ad-lib, or rationed feeding.

[SteveM]

Cattle are winter housed in pens with feed barriers with troughs in front. At the moment we feed the hay daily, they get cattle nuts in the morning, and bedded with barley staw which they also eat. Evenings they get beet/turnips when available, and hay.

May be switching to round baled hay, so would be easier to feed whole bale into a ring feeder.

My question is would the cattle eat more? Or as they are now competing with the rest of the pen for what is offered once a day would they actually eat less if its available ad-lib.

[ann]

Hi Steve

I find dexters can be very wasteful if you are not careful when using ring feeds.

I feed mine in ring feeders and we split a bale of silage (bordering on haylage) between three pens (45 cattle in total) and we then put the bedding straw for the next day on top of the silage and this works really well as they have to forage for their silage. In the mornings we move the ring feeders and bed them up with the straw that is left. Bingo no waste. Plus they also eat quite a lot of the straw, so as our silage is very good that helps balance it out.

Previous we just put the silage in and put up with the waste, but with the last to years being quite dry I have been low on my silage so have had to think of a way to save on waste and this way we get zero waste

i hope this helps.

[Rob R]

We have always fed hay/haylage/silage in ring feeders but it had two disadvantages; 1) space taken up inside the shed (less space for cows) & needing a teleporter everytime for feeding & 2) competition for space at the feeders. The dominant animals fed well & less dominant didn't, even with ad-lib. The new cattle shed will have feed barriers full length, more space for all to feed, can feed without entering pen & use tractor instead. Still going to feed ad-lib to get the feed into them, but then we only forage-feed.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

In my part of the world hay and straw often work out almost the same price, so a little waste from the hay will easily turn into bedding and save straw costs. It really all depends on the quality of hay and straw and the relative prices of each what is best to do.

For the last few years I have only had adult bulls in all winter, and my hay is home made and contains a bit of rough stuff, rushes etc, which is usually left and I have not needed any other bedding - still have most of a load of straw small bales I got in 2009.

Duncan

[carole]

We find that those who are fed by a ring feeder, they being the 26 cows generally use a large bale of haylage every 2 days, but they also have ad lib access to Barley straw. My problem though is the amount of waste we have around the feeder.

But the steers and heifer calves are fed through a feed barrier on to a trough and there is much less wastage within them as we feed them twice a day and they eat all they can get through. These groups also eat a large amount of barley straw which is also there bedding.

Have not as yet had any opportunity to use any fodder beet and wonder about its feed value, when we compare our costs of producing a bale of haylage (£13.75) I expect it will be cheaper but will it help.

I certainly feel that a ration helps you measure your use of feed and its cost through a winter period.

May be we should start moving the ring feeder around and so reduce the wasted haylage??

[Broomcroft]

I think with ring feeders, which is what we use, they tend to stick their head in, get a mouthful, retract and chew and half of it ends up on the floor, some of which they'll eat off the floor. I've never used barrier feeder, but can imagine they stick their heads through and leave it there so waste drops back into the trough and gets eaten. Is this correct? I'm just guessing.

Maybe it's to do with the shape of the ring feeders and their heads being close to each other because they're pointing inwards and they don't want the next guy to knick the grub out of their mouths.

Or maybe it's because the forage is lower?

Anybody used a square feeder? Are they better?

I'd love to know the answer because I get through a lot of forage and a lot is wasted. It would save a lot of cost. One thing I've definitely noticed is that the poorer the forage, the more goes on the floor; like they're trying to find the nice bits.

Or maybe it's to do with space. I've noticed my sheep when packed around a ring feeder will dive in, grab some and back away, whereas if there's loads of space they tend to stand there and eat. Still loads on the floor though!

[Rob R]

Watching ours feeding I think it is the space/bums pointing outwards scenario. The others can swipe them in the side more easily and they back out to defend their space, taking half the bale with them. Also, when there's a full bale in they tend to pull out it out whereas the feed barrier you can leave the bale a little more distance away/spread it out on the floor.

[ann]

I think with ring feeders, which is what we use, they tend to stick their head in, get a mouthful, retract and chew and half of it ends up on the floor, some of which they'll eat off the floor

If you are feeding outside this will probably not be practical, but putting eating straw on top of the silage makes the cows forage for their food and we get no wasted silage at all since we have started using this method and we use the straw which is left in the bottom of the feeders next morning for bedding. Its amazing how they will dig right down for ever last bit of silage and I don't get any bullying either as they have to work harder for their food.

[Broomcroft]

That's interesting Ann, I shall give it a go. Thanks.

[Rob R]

How much straw are we talking? I'm assuming not one bale sat on top of another?

[SteveM]

Thanks for all the very interesting replies.

At moment we have effecively zero waste so looks like some form of bale unroller or splitter would be best way forward if we go to round bales to ease the manual handling and stick to the troughs and barrier.

Guess a teagle tomahawk would be over the top for 30 dexters.

[Broomcroft]

......mmmmm, 30 dexters is a difficult number. Too many to do by hand, hard work, but not enough to warrant much mechanical equipment. You'll have to increase your herd size Steve

[ann]

How much straw are we talking? I'm assuming not one bale sat on top of another?

If you use the oblong bales we put approx a 12 -18" section on top of of the silage in each ring feeder each day and around the same in the bottom before we put the silage on top. If the bedding starts to build up we just don't bother to move the feeder for a day or so.

[Colin]

Do you not get a higher risk of silage eye from adding straw ? We've had a spate of silage eye over recent winters and this year had our contractor chop the haylage to make it softer with less sharp bits. So far we've not had a case, touch wood (excuse the pun).

Regards,

Colin