Feeding Rolled straights

The notion of growing our own barley again is floating around at home here, the excuse of getting ground ploughed and opened up and also we have a notion that bought in feed just isn't as good as it should be.
Anyway we are thinking on making a mix of rolled barley and soya to make up the protein, feeding at about 1 to 3kgs a feed twice a day. Would there be any problems feeding like that?
 
Also gm free as we are part of this gm free producer group for exporting to Italy and we have to produce receipts for meal fed.
Just as an aside, I notice on the labels of Home N'Dry alkaline additive that it is made from GM soya. Might be something to keep in mind if anyone is buying treated grain and has an issue with that kind of thing for any reason.
 
The notion of growing our own barley again is floating around at home here, the excuse of getting ground ploughed and opened up and also we have a notion that bought in feed just isn't as good as it should be.
Anyway we are thinking on making a mix of rolled barley and soya to make up the protein, feeding at about 1 to 3kgs a feed twice a day. Would there be any problems feeding like that?

Is that 2 to 6kgs for the entire day? Also is it for the milking cows?
 
The notion of growing our own barley again is floating around at home here, the excuse of getting ground ploughed and opened up and also we have a notion that bought in feed just isn't as good as it should be.
Anyway we are thinking on making a mix of rolled barley and soya to make up the protein, feeding at about 1 to 3kgs a feed twice a day. Would there be any problems feeding like that?
Maybe think about mixing urea witht he barley,25kg of urea will push 1t of barley up 6%protien
 
What your actually doing is fooling the protein test. Protein is sampled on the assumption that all the nitrogen is nitrogen based protein. If you sent in urea it would come back as 287% protein (46n urea x 6.25) some of the n can be used by the animal but only a little bit over too much can lead to serious health problems and possible death.
 
What your actually doing is fooling the protein test. Protein is sampled on the assumption that all the nitrogen is nitrogen based protein. If you sent in urea it would come back as 287% protein (46n urea x 6.25) some of the n can be used by the animal but only a little bit over too much can lead to serious health problems and possible death.
The bacteria in the rumen use the nitrogen and convert it to protein for the animal. Anyways it looks that on a high forage diet like ours there isn't enough rapidly fermentable material in the rumen to use urea properly. It would suit fattening cattle on a high grain diet though. Thanks though headcase also thinking on fattening bulls in the future, could be an option for that. It goes well with maize apparently.
 
Anyone know if you can buy bulk bags of soya bean meal or barley balancer anywhere in the midlands, west or north west?
 
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.

How many kg per head are you giving the cows, thinking of doing the same as there is no last in the second cut compared to the first cut
 
How many kg per head are you giving the cows, thinking of doing the same as there is no last in the second cut compared to the first cut
5kg each in one feed per day. Cows are eating second cut 2 to 1 compared to first cut with us. But second cut is better than the no cut that we got at home
 
5kg each in one feed per day. Cows are eating second cut 2 to 1 compared to first cut with us. But second cut is better than the no cut that we got at home

It is the same here about 2 bales of second cut to 1 of first cut, roughly how long would a bale last on its own without the mix and with the mix
 
5kg each in one feed per day. Cows are eating second cut 2 to 1 compared to first cut with us. But second cut is better than the no cut that we got at home

That's a nice bit of barley to be feeding suckling cows. Are you carting all that out each morning with buckets ?
 
That's a nice bit of barley to be feeding suckling cows. Are you carting all that out each morning with buckets ?

We are feeding 4 pens of 7 (28 in total) with this in one shed and 2 pens of 7 in the other. They have good condition on them and so we are just maintaining them. The old man feeds them in the morning time. We have a stack of old metal oil drums that hold just over 17kg when full. I usually fill them at night and load them in the transport box and in the morning he feeds them out. It takes less than 20 minutes in total between filling the drums and feeding it out. He goes around then in the middle of the day and forks a small bit of silage and then in the evening one of us pushes up silage with the splitter so that they have enough to do for the night.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. We are sparing @ithastopay 's straw and bedding creep pens with rushes because if the grass growth is late in spring the straw will be needed for feeding rather than bedding (which was not the initial plan). Lucky we got both the straw and the rushes. And we're not that badly off. 10 miles further north than us and there's lads got no fodder and have cattle in since the end of August. 200 suckler cows went through Drumshambo mart last friday night where there would normally be 20 or 30. Lads were bring in cows with calves still sucking them and driving the cows for the cull cow ring and calves for the weanling ring. A lorry load of could best be described as welger rp12 bales of hay was selling outside the mart for €50/bale. Lads selling cows said that they'll never get back into them. They'll buy a few dry stock to run for the summer in order to be able to claim the grants. It's a sad situation. We are lucky. We recon that our BDGP money will cover the cost of the extra feed that we need this year. But we will feed 25+ ton more meal than any other year.
 
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We are feeding 4 pens of 7 (28 in total) wit this in one shed and 2 pens of 7 in the other. They have good condition on them and so we are just maintaining them. The old man feeds them in the morning time. We have a stack of old metal oil drums that hold just over 17kg when full. I usually fill them at night and load them in the transport box and in the morning he feeds them out. It takes less than 20 minutes in total between filling the drums and feeding it out. He goes around then in the middle of the day and forks a small bit of silage and then in the evening one of us pushes up silage with the splitter so that they have enough to do for the night.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. We are sparing @ithastopay 's straw and bedding creep pens with rushes because if the grass growth is late in spring the straw will be needed for feeding rather than bedding (which was not the initial plan). Lucky we got both the straw and the rushes. And we're not that badly off. 10 miles further north than us and there's lads got no fodder and have cattle in since the end of August. 200 suckler cows went through Drumshambo mart last friday night where there would normally be 20 or 30. Lads were bring in cows with calves still sucking them and driving the cows for the cull cow ring and calves for the weanling ring. A lorry load of could best be described as welger rp12 bales of hay was selling outside the mart for €50/bale. Lads selling cows said that they'll never get back into them. They'll buy a few dry stock to run for the summer in order to be able to claim the grants. It's a sad situation. We are lucky. We recon that our BDGP money will cover the cost of the extra feed that we need this year. But we will feed 25+ ton more meal than any other year.
There should be a dislike button for the picture your painting. Similar 10km west of me. Cows were in at the begining of august. I had allot of cattle in the 15th of sept and they have a serious whack of feed eaten. Most are currently being killed and wont be replaced thankfully. Im looking around for silage to buy but nothing much around.
 
There should be a dislike button for the picture your painting. Similar 10km west of me. Cows were in at the begining of august. I had allot of cattle in the 15th of sept and they have a serious whack of feed eaten. Most are currently being killed and wont be replaced thankfully. Im looking around for silage to buy but nothing much around.

In reality we are in it for the long haul. Dad is relatively young and it is my intention to play more of a part in the whole farm down the line which will ultimately mean less work off farm. We live with that eternal hope that around the next turn prices will be better and weather conditions will be more favorable. The wheel always turns and each sector has its turn.

But from the perspective of an older suckler farmer who may not have a successor and who may have got no silage this year, and maybe has all cattle housed for the last 3 to 4 months, and maybe has 10k to €15k between ANC, SFP and Glas - what would he be keeping suckler cows for? This is the third really crap year in the last 6 or 7 years. The lads that were just hanging on are really pi$$ed off at this stage. No offence to anyone, but maybe a good reduction in suckler cow numbers is what the whole thing needs. It's certainly what big Phil and Europe are seeking - more forestry, less people living in the countryside, more people in the towns. I have no problem with forestry so long as its farmers that are planting their own land, getting paid to maintain it and living off it as opposed to big companies profiting from it!
 
They must be some size of 'buckets' if they hold 17kgs of meal - 20 litre oil drums here hold approximately 18lbs of meal....
 
They must be some size of 'buckets' if they hold 17kgs of meal - 20 litre oil drums here hold approximately 18lbs of meal....

Aye, they are a good size. Old 5 gallon oil drums which are a good bit taller than the modern 20l drum. We weigh on a luggage scale. That feed is small grain and weighs heavy.
 
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We are feeding 4 pens of 7 (28 in total) with this in one shed and 2 pens of 7 in the other. They have good condition on them and so we are just maintaining them. The old man feeds them in the morning time. We have a stack of old metal oil drums that hold just over 17kg when full. I usually fill them at night and load them in the transport box and in the morning he feeds them out. It takes less than 20 minutes in total between filling the drums and feeding it out. He goes around then in the middle of the day and forks a small bit of silage and then in the evening one of us pushes up silage with the splitter so that they have enough to do for the night.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. We are sparing @ithastopay 's straw and bedding creep pens with rushes because if the grass growth is late in spring the straw will be needed for feeding rather than bedding (which was not the initial plan). Lucky we got both the straw and the rushes. And we're not that badly off. 10 miles further north than us and there's lads got no fodder and have cattle in since the end of August. 200 suckler cows went through Drumshambo mart last friday night where there would normally be 20 or 30. Lads were bring in cows with calves still sucking them and driving the cows for the cull cow ring and calves for the weanling ring. A lorry load of could best be described as welger rp12 bales of hay was selling outside the mart for €50/bale. Lads selling cows said that they'll never get back into them. They'll buy a few dry stock to run for the summer in order to be able to claim the grants. It's a sad situation. We are lucky. We recon that our BDGP money will cover the cost of the extra feed that we need this year. But we will feed 25+ ton more meal than any other year.

That's fair tough going.
Would keeping sheep on heavy ground like that be easier than cattle.
Fodder requirement alot lower and sheep would be alot easier on ground.
 
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