Top quality bale silage

sucklerlover

Does anyone on here get away with feeding there weanlings just top quality bales for the winter. I give them bout 2kg a day to keep them thriving. A fella I was talking in mart told me he gives bales and no meal. I'd be afraid they'd get stunted.
I might try 10 acres if I taught anyone here has done likewise.
Thanks

bogman_bass

What is top quality?

weatherbyfoxer

bogman_bass wrote: »

What is top quality?

72% dmd+

I get the silage tested every year and go through it with my advise to see how much meal is needed with it

Justjens

Try and do it with the first cut, if it's too rich it will just go straight through them.

I always feed the weanlings well wilted first cut, and maybe the odd bale of second cut, they need a bit of roughage to bind them.

sucklerlover

bogman_bass wrote: »

What is top quality?

Nice short leafy grass that gets a good wilt he was talkin about.

sucklerlover

Justjens wrote: »

Try and do it with the first cut, if it's too rich it will just go straight through them.

I always feed the weanlings well wilted first cut, and maybe the odd bale of second cut, they need a bit of roughage to bind them.

That's it and no meal?

Greengrass1

Unless it's 80 dmd you may forget about it imo. Ours were on 76 dmd thus winter along with 1kg of 18% they did very well but would be no where near as good with out the meal

Justjens

sucklerlover wrote: »

That's it and no meal?

I'm lucky in that I have a short winter, in Christmas week and out end March.

Have had some difficult winters, 2012/'13 where they were very slow to get going on the grass, but by and large they do OK. I finish most of them off grass at 2yo.

They would definitely do better with a small bit of meal and have now got into the habit of giving them some when the silage is not great.

bogman_bass

sucklerlover wrote: »

Nice short leafy grass that gets a good wilt he was talkin about.

My point is that one mans top qualituy is another mans muck

Markcheese

Would it depend a lot on the weanlings as well ? Angus and Hereford types would be more likely to finish on good silage -

sucklerlover

Markcheese wrote: »

Would it depend a lot on the weanlings as well ? Angus and Hereford types would be more likely to finish on good silage -

Tis limousin weanlings I'd be feeding. I'd be growing them not fattening them. I'd b afraid the bulls would go hard if you didn't keep them thriving with a bit of grain. I seen some trial few years ago about weanlings that got well fed for winter were nearly the same weight after the following summer grazing as ones that didn't get a good a do.
Basically the less grain ones had more compensatory growth.

busyatwork

This year i fed hay only to my bull weanlings (charolais) ,i will admit they looked very poor and no muscle or conformation but i never seen such a change after one month on grass they turned themselfes inside out they grew muscles and taller ,i am now going to house them and feed the a 14% maize rashion and off to the factory

Sacrolyte

busyatwork wrote: »

This year i fed hay only to my bull weanlings (charolais) ,i will admit they looked very poor and no muscle or conformation but i never seen such a change after one month on grass they turned themselfes inside out they grew muscles and taller ,i am now going to house them and feed the a 14% maize rashion and off to the factory

Compensatory growth. Works every time.

Deepsouthwest

Sacrolyte wrote: »

Compensatory growth. Works every time.

What's the key to compensatory growth? Is it just about getting them out early enough?