Straw quality?

Connemara Farmer

I've never bought straw for eating before, and I'm unsure of the eating quality of what I got. Told it's barley straw. The bales are of excellent size, none of the straw is stuck together so I'm very happy with both of those. It could possibly smell better IMO but I'm only used to the smell of hay, just thinking I may be forced to buy some hay yet.

I know it's fierce hard to tell from photos, but what do ye reckon?

Username John

Hard to tell from photos Con.

I never got a smell of straw, I would say if it smells that's not good
Sometimes you'd get straw with a good bit of grass, but I'd prefer straw without it, as like you say sometimes it could be matted, an half mouldy...

Given the year we had - I'd say most barley this summer was good, so the straw would be good enough.

Green farmer

Looks ok con. Either way there ain't much feed value in straw. Just handy for the bedding and the bit of fibre when feeding. Once their getting meal as well they'll be fine.

Richie185

Pictures look good no sign of any mould, however the feeding quality of straw is poor, barley straw and Oaten straw are usually the types fed while wheaten is usually kept only for bedding. Poorer quality wheaten straw is be used in the making of mushroom compost. Here is a link to a teagasc website on straw feeding value. Even poor quality silage has a better feeding value than straw, however it used in the diet to provide roughage.I attached a URL of the web link but because I am a new user it wont let me post it so just type in straw feeding value and you should see teagasc website discussing straw feeding value.Hope that will be of some benefit.

Connemara Farmer

I've gotten professional advice (from more than one source) on the ration diet indoors, so the feed value of the straw isn't something I'm all too worried about, just that they'll eat it for roughage

Richie185

Thats good are u finishing cattle? I presume ur using some sort of diet feeder?

Connemara Farmer

Richie185 wrote: »

Thats good are u finishing cattle? I presume ur using some sort of diet feeder?

Nope, lambing ewes indoors, no machinery.

Cran

Well its barley straw anyway, and looks good enough. What you paying in the west for it, I got a load from a lad I know over the weekend for €9 a bale dropped in the shed. He was looking to empty the shed and we had loads of room to carry it until next year.

Connemara Farmer

€19 here, got an artic load between a few of us, €23 delivered from lads selling at marts locally.

rangler1

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

Nope, lambing ewes indoors, no machinery.

Are they eating the straw for you yet.
It's only the fibre you need, doesn't matter about the DMD,
I don't like much grass in it either because unless there's a heatwave, it won't be saved properly, your straw looks fine anyway.
Hope it goes well for you, everything on it her, even the weaned pedigree lambs

Connemara Farmer

rangler1 wrote: »

Are they eating the straw for you yet.
It's only the fibre you need, doesn't matter about the DMD,
I don't like much grass in it either because unless there's a heatwave, it won't be saved properly, your straw looks fine anyway.
Hope it goes well for you, everything on it her, even the weaned pedigree lambs

Haven't them in yet, I've to sort out that ration issue first. Most lambing very end of this month anyway so I aim to have them in this week. Next year will be the proper test of it!

Green farmer

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

€19 here, got an artic load between a few of us, €23 delivered from lads selling at marts locally.

That's demographics for you. Some parts of the country you can buy straw cheap but the sheep are expensive. Other parts it's the opposite way around.

Cran

Green farmer wrote: »

That's demographics for you. Some parts of the country you can buy straw cheap but the sheep are expensive. Other parts it's the opposite way around.

Sounds crazy money to me, but then I'm surrounded by tillage and are the crazy one with sheep . I got top quality hay delivered cheaper this year than above quote for straw delivered....

sea12

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

€19 here, got an artic load between a few of us, €23 delivered from lads selling at marts locally.

Did the man finally deliver or did you get a different lad after con ?

4512

rangler1 wrote: »

Are they eating the straw for you yet.
It's only the fibre you need, doesn't matter about the DMD,
I don't like much grass in it either because unless there's a heatwave, it won't be saved properly, your straw looks fine anyway.
Hope it goes well for you, everything on it her, even the weaned pedigree lambs

What sort of meal/molasses/concentrates do ye use with straw and does it pay well compared to hay/silage?

rangler1

4512 wrote: »

What sort of meal/molasses/concentrates do ye use with straw and does it pay well compared to hay/silage?

It's more expensive than hay/silage but more convenient, cleaner, and less foot problems than in on silage. They don't seem to use more straw than if they were on silage and they have to get 1lb meal /day to replace silage.
I use an ordinary 18% ewe ration , but it looks to have a good percentage of oats in it, there's good fibre in oats and I believe it's good for ewes.
So if the ewes are in 110 days they'll need an extra 50kg meal or €15 this year.....I reckon the convenience of meal feeding is costing €5/ ewe extra over silage

Green farmer

Silage ain't exceptionally cheap either. Cost me €15 a bale to make last year.

rangler1

Green farmer wrote: »

Silage ain't exceptionally cheap either. Cost me €15 a bale to make last year.

Yea but they wouldn't eat a bale each in 110 days, I was guessing half a bale at 20/bale, but I wouldn't have clue about it

orm0nd

rangler1 wrote: »

Yea but they wouldn't eat a bale each in 110 days, I was guessing half a bale at 20/bale, but I wouldn't have clue about it

giving 180 ewes a bale per day , so you're not far off,

bales differ of course

Bullocks

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

I've gotten professional advice (from more than one source) on the ration diet indoors, so the feed value of the straw isn't something I'm all too worried about, just that they'll eat it for roughage

Be interesting to see will they pick at it Con . I dont think mine ate any they were bedded on and they were kept hungry before lambing but they were getting a fork of silage / hay aswell so probably didn't need any extra roughage .

rangler1

Bullocks wrote: »

Be interesting to see will they pick at it Con . I dont think mine ate any they were bedded on and they were kept hungry before lambing but they were getting a fork of silage / hay aswell so probably didn't need any extra roughage .

Over 600 eating straw here including 50 weaned 12week old lambs

Bullocks

rangler1 wrote: »

Over 600 eating straw here including 50 weaned 12week old lambs

Is it all from the bedding they pick out of ? Do you spread the dung yourself or do a deal with it for straw off a tillage farmer ?
Mine are mad for silage if they get it rather than hay or straw

Username John

Bullocks wrote: »

Be interesting to see will they pick at it Con . I dont think mine ate any they were bedded on and they were kept hungry before lambing but they were getting a fork of silage / hay aswell so probably didn't need any extra roughage .

rangler1 wrote: »

Over 600 eating straw here including 50 weaned 12week old lambs

I put my few into the shed at the weekend. They are eating away at the straw.

I rolled out about half the round bale, and what's left, I stand on end, and they kinda burrow into it, eating it. I scatter around then what they have pulled out.

Green farmer

I had store lambs in and gave them fresh bedding each day. Even though they had ad lib decent silage and some meal they still managed to eat the a good percentage of the barley straw bedding. I can see the merits of ranglers straw and meal diet. You'd know consistently going in to them and labour saving, as opposed to variable fodder quality. Only downside is keeping meal costs under control.

rangler1

Bullocks wrote: »

Is it all from the bedding they pick out of ? Do you spread the dung yourself or do a deal with it for straw off a tillage farmer ?
Mine are mad for silage if they get it rather than hay or straw

I've one shed where the pens aren't deep that I put it in the walkthrough trough and they pull it out under them and bed themselves, the others I just throw it into the middle of the pen, they don't be long getting clever and do most of their eating when the straw is freshly thrown in.
I spread the dung myself, A local tillage farmer supplies the straw, very well packed bales, €12 this year. Haven't enough straw accomadation, so have to get a load mid winter and haven't yet got bales as well packed as the local ones

Connemara Farmer

I have to say I thought the bales I got were well packed.

rangler1

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

I have to say I thought the bales I got were well packed.

It takes a lot of straw to pack a bale, definitely bought loads here where it took 3 bales to do the same as 2 that I bought local, but I take 250 bales from this guy so he values the custom and knows that I'm short of shed space.
With your transport costs it's imperative that every bale is worth drawing

Connemara Farmer

rangler1 wrote: »

It takes a lot of straw to pack a bale, definitely bought loads here where it took 3 bales to do the same as 2 that I bought local, but I take 250 bales from this guy so he values the custom and knows that I'm short of shed space.
With your transport costs it's imperative that every bale is worth drawing

These were, to be fair. In fact I had a lad that shared part of the load come down to me yesterday looking to buy a few of mine.

rangler1

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

These were, to be fair. In fact I had a lad that shared part of the load come down to me yesterday looking to buy a few of mine.

I'd keep that suppliers no. if I were you, hard to get them packed, It's a pity that they don't sell by weight like across the water

Connemara Farmer

rangler1 wrote: »

I'd keep that suppliers no. if I were you, hard to get them packed, It's a pity that they don't sell by weight like across the water

I don't know how many times I have pushed that idea at meetings and elsewhere. There is a lot of, messing, going on in fodder and bedding supply.

Green farmer

I got a load from my local contractor/ tillage farmer. They have several balers going at the same time. I'd say the load was baled by 3 different balers because all had different netting. Some bales were easily near 50% heavier then others depending on netting colour. Don't know if it was the guys working balers had different settings or if some balers just squeeze more in the others. Same crowd make thousands of bales for regular customers each year so I don't think they'd deliberately be mean with the straw, nor are they ever over priced with the different jobs they do for me.