Cutting out the feed mill

farmer1989

Member
Location
cumbria
Tub mixer with rear door
impartial nutritionist
Shed with 4 bunks for 2 article loads in each
Soya hulls
Hyprosoya
Biscuit meal
Rapemeal
Currently but sometimes can get mixes from a mill cheaper than doing it yourself play the game
 

Whitepeak

Member
Livestock Farmer
How much do nutritionists charge if they aren't getting the blend order?? When I was a feed rep sampling silage, formulating rations, farm visits to assess ongoing performance etc were all included in the feed price. Something that most people forget to include and could cost a few quid a tonne.
 

More to life

Member
Location
Somerset
How much do nutritionists charge if they aren't getting the blend order?? When I was a feed rep sampling silage, formulating rations, farm visits to assess ongoing performance etc were all included in the feed price. Something that most people forget to include and could cost a few quid a tonne.
Two full loads of blend would pay for mine over a year sadly I feed quite a bit more than that .
 

Blue.

Member
Livestock Farmer
Tub mixer with rear door
impartial nutritionist
Shed with 4 bunks for 2 article loads in each
Soya hulls
Hyprosoya
Biscuit meal
Rapemeal
Currently but sometimes can get mixes from a mill cheaper than doing it yourself play the game

I’ve gone off biscuit meal,fed thousands of tonnes over the years but last year moved onto ground maize,no shredded plastic and far more consistent.

If you buy your straights right,not a chance a mill can complete.
 

Blue.

Member
Livestock Farmer
How much do nutritionists charge if they aren't getting the blend order?? When I was a feed rep sampling silage, formulating rations, farm visits to assess ongoing performance etc were all included in the feed price. Something that most people forget to include and could cost a few quid a tonne.

Never had a nutritionist on farm,always done it myself .
 

O'Reilly

Member
How much do nutritionists charge if they aren't getting the blend order?? When I was a feed rep sampling silage, formulating rations, farm visits to assess ongoing performance etc were all included in the feed price. Something that most people forget to include and could cost a few quid a tonne.
£100/hour, or £500/ whole day, I believe
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
we use an independent nutritionist, does all our budgeting as well, got caught by previous one, who I would love to name, but darn't, big time, and known him for years. A little bit of this, a bit of yeast, diff mins, transistion mixes, etc. Like I said earlier, went to blend, urea, and mins, yield shot up, cake/feed bill shot down. Independent, not tied to any cake firm, will check spec of blends/cake, money very well spent.
 
There is a hell of a lot more than 5 main ingredients (think I had 12 to play with) and the small inclusions can make a huge difference to finished products. Some mills produce blends/meals using actual mill equipment rather than a mixer wagon but it can be done this way.

Molasses or soya oil to control dust is a major consideration also.

Biggest savings will be in the booking of straights. The smaller inclusions can be hard to buy right and mix consistently plus keeping stocks or reordering can be problematic.

I cant see hipro soya is economic to use now and some milk buyers wont allow it.

I wouldnt put bread or biscuit meal in a blend either.
 
There is a hell of a lot more than 5 main ingredients (think I had 12 to play with) and the small inclusions can make a huge difference to finished products. Some mills produce blends/meals using actual mill equipment rather than a mixer wagon but it can be done this way.

Molasses or soya oil to control dust is a major consideration also.

Biggest savings will be in the booking of straights. The smaller inclusions can be hard to buy right and mix consistently plus keeping stocks or reordering can be problematic.

I cant see hipro soya is economic to use now and some milk buyers wont allow it.

I wouldnt put bread or biscuit meal in a blend either.

Our big 3 ingredients make up 91% of the complete feed. 9 or 10 other ingredients make up the last 9%.
 

Dead Rabbits

Member
Location
'Merica
I don’t see milling your own corn being much of a savings if you are buying it in anyway. I could be very wrong on that though, maybe you don’t have someone to grind it economically. It would also depend on current infrastructure. It can be done efficiently on farm with a good set up.

At peak feeding in winter here it takes one person about 4-4.5 hours to make and put out all the feed. That’s 4 commodities and hand bucket the mineral out, which is currently bought as a premix, then corn silage. If I had a free bay we could just dump mineral in that. That is a huge time suck on labor every day. Also tires to stack, equipment to clean/maintain and plastic to cut on top of that. Also training people to do the work and hoping they are precise in measurement.

I grew up grinding our corn with a tractor powered grinder/mixer and hated it. If the cow numbers are right it would not have been so bad but it cost us a lot of time and had to be done twice per week.
 
I don’t see milling your own corn being much of a savings if you are buying it in anyway. I could be very wrong on that though, maybe you don’t have someone to grind it economically. It would also depend on current infrastructure. It can be done efficiently on farm with a good set up.

At peak feeding in winter here it takes one person about 4-4.5 hours to make and put out all the feed. That’s 4 commodities and hand bucket the mineral out, which is currently bought as a premix, then corn silage. If I had a free bay we could just dump mineral in that. That is a huge time suck on labor every day. Also tires to stack, equipment to clean/maintain and plastic to cut on top of that. Also training people to do the work and hoping they are precise in measurement.

I grew up grinding our corn with a tractor powered grinder/mixer and hated it. If the cow numbers are right it would not have been so bad but it cost us a lot of time and had to be done twice per week.

We save about 60 bucks a ton on corn when we grind it ourselves after costs, we get a much finer grind than the feed mill brings also. Pretty much a set it and forget it job. Due to the crazy harvest year we haven’t had our corn delivered yet.
 

Dead Rabbits

Member
Location
'Merica
We save about 60 bucks a ton on corn when we grind it ourselves after costs, we get a much finer grind than the feed mill brings also. Pretty much a set it and forget it job. Due to the crazy harvest year we haven’t had our corn delivered yet.

Wow, that is significant. We pay $40/ton for grinding and delivery plus the cost of the corn.
 

Blue.

Member
Livestock Farmer
So can I but I’ve never been brave enough. I do like someone to bounce ideas off.

I’ve an acquaintance who has an adviser,nutritionists etc.. I’m sure it’s so he can blame them when things aren’t going right?,myself I hold my hands up I don’t always get it right but the buck stops with me,I can live with it.
 
I’ve an acquaintance who has an adviser,nutritionists etc.. I’m sure it’s so he can blame them when things aren’t going right?,myself I hold my hands up I don’t always get it right but the buck stops with me,I can live with it.

It is do-able yourself and I know people who do it. However it is having the wide range of experience that help when trying to optimise things which is where a nutritionist may be invaluable.

A friend of mine and the best dairy farmer I know does his own nutrition, has not fed soya nor maize or wholecrop for years and is averaging 38 litres right now. I do not know how he does it nor would I expect him to tell me but I do think having top quality grass/grass silage on the place is part of it.
 
Our big 3 ingredients make up 91% of the complete feed. 9 or 10 other ingredients make up the last 9%.

I have no doubt of that but the added ingredients like prairie meal, megalac and urea can make huge shifts to a diet- at a cost, obviously.

Feed mills obviously have to cater to a wide variety of end users, I used to formulate, buy and move materials in a previous life. From memory I had something like 12 main feed ingredients:

Rolled wheat
Rolled barley
Rolled beans
Rolled corn
distillers (usually wheat or barley)
corn gluten
hipro soya
rapemeal/canolameal
wheatfeed
soya hulls
sugar beet
limestone flour
calcined magnesite
minerals
megalac
energiser (protected fat)
Prairie meal
NIS
yeast
molasses


This doesn't include sunflower, malt culms or palm kernel which I know are used in huge quantities around the world too. As such obviously a feed supplier will have access and provision to buy and add materials in a way not practical to an average farmer. There are pros and cons with either option, if a mill has bought well you could be in for substantial savings, certainly I would think some UK companies would work with customers and book feed materials when the customer asked, thus removing a substantial element of risk from the equation. Granted you will always pay for the convenience of mixing and delivery, also my blends were usually nearly dust free because of the addition of molasses and therefore highly palatable. The milling of grains can be quite unpleasant on farm which I know from experience.
 
I’ve an acquaintance who has an adviser,nutritionists etc.. I’m sure it’s so he can blame them when things aren’t going right?,myself I hold my hands up I don’t always get it right but the buck stops with me,I can live with it.
Out of interest what’s your main ingredients?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 35.1%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,290
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top