Pollard / wheat feed

oldsmokey

Hi, like the rest of the country am trying to eke out the silage and hay ...silage fairish quality, so will have to supplement it for dry cows, who are in reasonable nick, want to keep em that way...local meal merchant advised pollard as an inexpensive energy source for the cows..any experience of the stuff?

Farmer Pudsey

oldsmokey wrote: »

Hi, like the rest of the country am trying to eke out the silage and hay ...silage fairish quality, so will have to supplement it for dry cows, who are in reasonable nick, want to keep em that way...local meal merchant advised pollard as an inexpensive energy source for the cows..any experience of the stuff?

Google it and a couple more choices look at ME value price, what ammount you can feed etc

bob charles

Good stuff for bedding cattle. Having seen it in the past it told me enough about wheatfeed. I would prefer to feed a little of a good quality feed than allot of a crap feed, yes the cows will baul for more but they have the needed energy inside them

6480

cheap feeds run into dear feeds long term , i am going to feed my dry cows a good beef nut for a few weeks after drying off as alot of them are very thin and i am going to up the mineral feed rate aswell

freedominacup

6480 wrote: »

cheap feeds run into dear feeds long term , i am going to feed my dry cows a good beef nut for a few weeks after drying off as alot of them are very thin and i am going to up the mineral feed rate aswell

Unless you're after a specific problem upping min rates is pointless unless to paraphrase Sheldon you looking for the cows to make more expensive p*ss. They can't store most minerals so whatever they don't need today is p*ssed out tonight.

tim04750

6480 wrote: »

cheap feeds run into dear feeds long term , i am going to feed my dry cows a good beef nut for a few weeks after drying off as alot of them are very thin and i am going to up the mineral feed rate aswell

Had a good few thinner than you'd like to be lookin at so divided 'em up into the good the bad and the ugly, and feeding accordingly with rolled wheat, right or wrong I think its better value than any nut or ration at the moment, too much palm kernal ,and wheatfeed in the rations now along with citrus they're just glorified sawdust compared to straight wheat or barley.
Feeding good silage + 4kgs to the worst dozen, 2 kgs to the middle dozen, and just a kilo to the rest of them ,reckon they will take about six ton @ 275 to get them right = 1650, the price of one decent cow and calf ????
Giving them a shake of minerals every second day as well, noticed a couple of them suckin piss out of the channel so threw them a couple of salt licks, christ they devoured them.

whelan1

are they not just used as fillers in a ration, wouldnt touch them tbh

agriking101

oldsmokey wrote: »

Hi, like the rest of the country am trying to eke out the silage and hay ...silage fairish quality, so will have to supplement it for dry cows, who are in reasonable nick, want to keep em that way...local meal merchant advised pollard as an inexpensive energy source for the cows..any experience of the stuff?

your silage would want to be very good quality to get by using pollard as a filler. What price is it? Beet pulp €280-ish or soya hulls a little cheaper would be better

Farmer Pudsey

http://www.riverina.com.au/website/files/product_manual/Page%20I148%20-%20Wheat%20Pollard.pdf
http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/agriculture/beef-and-sheep/beef/feeding-and-nutrition/feed-value-of-selected-foodstuffs

I googled wheat pollard and I got figure for protein of betwen 13 and 16% and an ME of between 11 and 12. ME sounds very high for wheat with flour gone, the protein would be rightish I think. Just curious anybody got other figures for it.

MOOVAN

agriking101 wrote: »

your silage would want to be very good quality to get by using pollard as a filler. What price is it? Beet pulp €280-ish or soya hulls a little cheaper would be better

You shouldn't feed beet to dry cows because it has calcium in it and you'll be in bother when they calve.

Conflats

Would straw not be useful for bulking up the silage? and feed with some simple beet plup barley mix no fancy minerals etc?

oldsmokey

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

http://www.riverina.com.au/website/files/product_manual/Page%20I148%20-%20Wheat%20Pollard.pdf
http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/agriculture/beef-and-sheep/beef/feeding-and-nutrition/feed-value-of-selected-foodstuffs

I googled wheat pollard and I got figure for protein of betwen 13 and 16% and an ME of between 11 and 12. ME sounds very high for wheat with flour gone, the protein would be rightish I think. Just curious anybody got other figures for it.

Bretts foods published some figures on it in conjunction with Teagasc...CP and Energy surprised me a little too, thought it would be rubbish...its selling for €250 ish / tonne...

Farmer Pudsey

oldsmokey wrote: »

Bretts foods published some figures on it in conjunction with Teagasc...CP and Energy surprised me a little too, thought it would be rubbish...its selling for €250 ish / tonne...

If the figures are right and it is coming in at that price then it is value only thing to watch is if there is a high moisture content and figures are given on a drymatter basis. However I cannot see the ME being that high.

yellow50HX

MOOVAN wrote: »

You shouldn't feed beet to dry cows because it has calcium in it and you'll be in bother when they calve.

not sure about that.... been feeding beet to cows for years and our calving difficulties would be no worse then most places. Had big problems a few years ago but that was down to not matching the cows and bull right. Had 39 out of 40 cows calf last year (the one didnt go in calf we fattened her and off to the factory). But we do watch how much they get (strip graze). Diet is silage and fodder beet with pre calver. Have silage from last year so feeding that rather then the straw this year. Have given them a silage/straw feed to balance the beet in the past.

Bigger worry when feeding beet to cows is if they get frost damaged beet, then they can drop the calf quite quickly. less of an issue with strip grazing as you only let them into the beet when the frost lifts. but it can be an issue with beet stored in a heap

what ever you feed them it needs to be balanced.

bob charles

oldsmokey wrote: »

Bretts foods published some figures on it in conjunction with Teagasc...CP and Energy surprised me a little too, thought it would be rubbish...its selling for €250 ish / tonne...

on paper it might look good, in practice is not and @ 250 a ton why not just feed native barley (dont know the price of barley €280?) for a superior feed by miles

Farmer Pudsey

bob charles wrote: »

on paper it might look good, in practice is not and @ 250 a ton why not just feed native barley (dont know the price of barley €280?) for a superior feed by miles

If you are limited on silage or have none some of these can be fed straight with very little silage or straw as they have a high fibre content such as soya hulls, Pollard from the figure would be the same. so you could really limit your straw, hay or silage. Neighbour had heifers a few years ago was tight on silage had them on 5Kgs of hulls they were in great condition worked out cheaper than round bales.

Figures for pollard would be comparable with barley if they are right just curious do not need them this year but might need them a year or two down the line. Lots of these byproducts have advantages in specific instances it is knowing when and how to use. Also some of these can be easier to access in bulk from merchants or mills and may store longer than this years barley

oldsmokey

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

If you are limited on silage or have none some of these can be fed straight with very little silage or straw as they have a high fibre content such as soya hulls, Pollard from the figure would be the same. so you could really limit your straw, hay or silage. Neighbour had heifers a few years ago was tight on silage had them on 5Kgs of hulls they were in great condition worked out cheaper than round bales.

Figures for pollard would be comparable with barley if they are right just curious do not need them this year but might need them a year or two down the line. Lots of these byproducts have advantages in specific instances it is knowing when and how to use. Also some of these can be easier to access in bulk from merchants or mills and may store longer than this years barley

Here we go..Bretts spiel..Available Energy Feed Ingredients
Wheatfeed (also known as Pollard)
•By-product from flour milling
•EU source in pellets/Native in meal
•Mid protein ~ 16% (Gluten 20%) – will be used
•Similar starch to gluten ~ 18%
•Good digestible fibre
•Feed as a straight upto 3 kgs
•Good min profile for dry cows
•(low Calcium/high Phosphorus)
•Competitively priced
... energy is given at 13 on another site (http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/agriculture/beef-and-sheep/beef/feeding-and-nutrition/feed-value-of-selected-foodstuffs)
All the Bretts info is here - http://www.brettbrothers.ie/Uploads/Beef%20Seminar%20-%20Cillin%20Hill%20Sept12.pdf....
I really should be in the pub....

agriking101

MOOVAN wrote: »

You shouldn't feed beet to dry cows because it has calcium in it and you'll be in bother when they calve.

Moovan is right, beet pulp is high in Calcium and feedig it to dry cows can make them more inclined to get milk fever. Soya hulls would be better but they still have a lot more calcium tha cereals