Feeding Rolled straights

Blackwater boy said:
Are they Bulls?
I'd reckon he will sicken them maybe even kill them. That could end in disaster.
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Think so for the u16 months. Plus some heavier and older heifers.

ithastopay said:
Wouldn't barley want to be 3 weeks cut before feeding it? And small amounts to begin with, I think it would be impossible to feed barley ad-lib to those cattle or any cattle for that matter.
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I would have said the same. I think the recommended is two weeks. We'd generally mix it in with the previous years for a while unless the quality was vastly different.
 
ithastopay said:
How much would you feed to young stock?
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Small number of my cows and calves in shed 3 weeks tomorrow. Calves were getting 1 kg per day rolled barley in the creep but since housing they are eating 3kg. First week they ate 4kg for the first few days and went 3 days without eating any at all because they had sickened themselves.
 
What do you make of this practice?
An information booklet that came with my feeder (a nz production) advises that weanlings as young as 8 weeks can be fed rolled barley and to get them started on it they advise that you sprinkle milk powder onto it for a few days. They say that it will get them eating it very quickly. (amount that they can eat is limited so no danger of acidosis)
 
muckymanor said:
What do you make of this practice?
An information booklet that came with my feeder (a nz production) advises that weanlings as young as 8 weeks can be fed rolled barley and to get them started on it they advise that you sprinkle milk powder onto it for a few days. They say that it will get them eating it very quickly. (amount that they can eat is limited so no danger of acidosis)
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I reckon you see a major benefit if doing this with bucket calves. Its something I have researched but never done as yet, but I think it has merit to get calves of milk replacer quicker
 
I'm no expert on feeding cattle but is a drastic change in diet to high levels of grain not a fairly basic mistake? I presume the barley will be balanced with something but it's still a very risky venture, you'd want to be camped in the shed watching them I would imagine
 
Tippcon said:
I'm no expert on feeding cattle but is a drastic change in diet to high levels of grain not a fairly basic mistake? I presume the barley will be balanced with something but it's still a very risky venture, you'd want to be camped in the shed watching them I would imagine
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ya I don't see the point in it, slow and steady. Some lads love bringing hardship on themselves
 
Tippcon said:
I'm no expert on feeding cattle but is a drastic change in diet to high levels of grain not a fairly basic mistake? I presume the barley will be balanced with something but it's still a very risky venture, you'd want to be camped in the shed watching them I would imagine
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marco said:
ya I don't see the point in it, slow and steady. Some lads love bringing hardship on themselves
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In fairness there is an emphasis put on restricting the amount that they can eat using the feeders restriction ability. Google brings up figures of max 400g per day for calves under 10 weeks
 
I think
muckymanor said:
In fairness there is an emphasis put on restricting the amount that they can eat using the feeders restriction ability. Google brings up figures of max 400g per day for calves under 10 weeks
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those replys were more your neighbour ramping up the barley feeding very quickly not for you id think
 
muckymanor said:
In fairness there is an emphasis put on restricting the amount that they can eat using the feeders restriction ability. Google brings up figures of max 400g per day for calves under 10 weeks
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I was talking about Nashmach's buddy
 
Seedsower said:
Barley beef was practised back 20 years ago or more ie adlib barley.
Anyone remember it??
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Used do it here, worked perfect but wasnt a method in the interest of the feed merchants. We kept it up until subs disappeared of the bulls and when they were getting a 5p+(per lb) price premium over bullocks. happy days back them
 
Seedsower said:
So was it just rolled barley alone ad lib?
Modern thinking wouldn't agree
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It started with just straight rolled barley (this was when the bulls were on grass, never done it indoors), and then moved onto crimp barley done properly (cut at 35%mc) and they getting as much as they would eat. I would go back at the same regime in the morning if returns were similar to back then.
 
We have fed over 80 bales and missed out on 150 bales of second cut in the last few weeks. To take away hassle in the spring we priced around for a straight or a mix to buffer silage. Best thing that we could come up with for feeding suckler cows is a 3 way mix. 65% barley, 20% oats and 15% beet pulp. We will have it blown into the loft at €193 per ton. Doing the sums, we would need to be buying very dry silage greater than 65dmd in very big bales at €19 per Bale to match it in feed value.
 
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muckymanor said:
We have fed over 80 bales and missed out on 150 bales of second cut in the last few weeks. To take away hassle in the spring we priced around for a straight or a mix to buffer silage. Best thing that we could come up with for feeding suckler cows is a 3 way mix. 65% barley, 20% oats and 15% beet pulp. We will have it blown into the loft at €193 per ton. Doing the sums, we would need to be buying very dry silage greater than 65dmd in very big bales at €19 per Bale to match it in feed value.
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That's seriously cheap
 
Blackwater boy said:
That's seriously cheap
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It sure is ,what would small amount of beef pulp per ton work out at collected.I would expect to pay at least €190/t collected for barley/oats .I think oats is dear feed ,i think quality is normally poor with poor enough feed value at the best of times .The trouble is in coarse feed how can you tell if there is not more then 20% of oats in the mix
 
Blackwater boy said:
That's seriously cheap
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€190 for barley on its own from the same crowd. There's no minerals in it.

I can give anyone the details if they want to pm me.

I think it's a no brainer not to buy silage when we can get this. Also will have to seriously reconsider making second cut silage in future.
 
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The local rumour mill is talking about €230-€250/t for rolled barley from a couple of merchants for this winter. I would presume it's in small bags at that price but it still sounds extortionate considering what is being quoted for green grain. A man told me lately that rolled oats was €280/t blown into a bin last winter, he took issue with the price when he was paying for it and he was told it was a premium product so he had to pay a premium price. There's a brother-in-law of mine de-awning and cleaning all his oats and selling it whole, cracked or rolled in either 25kg or 500kg bags or bulk, he wouldn't be getting the colour of that for any of it. I think he's €190/t for rolled barley collected in bulk.
 
muckymanor said:
€190 for barley on its own from the same crowd. There's no minerals in it.

I can give anyone the details if they want to pm me.

I think it's a no brainer not to buy silage when we can get this. Also will have to seriously reconsider making second cut silage in future.
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That's mad as oats is around €5-10 cheaper than barley and beet pulp is a good bit more expensive than both
 
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