feeding spuds to cattle.

mf240

Spuds for cattle feed are cheap at the moment.

Anyone ever feed them to dairy cows.

Also does anyone know if you could pit them on there own or with silage for feeding in winter?

Farmer Pudsey

You can pit them with silage it is like boiling them. Disadvantage is keeping rats out of them.

mf240

Thanks pudsey. Can they go in whole or do they need to be choped.

Could you put them in baled silage.

whelan2

mf240 wrote: »

Thanks pudsey. Can they go in whole or do they need to be choped.

Could you put them in baled silage.

cousin put them in pit, whole, 4 years later they where fine, was well thankful they were there in spring 2013

Capercaille

Chop them well or they can get stuck.

Farmer Pudsey

mf240 wrote: »

Thanks pudsey. Can they go in whole or do they need to be choped.

Could you put them in baled silage.

They go in whole, i never did it but saw an article in the journal years back. They soften and come out as if cooked. I imagine that if you can run them along the top of rowed silage that they will go into bales as I have often found a stone or two in bales. Some may fall through rows but if grass is in fair sized rows no reason that it would not work

However have poison out before bales are made and keep in a separate stack. Check bait points weekly and ever few day as weather changes in autumn. Would be a good feed to fatten cattle along with maybe a little soya or a 15% hi energy ration.

ford 5600

Will you put a little salt and butter on them for the cows or make gravy for them ?

Farmer Pudsey

Capercaille wrote: »

Chop them well or they can get stuck.

As far as i know no reason to chop as they cook(soften) in the silage. Now I would not over wilt silage 30-35 DM at most I imagine.If you have a hi clover silage with these it would be a superb feed.

Farmer Pudsey

ford 5600 wrote: »

Will you put a little salt and butter on them for the cows or make gravy for them ?

Salt might be a good idea. One lad tells me that cattle need 100 grams of sodium/day during the winter. He says he throws salt across the top of the silage with minerals. Have never got it confirmed so am slow to do it.

Mind you you always hear of lads that have bulls getting heart attacks I wonder was this part of the reason

trixi2011

uncle used to do this years was a great job but you need to make sure the spuds r free from soil ie washed as soil contamination can cause listeria afaik

Deano7

Would it be the cheapest way to fatten cattle?

mf240

ford 5600 wrote: »

Will you put a little salt and butter on them for the cows or make gravy for them ?

mf240

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Mind you you always hear of lads that have bulls getting heart attacks I wonder was this part of the reason

Id say the meal bills and the price cuts would give them a heart attack allright!!

Damo810

I did a bit of research into this for an ag project when I was back in community school.

The obvious use for potatoes is simply for human consumption but they are known for other things too, such as animal feed. ‘cull’ potatoes are potatoes that have been rejected, for various reasons such as, size, colour, shape or disease. These potatoes are still full of nutritional value and can be used for animal feeds. Their high energy content puts them on par with grains when considered on an equal dry matter basis. Saying this however, potatoes are not a forage substitute with recommended feeding levels for finishing cattle over 400Kg being 5-7Kg per day. Feeding higher than this may lead to digestive upsets as the starch in potatoes isn’t highly digestible. Potatoes also have low fibre and protein content, so supplementation of both is required. If farmers plan to feed potatoes to livestock, they should be introduced gradually into the diet, this will reduce any chance of digestive upset. Hay is a good source of fibre that can be fed alongside potatoes, as its low moisture content also keeps the moisture content of the diet down.

The biggest obstacle to feeding potatoes is their high moisture content, which makes transporting long distances uneconomical, this limits the use of cull potatoes to a number of counties within Ireland. A 10T load of potatoes is nearly 8T of water, so farmers must look carefully at their costs to make sure that it makes monetary sense when purchasing cull potatoes.

trixi2011

there is a risk of acidosis as well with spuds know farmers who lost quite a few cows to this

severeoversteer

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Mind you you always hear of lads that have bulls getting heart attacks I wonder was this part of the reason

bulls are easy to stress
when they are well fed on adlib meal they are only fit to walk up the ramp of a trailer, wouldn't want to have to handle a bull too much, abit like a fat man can hardly walk without getting out of breath

micraX

Lot of parsnips went for cattle feed too this year, uncle says they love them!