- Location
- Montgomeryshire
You can get a higher protein liquid (containing more urea) from most suppliers I think.
Feeding molasses
- Thread starter jemski
- Start date
You can get a higher protein liquid (containing more urea) from most suppliers I think.
Coximus
Member
The killer is too much urea as you can accidentall mean your stores are eating a 20% protein and 12me diet overall which is great for a couple of weeks of rapid growth at the end but leads to problems is their smaller as they can' adapt to over half their protein coming from the rapid bacterial growth caused by the urea
My culls go straight to the abattoir don't keep any with broken mouths short teeth and the odd one missing will be a rare exception put to the ram. .But some, like @Guiggs above, are trying to make money from the result of someone else culling tighter.
...Ive had too much trouble in the past lambing ewes like these.
let them recover after weaning and then they go .... if there is really poor thin ones drafted they go on whole oats/barley ..then they go asap......which would be approx a quarter of the price of those per ltre figures mentioned ....which after all are a lot of water as well.
All they need to do is swallow whole grain....not grind it with teeth.
We used to find they went off liquid going into the spring any way .....it would go funny in the sun and warmth if not cleared up quickly... and the crap that used to build up in those containers.....
there can be a fair bit of waste.ime.
GrannyAching
Member
- Location
- Mynyddoedd Preseli
So budget for about half a litre/head/day then? How many feeders per head? Presumably I'd still need to limit mid pregnancy feeding?
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Intakes would depend on how much other nutrition they were getting, particularly protein (the 'kreb's cycle' limits the protein intake on a urea based liquid). When we fed it to sheep on stubble turnips (which are high in protein) they drank very little, if eating low protein hay, they will take more.
0.1-0.3 L/day would be the normal range IME, for a UREA BASED liquid. The much cheaper liquids that are just diluted molasses will give higher intakes, supplying more energy but less protein.
@Guiggs posted above that his 140 ewes were getting through 50L per day currently. They are big ewes, carrying a lot of lambs, missing a few teeth and getting towards last third of pregnancy now IIRC.
- Location
- Lancashire
Use easy sheep through out the year then nearer lambing the go on easy lamber.
polk_farmer
Member
- Location
- South West (Gods Country)
Sorry to hijack abit, but does anyone feed mollasses whilst strip grazing in lamb ewes on fodder beet to keep protein levels up.
Reason I ask is we currently graze Swedes as a complete diet on the run up to lambing. Works really well, but our swede after swede crop has been crap due to weeds as can only pre em spray herbicides. Was thinking of trying fodder beet but if I'm correct the leaves aren't so high in protein as Swedes, so thinking what would be the most cost efficient and least faff way of getting protein in them?
Reason I ask is we currently graze Swedes as a complete diet on the run up to lambing. Works really well, but our swede after swede crop has been crap due to weeds as can only pre em spray herbicides. Was thinking of trying fodder beet but if I'm correct the leaves aren't so high in protein as Swedes, so thinking what would be the most cost efficient and least faff way of getting protein in them?
TelesnaAg
Member
- Location
- Portland, Victoria - Australia
What % of urea do you mix? Is there a formula...can this help dairy steers?
Cheers...Ant
Cheers...Ant
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
I’ve thought about doing that, and would have thought a higher protein/urea liquid could work well. I’ve grazed beet with in-lamb ewes though, and haven’t found the low protein to be a problem. It is for young, growing sheep though, so I would avoid putting ewe lambs on it.
The roots are very low in protein in, so I certainly wouldn’t want to let ewes into a whole field, or they’ll eat all the tops before having a diet of just roots later on, when they are closer to lambing.
I’ve got 200 ewes on beet at the moment, giving them 4-5 days blocks. My plan is to graze it off now (April lambers, so a way off lambing yet), then they can join the other mob on swedes by mid-Feb. Do you have an option to grow a bit of both?
I had 100 pedigree ewes in my December lambing mob, which were all on grazed beet only until about 10 days before lambing. Then I housed the triplets/thinner ones and brought the others onto a grass field to introduce ewe rolls. They all lambed down with plenty of milk.
- Location
- Ceredigion
i used to drill every 4 row with cow cabbage protien be ok then .best way i found with weeds is stale seedbed .get it ready in April and burn it off before drilling
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
It’s bought ready mixed here. We have used it when we’ve had a fodder shortage, feeding a mob of housed dairy heifers on straw and ad-lib liquid feed. They did well enough and it got us out of a hole, but far easier/cheaper to tip clamp silage in front of them every day, which we went back to the next year.
I would think you’d have to be careful when mixing urea, to make sure it’s evenly mixed. If one animal took a lump of it, it would likely die of urea poisoning. I have heard of that happening when folk have tried just sprinkling urea on top of silage in a rack. Safer mixed properly, in a TMR, or ready mixed in a liquid feed.
polk_farmer
Member
- Location
- South West (Gods Country)
I’ve thought about doing that, and would have thought a higher protein/urea liquid could work well. I’ve grazed beet with in-lamb ewes though, and haven’t found the low protein to be a problem. It is for young, growing sheep though, so I would avoid putting ewe lambs on it.
The roots are very low in protein in, so I certainly wouldn’t want to let ewes into a whole field, or they’ll eat all the tops before having a diet of just roots later on, when they are closer to lambing.
I’ve got 200 ewes on beet at the moment, giving them 4-5 days blocks. My plan is to graze it off now (April lambers, so a way off lambing yet), then they can join the other mob on swedes by mid-Feb. Do you have an option to grow a bit of both?
I had 100 pedigree ewes in my December lambing mob, which were all on grazed beet only until about 10 days before lambing. Then I housed the triplets/thinner ones and brought the others onto a grass field to introduce ewe rolls. They all lambed down with plenty of milk.
I think next year, with the amount of grazing available we will have to drop out the Swedes in favour of stubble turnips, the latter we could put in after weaning rather than trying ground up from the start of June with Swedes. But I get what you're on about
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
It all depends on your farm and your system, and making the most of that, but the output from even a half decent crop of swedes is vastly better than even the best crops of stubble turnips IME.
I grow beet, swedes and stubble turnips, as surely they can’t all fail.
I’ve been caught out relying on stubble turnips in the past, then having a pee poor/almost non-existent crop in a bad Autumn (2012). Having an 8ac field of beet to graze, along with some very expensive tack grazing, saved my bacon.As my system relies heavily on grazing winter fodder crops, I prefer not to have all my eggs in one basket, or even two, these days.
The beauty of beet in the mix, is that if you don’t need to graze it, you can lift it for sale.
what about DUP.
TelesnaAg
Member
- Location
- Portland, Victoria - Australia
We cant really order that stuff here so would have to make up.
Ant...
Ant...
the molasses would only need to come from QLD ...add bit of water and urea
and give it a good stir ....
TelesnaAg
Member
- Location
- Portland, Victoria - Australia
the molasses would only need to come from QLD ...add bit of water and urea
Who in there right mind would feed cattle molasses and urea if you dont know the urea % ...thats as dumb as f*ck.
Ant...
exactly