stretching silage

jd06

Hi all need to stretch my silage bales, I have straw and hay,
Just wondering if I started giving hay or straw to my cows now , would they go back in condition there in calf,
Also I have 2 yo bullocks on good silage if I gave them hay and straw would they also go back.

I mixed some straw and silage and I didn't think they liked it

whelan2

jd06 wrote: »

Hi all need to stretch my silage bales, I have straw and hay,
Just wondering if I started giving hay or straw to my cows now , would they go back in condition there in calf,
Also I have 2 yo bullocks on good silage if I gave them hay and straw would they also go back.

I mixed some straw and silage and I didn't think they liked it

We give silage and straw to our sucklers, yes they eat the silage first but they wont be long eating the straw if they are hungry

Muckit

Tis survival at this stage and keeping the knackery lorry out of the yard. Straw is just roughage, hay of dubious quality is little better.

If stores are going back to grass it wont make much difference what with compensatory growth when cattle do hit grass.

Cows are inevitably going to be late calling. It happened in 2013. Poor diet and no sunshine. It's been a winter of back to basics. Feed and water and keeping them on 4 legs is the name of the game.

And light a few candles and pray for a summer.

Buford T. Justice XIX

jd06 wrote: »

Hi all need to stretch my silage bales, I have straw and hay,
Just wondering if I started giving hay or straw to my cows now , would they go back in condition there in calf,
Also I have 2 yo bullocks on good silage if I gave them hay and straw would they also go back.

I mixed some straw and silage and I didn't think they liked it

You would want to be feeding some ration with the straw and hay to maintain the cattle in good condition, especially if you are restricting the amount of silage/hay/straw they are getting.

Do a feed budget. Say, the cattle will all be out in a month. Reduce your silage feeding to 1/30th of what you have. Likewise with the hay and straw and then bring up their intakes with ration, start off at 2kgs and bring it up slowly to what you need to balance the reduction in feed.

Aw Whelan2 said, they won't like it but they will soon get used to it. You may have to split the ration feeding as well if they are getting a lot of ration.

If cattle are out earlier, you can reduce the ration or keep the silage/hay/straw. If later, then increase the ration and reduce the silage/hay/straw.

blackdog1

Buford T. Justice V wrote:

Do a feed budget. Say, the cattle will all be out in a month. Reduce your silage feeding to 1/30th of what you have. Likewise with the hay and straw and then bring up their intakes with ration, start off at 2kgs and bring it up slowly to what you need to balance the reduction in feed.

Good advice but lads put in bread soda( sodium bicarbonate) or your gonna have problems with acidosis. Also try and put oats in the diet as it has great enzymes in it and doesn't sicken cattle if fed at a high ratio. Ideal for incalf cows.

Markcheese

Look on the positive side, at least you've hay and straw to feed... And if you're adding meal to it you can keep condition..(at a cost I know) but at least you're not having to pay another fortune for dubious hay or silage...

_Brian

If your feeding much straw you should feed some meal if you don’t want stock to fall back.

Doltanian

Back in the day they'd be feeding bonemeal now :mad: it was a major contributor of the BSE spread.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Doltanian wrote: »

Back in the day they'd be feeding bonemeal now :mad: it was a major contributor of the BSE spread.

The allowing of reduced temperatures to treat MBM allowed by the Thatcher government of the time during the oil crisis of the 70s was the major contributor to the spread of BSE. The reduced temperature allowed the prion to retain its infective capabilities, the higher temperatures previously specified denatured it leaving it as an ordinary protein.