Crimping Grain for dummies.

[Chae1]

Alkagrain has a useful effect of buffering the rest of the diet, making it preferable to other methods IMO.

An expert on feeding cattle too?

 

[som farmer]

An expert on feeding cattle too?

but he can 'doctor' them to

 

[Kevtherev]

we have w wheat in the ground, we have been following maize, with hybrid rye, and last year, with vetches, to take of early, before planting another maize crop, giving us 30t/acre fresh weight, very good. However, last aut, our maize was not fit enough to cut, in time to plant rye, it needs to go in, in sept/early oct, hence wheat.
That has given us another problem, we would like to try w/wold grass with vetches, but with the earlier chance to plant, w/wold would probably need cutting, before winter, which would screw the vetch.
The wheat will probably be crimped, unless weather is good enough to combine/store, but nothing is ever straight forward. The reason for a change to w/wold, is simply because we have been completely unable, to get an analysis, of the rye/vetch, despite sending loads of samples off, - and no idea why we can't. Protein % varied from 4% to 48%, over 12/15 samples.

But crimping grain, opens up a vast new opportunity, for farmers to grow their own 'concentrate', without the hassle of trying to harvest, and store combined grain, its easy to dry combine wheat/barley, only if you have good access to a combine, otherwise a pain in the butte, cutting at 20/25% moisture, makes it easier to get a combine - you are not 'competing'.
we are lucky enough to have a crimping contractor geared up for it, local to us. There are large benefits from growing your own concentrates, with compound feeds north of £400/t.

I think we will see a resurgence in home grown protein and fodder crops bit of a return to 1950s style farming.

 

[som farmer]

I think we will see a resurgence in home grown protein and fodder crops bit of a return to 1950s style farming.

fully agree, home grown food, takes out the price uncertainty, and volitivity, l accept one should cost it out, at market value, but straight grain, is always less than conc, plus it is a known feed value, very little corn is in some rations, usually the cheaper ones. Then, as we go into our max milk period - winter, also peak conc use, and expense, a lot of that conc, is replaced by grain, which has already been paid for, should save us approx £6,000 a month
The same applies to protein, our grass silage, using r/clover bales, at 19%p to mix in, our grass av 15/16% p through the winter, which seriously reduced conc balancer, in the TMR, even more

 

[neilo]

An expert on feeding cattle too?

He is correct though, Alkagrain has a high pH and massively reduces acid loading. I feed it as an ad-lib lamb finisher when I need to feed. Cracking stuff at (relatively) low cost, just add mins and pour in a hopper.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Crimp grain is a lot kinder to feed than dry grain ,

He is correct though, Alkagrain has a high pH and massively reduces acid loading. I feed it as an ad-lib lamb finisher when I need to feed. Cracking stuff at (relatively) low cost, just add mins and pour in a hopper.

 

[robs1]

we have w wheat in the ground, we have been following maize, with hybrid rye, and last year, with vetches, to take of early, before planting another maize crop, giving us 30t/acre fresh weight, very good. However, last aut, our maize was not fit enough to cut, in time to plant rye, it needs to go in, in sept/early oct, hence wheat.
That has given us another problem, we would like to try w/wold grass with vetches, but with the earlier chance to plant, w/wold would probably need cutting, before winter, which would screw the vetch.
The wheat will probably be crimped, unless weather is good enough to combine/store, but nothing is ever straight forward. The reason for a change to w/wold, is simply because we have been completely unable, to get an analysis, of the rye/vetch, despite sending loads of samples off, - and no idea why we can't. Protein % varied from 4% to 48%, over 12/15 samples.

But crimping grain, opens up a vast new opportunity, for farmers to grow their own 'concentrate', without the hassle of trying to harvest, and store combined grain, its easy to dry combine wheat/barley, only if you have good access to a combine, otherwise a pain in the butte, cutting at 20/25% moisture, makes it easier to get a combine - you are not 'competing'.
we are lucky enough to have a crimping contractor geared up for it, local to us. There are large benefits from growing your own concentrates, with compound feeds north of £400/t.

We use westerwold for horse haylage, we dd it around end of August into wheat stubble and cut it towards end of May so we kill the bg in it, could be cut earlier if we used more fert .

 

[ollie989898]

An expert on feeding cattle too?

I used to work in the feed trade and making up cow diets/rations was almost a hobby of mine at college. Then at Uni I used to try my best to memorise the green chemical guide as a distraction during sustainable agriculture lectures.