Feeding potatoes, carrots and grain waste - feeding

[119-1234036725]

I am looking for experience people have had feeding potatoes, carrots, and waste grain to dexters in milk.

My situation: we commercially raise potatoes & carrots; and grain for bread, pancake mixes, rolled oats (not for cattle feed). We had a jersey milk cow & steer for home use for 30 years. Now finally completely switched over to dexter for reasons of better suitability to the small farm. Jerseys require too much grain, have too much milk for a busy non hard cheese maker (I can handle yogurt & cream cheese), and have too many health problems.

So we have potato and carrot pickouts and wheat middlings, oat waste (real nice) and buckwheat hulls.

My problem: I have one dexter since she was a week old 17 months ago. She can handle up to 15 pounds of carrot/potato per day without any problem. I never gave her any grain to speak of (maybe a couple of pounds/ day) because she was always well rounded on our lush clover pasture and clover hay.

My second cow is a small chondro carrier came in August with a heifer calf and was a little thin when I bought her because she was just on thin hay. So I started them in on our waste grain and worked cow up to 5 pounds/day. When pickout potatoes/carrots became available I worked her gradually up to 20 pounds/day. Jerseys I have fed 50 pounds/day with no problem and a dairy farmer freind with jersey/holsteins used to feed 150 pounds/day. Every dairy and beef cow in potato country eats pickouts (they must be ground to prevent choking).
In December the heifer (6 months old bloated and died. She was not on much potato/carrot because she did not prefer it. She may have had some (pound or two of grain). I dont really know what took her. It was fast, I thought she was ok, feel awful, of course. It was not choking. Overnight bloat.

Then the cow bloated, non critical and I walked her, watched her, kept the vet updated, she was ok, it went down. The vet thinks the oldfashioned breeding won't handle the fast fermenting grain/potato/carrot type foods as well as the modern breeds.
So I have this good feed, but am afraid to push her back into it. I have taken her back up to 2 pounds of grain, 10 pounds of potato/carrot.

Does anyone have ideas? I know some think I should drive to the grain store any buy the real thing, but that is not why we traded down to dexters. We wanted to have a cow that fit into our farm.

[Saffy]

I haven't fed any of this to Dexters in milk but I have to my other dairy cows - MUCH bigger and they had about the same amount as your little adult Dexter.

I think you may be feeding too high a quantity of these products especially to the one that you had so young and especially as you seem to feed it all the time, they will eat vastly more than they should if it is nice! Also it sounds as if you could be changing the diet quite drastically but it is hard to tell from your post how gradually you have changed the diet.

What other feed is available to the dexters? Are they out grazing as well? Had the grazing changed at this time? What do you mean by some pound or two of grain, was it just a ound or 2 pounds or could it have been much more? It seems odd that the other also got ill and suggests that what you are feeding needs to be looked at, you possibly need to reduce the potato, carrot and grain and up the grass or hay.

However if they are out at grass and you have clover, especially if you have red clover that could have been the culprit, if it was too much grain or too sudden an increase it could be barley poisoning, look at the size of your dexter and ratio her potato/carrot/grain feed size according to her cow size, maybe it is too much for her as it sounds as if you are feeding for a normal sized cow, if they aren't getting enough other feed for roughage it could be a digestive problem so more info please. Then I am sure someone here will know the answer.

Stephanie

[119-1234036725]

I always introduce new things gradually. They are on clover pasture from mid may to early october. then at freeze up into the barn on clover hay. 12 pounds/day, plus a little if they will clean it up.

With the jerseys, I increased gradually up to 50 pounds of potatoes per day with no ill effects. Other dairy farmers were feeding double that. But I found that their manure was not smelling nice above 40 -50 pounds, so I thought I better not upset the nice gut working.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

I would broadly agree with Sylvia's comments, and think that the fibre content is very low and should be increased considerably.

Could any of the potato have got green? Green potatoes and potato stems are bad for causing frothy bloat just like clover.

Whatever diet you feed must be consistent with healthy rumen activity. I think what you have been giving has upset the balance of this, and needs to be corrected. If you are producing the vegetables in commercial quantity you would most likely need a great number of Dexters to be able to use it all usefully. Don't be afraid to use it at all, just in moderation.

Duncan

[Woodmagic]

I used to feed a maximum of 15lbs potatoes when I had a dairy herd of Dexters during the war and was under the impression this was the optimum. They certainly milked well on this quantity, and I was a great fan for them in moderation. I would think 50lbs was far in excess for a Dexter. I agree with Saffy, they will eat too much if it is put in front of them, in nature they have to work for it.
Beryl (Woodmagic)

[119-1234036725]

The 50 pound amount was fed in our pre dexter days to our jersey milk cow. A jersey can healthily handle that. I was figuring (originally) that if a jersey weighs 900#, and a dexter (my larger) 600#, then half of the jersey's ration would be a conservative dexter ration. And the larger dexter can handle that . But the smaller doesn't seem to be able to. Well, I should say, she was happy on it until that particular 35 degree below zero morning.
thanks, all, I guess I'll just go real conservative with little Bossy.