Best straw for feeding to sucklers

Sir loin

Member
Location
North Yorkshire
Have good quality barley (winter),wheat and oat straw in the shed always fed the oat straw. We have always bedded up wheat straw pre calving and barley straw during calving. This year they are not eating the oat as well as other years. 50 cows get 3 bales oat straw when cleaned up they get 2 bales haylage. straw is dropped when they get close to calving. Which is the best straw to feed to sucklers?
 

Poorbuthappy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
I wouldn’t worry about scratch factor when feeding sucklers. Just feed what ever is easiest cheapest per bale, it’s only to fill them up.
That was my point.
But to fill them up they have to eat it so the suggestions above of offering them all types and feeding whichever they eat best makes sense to me.
 

Werzle

Member
Location
Midlands
A few people having problems feeding large amounts of straw, it works very well when they've a bite of grass to go with it but its balancing act when its there main feed. Rumen function and calcium problems have been reported . If the weather turns very cold sucklers will melt pretty quickly on a straw diet.
 

Poorbuthappy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
If they don’t eat they ain’t hungry, I haven’t seen many fussy eating cows!

See @Werzle 's post below.
I have no experience of feeding just straw. But may have to find out this year.
I intend to put some on straw now when I wean. The barley straw I have looks lovely, could almost eat it myself! Soft, leafy. You'd think they'd be far more inclined to eat that than the wheat. We will see.

A few people having problems feeding large amounts of straw, it works very well when they've a bite of grass to go with it but its balancing act when its there main feed. Rumen function and calcium problems have been reported . If the weather turns very cold sucklers will melt pretty quickly on a straw diet.
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
There is a world of difference between winter and spring straw , whether it is oat , barley or wheat
Spring barley is most palatable provided it is got well followed by Oat then winter barley and Oat, however wheat does have benefits in TMR mixes
 

Whitepeak

Member
Livestock Farmer
We're feeding straw to our dry cows for the first time this year alongside haylage in order to spin the haylage out a bit. We're feeding barley and bedding with wheat, mainly because the barley is that shiny it's crap for bedding! Cows like it though. We just put a bale at one end of the feed fence and let them pick at it, no mixing or faffing about.
 

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