Bales for Beef Cattle

Amprodude

Hi there.

Im hoping to keep 10 beef cattle on the farm in few years taking over farm from my father part time as i have a full time job outside of farming.

Plan is to buy in 1 year old cattle (bullocks) in Late March/Early April either herefords or Angus and keep them for a year and then send them for slaughter. The question is how much silage would I approx need for them over the winter? I would be making baled silage. How many bales would I have to make to have enough for them for the winter months? What would be a general figure would anyone know?

Thanks

TL17

Depending on how well made the bale is 1 should do 2 to 3 days
6 month winter you need 60 to 90

anthony500_1

TL17 wrote:

Depending on how well made the bale is 1 should do 2 to 3 days 6 month winter you need 60 to 90

Bang on the Money, 60 would be tight, but if you were feeding ration as well you could have enough. Make plenty if you can. 100 bales will see you very comfortably over the winter and if you have some left over sell it on. Other thing is if your new to baled silage watch for holes in plastic as this will cause lots of mould and waste, it's expensive enough with out dumping half a bale due to mould.

Good loser

Hard to see you needing even 60 bales.

With low stocking (?) the Winter should be more like 4 months than 6.

Rolled barley is as cheap as bales.

BENDYBINN

Will they be housed over winter?

Amprodude

BENDYBINN wrote: »

Will they be housed over winter?

Yes

Wessel3

Best answer I can give is base your silage calculations on dry matter intake.

Dry matter requirements at around 3% of bodyweight

Example. 300kg animal is 9kg DM/day
Ten beef cattle need 270kg DM/ day

To calculate bales need you need to have half an idea of weight of bales and DM of them. Eg 700 kg silage bale at 30% DM is 210 kg of DM. You basically multiply up your requirements over the time period. Then calculate how much DM is in a bale. And simply divide. Bales can be drier o wetter and heavier too.
Factor in concentrate intake too offsets forage intake
As fool proof a system as I can see 👠good luck

_Brian

Another Big thing is how long is a typical housed period where you farm.

Is it Leitrim/Cavan where lads make 5-6 months feed, or farther south we’re 3 months would be the norm.