Suckler cow winter feeding

ellewood

Just a quick one

havent as much silage as i need for winter but was talking to lad yesterday and i can get as much wheat /barley straw as i like from him at 8.00 euro per bale delivered

the plan was at the moment to buy more silage/haylage at 25.00+/bale delivered and restrict it to 75%(there just about to be weaned and there mud fat) + 1 kg meal/day till calving with minerals

could i feed straw as lib and say 3-4kgs of meal to cows - would i need a different type of mineral? would they eat straw ad lib?
any potential problems with feeding big amounts of straw?

I dont think cost wise there would be much difference its just theres not that much good silage/haylage around an it seems theres plenty of straw about

thanks

ceannfort

ellewood wrote: »

Just a quick one

havent as much silage as i need for winter but was talking to lad yesterday and i can get as much wheat /barley straw as i like from him at 8.00 euro per bale delivered

the plan was at the moment to buy more silage/haylage at 25.00+/bale delivered and restrict it to 75%(there just about to be weaned and there mud fat) + 1 kg meal/day till calving with minerals

could i feed straw as lib and say 3-4kgs of meal to cows - would i need a different type of mineral? would they eat straw ad lib?
any potential problems with feeding big amounts of straw?

I dont think cost wise there would be much difference its just theres not that much good silage/haylage around an it seems theres plenty of straw about

thanks

If cows are fat I would adlib straw restrict silage and feed minerals. With little or no meal. Let them slim down a bit up to calving.

yellow50HX

yeah if the cows are in good condition and the straw is goodd quaity i'd go for feeding them the straw. At €8/bale thats very good. but i needs to be be dry. you could leave the silage for when they calve.

RobinBanks

ellewood wrote: »

Just a quick one

havent as much silage as i need for winter but was talking to lad yesterday and i can get as much wheat /barley straw as i like from him at 8.00 euro per bale delivered

could i feed straw as lib and say 3-4kgs of meal to cows - would i need a different type of mineral? would they eat straw ad lib?
any potential problems with feeding big amounts of straw?

thanks

€8 euro a bale delivered? are you talking about 4x4 round bales? That very cheap if you are. I am paying €20 for 4x5 round bales delivered. Maybe you live close to where the straw is coming from . Mine came from across the country.

I am currently feeding all the dry cows ad-lib with barley straw. They will all be administered 2 x all trace bolus in the next week or two but they are not getting any meal. Like you they are to fat so I am trying to take the condition off them and from about 4 weeks out from calving they will be switched back onto 60% DMD round bale silage.

They have being eating straw for over 3 weeks now and they dont appear to be failing they are eating it as normal. I am short on silage this year so I have no other choice but to feed straw for a longer period of time this year.

So I think you can do the same but you will need to give them a mineral in whatever form is convenient for you.

ellewood

Yea 8/bale but not all of them are out of the shed about 30-40% are still out in the field but i have seen them and they are wet on about 2 inches on the outside but are fine apart from that these will do fine as bedding and i will probly just leave them on a slab outside without covering them anyway.
Straw is coming from about an hours draw away with tractor.



Good to hear youre cows are fine on it was worried about minerals ll look into bolusus

thanks

just do it

looking at something similar. have used the all trace boluses and found they helped fertility. Regardless of fed regime they are probably required this winter as I'd be concerned about the grass quality for the last few months and the silage they'll have for the winter. certainly would allow you to feed a higher % of straw with confidence

TMSHope

" They will all be administered 2 x all trace bolus in the next week or two but they are not getting any meal "Forgive my lack of knowledge but I haven't heard of the bolus before. What is this bolus used for and where do you purchase it or is it only from a vet? Any advice appreciated. thanks

RobinBanks

TMSHope wrote: »

" They will all be administered 2 x all trace bolus in the next week or two but they are not getting any meal "Forgive my lack of knowledge but I haven't heard of the bolus before. What is this bolus used for and where do you purchase it or is it only from a vet? Any advice appreciated. thanks

Just google all trace bolus :-) you will read more than I can explain here. Basically they contain essential trace elements and vitamins required by cattle. The only problem though is that not all bolus are taken up the same way by the animal so you might be better speaking to an animal nutritionist. This is what I done and I purchased the bolus from our local chemist

freedominacup

One kilo of meal and 1 kilo of straw will provide almost the same energy as 10 kgs of reasonable pit silage at 9ME and around 20%DM. Pregnant cow not needing to gain weight other than for the calf would need around 35-40kgs of silage of this quality. At this level of feeding she would probably need straw for gut fill also.

blue5000

If you are feeding straw make sure it is dry and good quality, there is a lot of sh1te straw out there this year which in my opinion is bareley fit for bedding, never mind feeding.

Simplest way to feed it is to roll it out on feed passage and put silage on top.