Small weanlings

Tipperarymike

Evening all,

Long time lurker and non contributor here, I hope I am not asking a question that has been done to death but I couldn't find an exact match for what I was wondering.

I weaned my suckler calves over the weekend and tbh I am pretty disappointed with how they have done this year, even allowing for the brutal year it has been on grass. They seemed in much better order back in June and July than they were on bringing them away from the cows on Saturday. I have been giving them a ration for the last month prior to weaning just to get them going on the meal and make it easier to get them in to the yard etc.

I suppose my question is this, could anyone point me in the right direction of what I should feed them ration wise from now on? They are all CH calves, born early Mar to end of April, so while they are young enough yet I would like to give them a right good do and maybe sell the bulls in Jan/Feb and maybe the heifers this time next year.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,

Mike

mahoney_j

Go with a mix of one of firstly maize,Barley or wheat(preferably maize)then soya(its dear but the best protein source youll get then soya hulls then distillers.Keep the ration simple and always ask the mill or merchant for the u.f.l content it should be at least 0.95.Another thing to watch out for is the likes of Palm Kernell,Wheatfeed or sunflower ,These should be nowhere near the top of the ingrident list of a ration,A lot of merchant are using these cheap low value feeds at the moment

Tipperarymike

Sound for that J, probably the best idea alright to get a specific mix made up. With the way the price of ration is gone there is likely to be a fair bit of filler in them this year that might not be exactly what I need

Mike

Farmer Pudsey

If you can get it the best value at present is molasses there is a 14.5% type would be ideal will cost 200 euro/ton you can feed a 1-1.5kgs/head/day get a bag of minerals as well if you want to give them more than that get a bulk bag of rolled barley or soyahulls or maize

Tipperarymike

Sound Pudsey,

I think we used to feel molasses here years ago but not in my time here. just to get it clear in my head, are you suggesting feeding the molasses say along the top of the meal that I might be feeding say 1.5kg/head a day?

Figerty

Might sound like an odd thing, but we expect the weanlings to look better in the shed than out in the field. I had a late calver this year, and to see that calve beside the early and late spring calvers then you realise how good they are.
A few weeks of nuts and feeding will slowly bring them on.

Farmer Pudsey

Tipperarymike wrote: »

Sound Pudsey,

I think we used to feel molasses here years ago but not in my time here. just to get it clear in my head, are you suggesting feeding the molasses say along the top of the meal that I might be feeding say 1.5kg/head a day?

Yes it would bring down the cost of the overall ration also has the advantage of keeping crows away and if they do not finish it straight away and it get wet they will come back and finish it because of molasses. The molasses should not make up more than 20% of the total intake of dry matter idealy if on grass feed a soyahulls or straw or hay.

You can replace ration by molasses more or less KG for KG. One litre of molasses is about 1.25kgs. There should be no issue when on silage or hay just feed you kg or so into trough if you are feeding more than that use ration or barley etc. Build up over a few days.

Grecco

I noticed some of the cows had less milk this year especially the charlie cows. I put it down to the weather and lack of grass. There calves are poor enough too.
I have milky Simmental cows which were gone pure thin before I weaned the calf off them but they kept producing milk and reared great calves again this year.

Tipperarymike

You make a good point Fig about how they often look in the shed. I suppose this year is my first year with a CH bull and I might have been expecting more, some of cows are getting on a bit and probably didn't have as much milk as other years, looking at the weanlings again this morning, they aren't as bad as maybe I was thinking. I hope to get them weighed this week and take it from there.

Cheers Pudsey for the molasses info, I might get an IBC of it and see how it goes. I am going to let them back out on grass for maybe three weeks or as long as the grass/weather holds to do so.

Those SM cows are dingers to produce milk alright Greco, I have a few of them that came out of LM cows but tis something I got away from then. Found any of them cows , esp the ones that produced calves with white heads on them had calves that were bloody lunatics. Lively I can tolerate and manage, lunatics are a different story.

Black Smoke

Figerty wrote: »

Might sound like an odd thing, but we expect the weanlings to look better in the shed than out in the field. I had a late calver this year, and to see that calve beside the early and late spring calvers then you realise how good they are.
A few weeks of nuts and feeding will slowly bring them on.

You know, I agree with you. I wrote a post on here about a month ago, saying I believed my weanlings this year were the poorest I ever produced.
Put them in the shed a few weeks ago, on a fierce bad evening.
Two days later, I'm thinking to myself, "ye, don't look as bad as I thought":cool: No doubt they were under a lot of stress all summer with the constant rain. The dry skin on them in the shed, gives them a chance to look their best.

They are on a good bit of meal, and silage since, and looking better by the day.

Black Smoke

mahoney_j wrote: »

Go with a mix of one of firstly maize,Barley or wheat(preferably maize)then soya(its dear but the best protein source youll get then soya hulls then distillers.Keep the ration simple and always ask the mill or merchant for the u.f.l content it should be at least 0.95.Another thing to watch out for is the likes of Palm Kernell,Wheatfeed or sunflower ,These should be nowhere near the top of the ingrident list of a ration,A lot of merchant are using these cheap low value feeds at the moment

How does this mix compare.
Decending items in the mix. Flaked barley, Distillers dried grains, Soya Hulls, Locust Bean, Sunflower Pellets, Mollasses, Maize Nuggets. Plus a few other things.
It's Grennans super weanling crunch. Somehow, I don't think it as good as in previous years, but maybe I'm imagining it

simx

what do ye make of the ingredients in paul and vincents 16% beef nuts

barley,distillers dried grains(2),maize gluten feed(2),soya(bean) hulls(1),wheat,rape seed meal,wheatfeed,palm kernel expeller,cane mollases,citrus pulp dried,sunflower seed meal,calcium carbonate,soya (bean) meal(1),soduim chloride,palm oil 1= produced from genetically modified soyabean and after that its additives

Muckit

simx wrote: »

what do ye make of the ingredients in paul and vincents 16% beef nuts

I use this. Buy it loose. I find it a very good nut.

simx

Muckit wrote: »

I use this. Buy it loose. I find it a very good nut.

i get 5t blown in when needed,quite competitive too