag a day or approx 2lb each.

This is what i feed and find it works ok. I make sure they have access to a mineral lick also

jeff greene

k mac wrote: »

Does everyone feed meal or just silage to weanlings when housed. I have 26 heifer weanlings, i usually sell about half in april/may and the rest in september for someone else to finish. Usually feed small amounts of crunch until housing and then just silage however i have been told i would be better off feeding 2 kg per head per day while housed, now i know this would be off great benefit but would the cost involved show a return . I can only buy meal by the bag and at that rate of feeding i figure it would cost 100 euro a week . Forgot to say i have good quality silage .

Better to start there, get your local Teagasc or feed mill to test it and they'll advise you from there.

barryoc1

K Mac, ideally if you could weigh them at the start of winter, record weights and do them monthly after that, do the maths and check their average daily weight gain. Ideally, i believe, they should be gaining 0.5kg per day. If they are not reaching this target then perhaps increase the meal feed. If reaching it then you are feeding them enough meal. Or perhaps try them without meal for a few weeks and monitor weight.

Muckit

I think ~1kg or so of meal aswel or a bag a day. If you were holding them on (which you're not), then I wouldn't bother.

How dry is your farm?

Now is the time IMO be thinking about spring grass. If you could get them out at all in say 2-3 groups to grass from mid february.

You could subsitute the silage for good quality spring grass and still continue on the meal feeding. If it was a real wash out and they were cutting up, you'd have no problem getting them back in with the meal

The weanlings would be cleaner than coming straight out of the shed and in good shape come selling time in april and may when farmers slower to turn out will be going mad for them.

k mac

lakill Farm wrote: »

Why not give them half that, ie a 25kg bag a day or approx 2lb each.

This is what i feed and find it works ok. I make sure they have access to a mineral lick also

I might try that. What mineral lick do you use ?

Bizzum

k mac wrote: »

I can only buy meal by the bag and at that rate of feeding i figure it would cost 100 euro a week ..

We had heifers on outlying land and used to buy ration locally. We would buy a tonne, pay up front for a cash price and use it a few bags at a time. Something like this may be an option for you to get a better price on the ration.