Bales vs nuts

vinne

If a good quality bale of silage can be bought for E25 , and a good quality nut for E7.50-E8.00 a bag , what do ye think is the best value ? Asking this as I need extra feeding .also will be short on silage ground next year, because the landlord is going farming himself .

O2b

vinne wrote: »

If a good quality bale of silage can be bought for E25 , and a good quality nut for E7.50-E8.00 a bag , what do ye think is the best value ? Asking this as I need extra feeding .also will be short on silage ground next year, because the landlord is going farming himself .

At the ploughing the journal stand had presentation that said per value of feed, a good quality bale of silage worth €22 , and that was comparing rolled barley at a price of €200 a tonne. I know that not answering your ques but hopefully helps.

vinne

O2b wrote: »

At the ploughing the journal stand had presentation that said per value of feed, a good quality bale of silage worth €22 , and that was comparing rolled barley at a price of €200 a tonne. I know that not answering your ques but hopefully helps.

Welcome to boards and thanks

3 the square

O2b wrote: »

At the ploughing the journal stand had presentation that said per value of feed, a good quality bale of silage worth €22 , and that was comparing rolled barley at a price of €200 a tonne. I know that not answering your ques but hopefully helps.

a lot of cattle including some of my own were on straw and ration last winter and flew it on it.

NewBeefFarmer

if you had a 450 KG animal,

and you had 1 bale, €25 . . . and 3 bags of nuts, say €25

are you saying it could be better value to by the nuts?

but does the animal not need bulk feed like hay/grass/silage, i always thought nuts where for a supplement.

giving it in addition, then cutting back on silage and give a kg of nuts etc. . . .

id always be thinking, big animal, heres half the bag. . . .before i know it, the nuts are gone. .

but i see what your saying, . .

silage that was made next to me this year would be pure muck today, never seen a full field of no grass, but docks, weeds, thistles , fencing posts, pigtails, polyrobe fencing. . . . . all baled in to silage. . no joke lads, .. . pigtails the lot. . . . farmer doesnt care. . .

buying this would be a joke. . . yet he done it 12 months ago. . . poor farmer that got that lot,
defo worth taking the nut option. .

its down to luck on getting a good bale i guess. . and hoping then when u take 20 or 30 that they are all the same.

C0N0R

Nuts are fine as long as the animal has acces to fibre such as barley straw etc

vinne

3 the square wrote: »

a lot of cattle including some of my own were on straw and ration last winter and flew it on it.

What kind of ration was that . Did you give them much per head/day ?

NewBeefFarmer

sorry for going slightly sideways on this topic, but if you were looking at this route, is there a forumla to kg of nuts to kg of animal?

i see some give 1kg no matter the weight, .. .

id find it hard to give feed either way, and give it in a sparing method, just to maintain the animal, id be afraid of giving too little.

vinne

C0N0R wrote: »

Nuts are fine as long as the animal has acces to fibre such as barley straw etc

I agree with you i was thinking of feeding nuts with the silage

C0N0R

NewBeefFarmer wrote: »

sorry for going slightly sideways on this topic, but if you were looking at this route, is there a forumla to kg of nuts to kg of animal?

i see some give 1kg no matter the weight, .. .

id find it hard to give feed either way, and give it in a sparing method, just to maintain the animal, id be afraid of giving too little.

Well for a lactating dairy cow we aim to feed between 3.5-4% of body weight, so a 500kg animal would be getting 17.5-20 kg of dry matter. I would imagine that the percentage would be lower in a beef system but I will allow someone else to comment.

The beauty of buying nuts versus silage is that you know what you are getting, well you should.

O2b

vinne wrote: »

I agree with you i was thinking of feeding nuts with the silage

Thats the point they were making at the ploughing talk, that lads were paying stupid money for silage last year, and bad silage at that. That an animal needs only around 50% of their dm intake to be silage,straw etc but that it would have been much better value to be feeding nuts for the remainder compaired to last year. That if rolled barley is €200 a tonne a good bale of silage is worth only €22. I suppose they were going on the basis that if u work from rolled barley, nuts prices would be comparable. At least with nuts you know exactly wat ur getting but without testing ur silage u havent a clue what kinda silage ur buying.

freedominacup

My rule of thumb when short of silage has always been that 1kg of grain and 1 kg of straw replaces around 10kgs of average (74/75DMD and 10ME silage) for energy and bulk and you know exactly what you are getting. Buying bale silage is a very hit and miss job to say the least of it. And it is incredibly easy to pay too much for it esp since many farmers seem to set out to make poor quality silage from the outset.

Sharpshooter82

freedominacup wrote: »

My rule of thumb when short of silage has always been that 1kg of grain and 1 kg of straw replaces around 10kgs of average (74/75DMD and 10ME silage) for energy and bulk and you know exactly what you are getting. Buying bale silage is a very hit and miss job to say the least of it. And it is incredibly easy to pay too much for it esp since many farmers seem to set out to make poor quality silage from the outset.

That is true, seen it many time this year. Grass not given time to wilt and such

vinne

freedominacup wrote: »

My rule of thumb when short of silage has always been that 1kg of grain and 1 kg of straw replaces around 10kgs of average (74/75DMD and 10ME silage) for energy and bulk and you know exactly what you are getting. Buying bale silage is a very hit and miss job to say the least of it. And it is incredibly easy to pay too much for it esp since many farmers seem to set out to make poor quality silage from the outset.

When you say 1 kg of grain do you mean rolled barley ?

freedominacup

vinne wrote: »

When you say 1 kg of grain do you mean rolled barley ?

Barley, wheat or for dry cows oats.

3 the square

vinne wrote: »

What kind of ration was that . Did you give them much per head/day ?

dry cows ration 2kg straw 1.5kg silage 27kg
weanlings ration 2.5 straw 0.4 silage 15kg u could always up ration and straw if silage is scarce makes a find job of dry cows on that mix.:)

course beef ration

nashmach

freedominacup wrote: »

My rule of thumb when short of silage has always been that 1kg of grain and 1 kg of straw replaces around 10kgs of average (74/75DMD and 10ME silage) for energy and bulk and you know exactly what you are getting. Buying bale silage is a very hit and miss job to say the least of it. And it is incredibly easy to pay too much for it esp since many farmers seem to set out to make poor quality silage from the outset.

+1 to that freedom.

Buying silage bales is called buying lucky bags around here.

The key there is having good quality straw to feed with the meal.