vegetable waste for feed - has anyone any experience

[Saffy]

Well Beryl, it obviously proves that Dexters are more intelligent than Friesians if they just ate the roots because when our neighbours Friesians broke into our spud field they also ate the haulm and one was dead very soon afterwards!

Stephanie

[Penny]

Thanks for clarifying the info from Defra, Ben, because I was starting to feel I was completely paranoid by saying that I did not think you could use vegetable peelings , if you followed guidance.

My dexters adore carrots, but I think I should increase their rations, as there is always one cow who loudly cannot find her calf in the middle of the night!

[domsmith]

Silage is £12-15 per bale if you can find any decent stuff.

if you make it youself with fertiliser and diesel costs then its probably costs more than that!

with straw at 70-80 per ton as well we are looking at everything

[Sylvia]

Should have taken her to Specsavers, Penny.

[Rob & Alison Kirk]

Dom....We make our own haylage which averaged out at £3.57 per big round bale (netwrap/black plastic wrap/diesel, including carting the bales). Fertiliser is too expensive, so we don't use any. (560 bales this year)

We do have our own equipment (purchased from local farmers when they're upgrading, but in good working order and over a few years the machinery will pay for itself).

Between £12 & £15 would be the price we would expect to pay for bought in haylage in this area - North Cotswolds.

If we use contractors, probably cost around £6+ per bale?

Using waste veg....some farmers in the area have loads of waste veg from canning factories to feed their commercial cattle. It never looks a good feed, but the cattle obviously fatten on it.

Don't forget though Dexters have an excellent digestive system and utilise all their feed in a way most other breeds do not and should finish on grassland products (having said that, it does depend on the area you farm).

Robert & Alison Kirk
Boram Dexters

[monica waltho]

If going to feed something like potatoes make sure you add to ration carefully as too many too soon can kill as they ferment in the cows stomach

[domsmith]

Thats an incredible price of 3.57.bale wrap up here costs around 1.50 a bale and bailing is 2.80. so add cutting and rowing up and carting we are well above that. you also have to add on muck spreading and fertiliser if you use it. minimum contractor price is 18 per hour with a single machine

so you are getting some serious value! i need to move!

[Broomcroft]

I think if you cost everything in, including your own time, fertiliser and/or muck, looking after your equipment, fuel, seed, ploughing, harrowing, rolling, topping, fencing......everything, you will get up over £10 a big square bale very quickly, wherever you are (in the UK). I'd say nearer the £15 than the £10.

Put it like this, if your costs are just a few quid and the price is £15, why bother doing beef? You don't see many forage producers driving around in Porsches , which if they had a profit margin of 75% they would be.



Edited By Broomcroft on 1224365362

[Duncan MacIntyre]

All my hay is bought from Stirlingshire and brought on to the island, this year I got a lorry with trailer full, about 800 small bales weight about 19 tons and cost very nearly £3000 - ie 42 bales to the ton at £3.75 each bale. I could buy locally but can't rely on availability or quality. I could use wrapped big round bale silage but have not got the equipment to handle it. It is getting increasingly difficult to get small bales anywhere near here and I may have to go down the big bale route but shudder at the thought of having to get tractor for handling as it will make a big mess of steep wet ground and will need to be capable of handling the bales on slopes etc. It does very little damage to ground to walk across the field with a small bale or two every morning, and takes a lot less time than starting up tractors and maintaining them, and coping with the inevitable breakdown cos mine would not be shining new.

Duncan

[Broomcroft]

We have moved away from small bales for similar reasons, uneconomic and hard to get. We do dry wrapped silage (or haylage if you prefer to call it that). We wait until it's almost hay and then wrap it. That's what we now use for the 12 or so horses we have on the farm and for some sheep. I open up a big bale where it stands, or move it a bit to somewhere undercover where I always have a open bale, therefore not driving a JCB everywhere and creating a mess, and then we peel it off (it comes off in quite tight rolls or flaps); stick it in the back of our mule, or put it in big fertiliser type bags, tie it down and take it out to the horses and also sometimes sheep/cattle. It works well, almost as good as small bales, but always excellent quality.

We still need to be able to initially move the bales to somewhere suitable though. But a big advantage is the ability to keep all your forage outdoors whatever the weather.

By keeping to grass/clover forage as well, most of the omega 3 in the beef will be maintained at a fair level. I would imagine that anything that is not made from green leaves will destroy the beneficial fatty acids, like grain does.

We also do very high white clover content haylage, which is wetter, but incredibly high in protein and should be in beneficial fatty acids as well. The animals go crazy for that and they can be finished almost as easily as using grain but at a fraction of the cost and all the health benefits still in situ, in fact enhanced from what I understand.



Edited By Broomcroft on 1224402043

[Sylvia]

Most of our haylage, which is in big bales, now comes chopped. Less easy to peel off in slices but the animals love it and it is good for forking out in front of barriers too.