Finishing hoggets with fodder beet?

richie123

Has anyone here ever finished hoggets with fodder beet access to good bale silage and straw Ina shed ?a lick of meal but not a lot.

Dinzee Conlee

richie123 wrote: »

Has anyone here ever finished hoggets with fodder beet access to good bale silage and straw Ina shed ?a lick of meal but not a lot.

Don’t have experience, but I don’t know if fodder beer would have high enough protein to finish.

But, if you feeding a bit of meal you should do...

Will you be chopping the beet? Gave sheep I had inside on straw before whole beet, and they ate them fine but they had the bed destroyed from rooting at the beet...

Will be feeding my hogs silage + whole fodder beet for the winter, albeit outside. So I’ll know more in about 4 months time, but that’s no use to you now

richie123

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Don’t have experience, but I don’t know if fodder beer would have high enough protein to finish.

But, if you feeding a bit of meal you should do...

Will you be chopping the beet? Gave sheep I had inside on straw before whole beet, and they ate them fine but they had the bed destroyed from rooting at the beet...

Will be feeding my hogs silage + whole fodder beet for the winter, albeit outside. So I’ll know more in about 4 months time, but that’s no use to you now

I would be chopping yes.something I might try next Jan or Feb especially if it gets real wet with no grass ...have my own supply of beet.hoggets will be 40 plus kg coming in

Dinzee Conlee

richie123 wrote: »

I would be chopping yes.something I might try next Jan or Feb especially if it gets real wet with no grass ...have my own supply of beet.hoggets will be 40 plus kg coming in

I’ll be starting feeding mine silage and fodder beet in about 2 weeks time I’d say...
I’ll let you know how I get on...

interested1

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

I’ll be starting feeding mine silage and fodder beet in about 2 weeks time I’d say...
I’ll let you know how I get on...

Hi, I’m wondering you got on with fodder beet? Considering it for next winter. Most likely buying it washed and feeding it whole in the field (current thinking!)

Dinzee Conlee

interested1 wrote: »

Hi, I’m wondering you got on with fodder beet? Considering it for next winter. Most likely buying it washed and feeding it whole in the field (current thinking!)

Found it poor to fatten to be honest, plus a lot of work... Fed it whole like you're planning, but its messy...

Used it before for ewes with lambs, and found it good for milk. But for lambs, no, wont be using it again...

joe35

We would feed a lot of fodder beet and I think it's a source of a lot of our problems as it's lacking in vitamins and minerals.

I seen on a beef forum that when feeding beet you need to have a high protein meal with it.

Also read somewhere about it taking lambs up to 40kgs but after this they would be moved off beet to finish.

I started looking into feeding beet the last couple of weeks. It's a very good maintenance feed but that seems to be it. High in energy but nothing else.


Problems we have this year are ewes with poor milk/mastitis. Although we fed meal, I think sheep didn't get enough as they where eating beet too. I didn't allow for the lack of protein.

We've a couple of lambs with swayback. It could be ground low in copper, or could be a lack of vitamins mid pregnancy. Have to investigate this further.

I think it could have an effect on our scan too as beet can inhibit the uptake of iodine. We don't substitute for this. Might bolus some ewes this year and see is there any improvement.

In general beet is only a maintenance feed, probably not as good as decent silage, as it lacks too much vitamins and minerals

memorystick

I was going to try beet this year but I think I’ll stick with meal. Gave them hay with 1 kg each of ration. Silage goes off too quick and they’re fussy.

wrangler

joe35 wrote: »

We would feed a lot of fodder beet and I think it's a source of a lot of our problems as it's lacking in vitamins and minerals.

I seen on a beef forum that when feeding beet you need to have a high protein meal with it.

Also read somewhere about it taking lambs up to 40kgs but after this they would be moved off beet to finish.

I started looking into feeding beet the last couple of weeks. It's a very good maintenance feed but that seems to be it. High in energy but nothing else.


Problems we have this year are ewes with poor milk/mastitis. Although we fed meal, I think sheep didn't get enough as they where eating beet too. I didn't allow for the lack of protein.

We've a couple of lambs with swayback. It could be ground low in copper, or could be a lack of vitamins mid pregnancy. Have to investigate this further.

I think it could have an effect on our scan too as beet can inhibit the uptake of iodine. We don't substitute for this. Might bolus some ewes this year and see is there any improvement.

In general beet is only a maintenance feed, probably not as good as decent silage, as it lacks too much vitamins and minerals

Ironically mastitis can come from poor milk supply as well, lambs keep sucking even if they're getting feck all until they eventually hurt her, the cold wind doesn't help either.
Same with triplets if the ewe isn't able for them, she'll eventually get mastitis

joe35

wrangler wrote: »

Ironically mastitis can come from poor milk supply as well, lambs keep sucking even if they're getting feck all until they eventually hurt her, the cold wind doesn't help either.
Same with triplets if the ewe isn't able for them, she'll eventually get mastitis

I was thinking that myself re the mastitis.

Talking to a fella who leaves the triplets on the ewes. He just puts plenty of soya in with the ewe crunch and lambs are flying. Mixes it 4 to 1.

I tried it here with 2 triplets and they're flying. Might do that with all of them next year. The lambs pick away at the meal