Dexter Cattle For Sale Discussion Board

Hi what way is everyone going with feeding at this time of year

I have fed less this year because there was so much grass towards the end of the year. For feeding system see today's posting on facebook Burnside Dexter Cattle .

Ad lib haylage and Booster licks.

Ings haylage and clover silage, plus seaweed meal & rock salt. Still waiting the analysis on the haylage but the clover silage indicates much better sugars this year (which couldn't be difficult, given the abysmal quality of most of the 2012 forage) and they certainly seem better in combination than either fed alone.

What is the rock salt for?

Haylage plus Harbros hill cow rolls (cattle nuts). And occasionally, hay.

victorfirst wrote:What is the rock salt for?

Sodium; the forage doesn't provide enough & they can take too much of the seaweed (which is more expensive) to get enough salt.

Hay and Suckler Cow rolls but they get the latter all yr round.

Hay and sugar beet pellets

Silage and minerals

plus some rolled barley for a heifer who insists that she must put all her food into milk for her calf

a few beef nuts in the morning, then bedded with fresh barley straw, a lot of which they eat, hay in the evening.

get through half a 7ft mini heston bale of barley straw and half a 6ft mini heston bale of hay a day as a rule, top up with small bales of hay if the hay doesnt last two days. currently 27 cattle eating.