Fodder Beet

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 7:07 pm

Anybody use lifted fodder beet over the winter? What's it like as cattle feed, and can you finish on it together with hay / haylage? Does it need chopping up? or just leave it as it. The supply I've got is clean and minus tops.

davidw · Post by **davidw** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:04 pm

I've been feeding some stubble turnips. I've been chopping them because I was worried about possible choking. I've found that sometimes when they grab larger roots before I chopped them they spit them out - so I'd say chopping is necessary.

Martin · Post by **Martin** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:34 pm

Hi Clive,
I havn't fed fodder beet to cows but did for a number of years feed it to sheep. I always chopped mine in an old hand driven shredder. The sheep loved it and did very well on it.
I know that you can buy a root chopper bucket to go on a tele handler though they are expensive they do do a good job.
Fodder beet is easy to store using a straw clamp to protect from frost. If you decide to grow it be prepared for big clamp as it can be very high yielding.
your cows will be very gratefull to you if you do decide to grow it.

clacko · Post by **clacko** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 12:44 am

farm use to feed fodder beet to holstien hiefers, never chopped it just tipped straight out of trailer through a large grain shoot type hole, long line down the field meant it was easy to walk back along and check, probably 75 young stock fed on this system with rye grass stalks for years never new of any choking. one got ran into with loader tractor one year as they use to mug you until you had a 20yrd line out. cattle always done well on them, my uncle feeds pedigree southdowns on them still, whole beet and they just knaw away at them. good feed easy to store and they keep well. we do still feed some beet to the wild red deer herd we have on the estate, best way we put them out now is through a dung spreader with vertical beaters and they get smashed up a treat

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 6:42 pm

What about mess? Someone said the sheep may get runny and dirty, didn;t comment on cattle. Both sheep and the cattle on fodder beet will be inside so I need to keep them dry.

Edited By Broomcroft on 1257875017

Martin · Post by **Martin** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:06 pm

Fodder beet is a high dry matter feed and should not in reasonable quantities cause any upsets. I never had any more dirty sheep than usual when feeding it. I'm not sure what would happen if fed with silage that was a bit wet. A bit of trial and error to get to the optimum feed rate will probably be the way forward.

clacko · Post by **clacko** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:47 pm

i cant recall any problems with cattle being looser than usual, introduce and increase slowly and you should be fine, i did feed some sugar beet last winter and my stock was ok on that. there also seems to be a glut of spuds at the moment so got a good stock of them for the next few weeks, if the weather is kind they should keep through to xmas. paul

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Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:15 pm

Well I'm going to give 'em a go. Got a trailer load being delivered shortly, going to put some big bales on each side and pallets on the floor, and tip them on the pallets. Only £20 a tonne delivered. Thanks for the help.

bjreroberts · Post by **bjreroberts** » Sun Aug 15, 2010 8:34 am

Hi Clive,

How did you get on with the beet?
Did you feed whole or shred?
Was it labour intensive?

Just looking at options with the high cost of hay this year.

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Sun Aug 15, 2010 12:21 pm

Hi Ben

I didn't go for fodder beet last year but I am probably going to try it this winter. I would have fed it straight.

I'm also very concerned about forage and straw prices. Even the wheat that has grown is very short this year. Only good side is that some farmers who plough their straw back in might bale it this year hopefully.

What I'm doing is keeping as many cattle outside all or most of the winter to save straw and feeding them whatever I can get in troughs up against the fencing, fodder beet, and I'm also going to strip graze the aftermath and put bales of haylage out in ring feeders. I'm going to try grass nuts and linseed pellets this winter in the troughs.

I tie my troughs to the fence and when they've finished I have bits of strings on them and pull them up against the fence so they can't tread in them like they love to do.

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