Diet feeder for sheep advice

[hally]

I am currently humping about 500kg of cake into cattle and sheep on my back everyday and starting to get a bit of back bother. So was thinking about going to a tmr system.
A couple of questions, what size feeder do I need for a mix using 2 round bales and whatever meal needed? Also next year planning to feed our cattle plus 700 texel ewes housed for 2 to 3 months.
Are these best fed on a meal from the local compounder or buy crushed barley and just add soya/ minerals as required?
Also plan was to make mix for the twins, and give the singles just silage until the last 2 weeks then just give them the twin mix as well. The triplets could just get the twin mix but give them ad lib access to feed blocks to give them the extra they require. Will this work or am I missing something?
Before any clever boys say you can’t justify a feeder etc etc , it’s not a financial decision but a way of carrying on farming as I get older. Feeding housed ewes can be a rough job even with walk through feeders and our hill farm is too wet to carry them outside.
TIA.

 

[Sheep]

A couple of questions, what size feeder do I need for a mix using 2 round bales and whatever meal needed?

10 cube is plenty big enough, I'd go for 12 for the extra capacity for not a lot extra cash.

Are these best fed on a meal from the local compounder or buy crushed barley and just add soya/ minerals as required?

Depends what you can make work/whats cheapest. From a diet feeding point of view it will be easy to weigh/mix your own.

Also plan was to make mix for the twins, and give the singles just silage until the last 2 weeks then just give them the twin mix as well. The triplets could just get the twin mix but give them ad lib access to feed blocks to give them the extra they require. Will this work or am I missing something?

It would. Chop the silage bales, feed singles, add your meal, feed twins, then you could add extra meal for the triplets if you didn't want to work with blocks.

A full 12cu load takes about half an hour from start to finish including emptying (single mix, 3 ingredients).

 

[Bob]

Are the Keenan barrel feeders with bale kit good machines. Saw one on eBay looked good value
Agree people say you can’t justify cost but it must make feeding a lot easier

 

[Anymulewilldo]

One of these years ill be feeling flushed and I'll have a go at this myself. Sounds a brilliant idea!

 

[Bury the Trash]

A sound little feeder wagon can mix grain / conc ration on its own as well , and do things like mix and treat home and dry in
, the weigher on them is such a good useful part of it as well.

 

[sticky]

If it's just to feed meal is there not a bucket of some description that can dispense it along a barrier?

 

[shields kaiser]

IMO, the best way to start would be to work out what volume (Dry Matter) of forage/feedstuffs would be required. The AHDB feeding the ewe guide is good at helping work this out -

http://beefandlamb.ahdb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Feeding-the-ewe.pdf

This lets you know how much dry matter you will require to feed each ewe at any point pre or post lambing, and point you in the direction of size of wagon required.
I'd also speak to a trustworthy local nutritionist to suggest what type of STRAIGHT FEED STUFFS you would match with your silage. The importance of this is massive in that so you dont feed crushed grain for example alongside high acid silage and give yourself problems with Acidosis, CCN etc. If you make good quality silage, you'll be able to limit the bought in feedstuffs too. The reason I say to ask for straight feedstuffs is so that you're not buying feed that is not required.
Traditionally a compound feed roll or nut wouldnt have as much grain included as are found in some Ewe TMR's, so there would be less chance of problems occuring when over or underfeeding.

Finally feed space access is extremly important in a Ewe TMR, if this is not correct (not enough access) then Ewes dont eat the correct mix of TMR, which in itself can lead to problems like twin lamb.

Worth doing the whole thing methodically, then you will know what is required before spending any money!
Good luck

 

[Plain steer]

Be better feeding 80/20 barley/soya mix with a bag of mins will give you a 18 % mix at a lot less cost and lot better quality than what a compounder would sell you plenty of 10/12 cube tubs going for 5 k

 

[Anymulewilldo]

If it's just to feed meal is there not a bucket of some description that can dispense it along a barrier?

I've bought a bridgeway beet bucket this last year. 400kg bucket with auger and grill in bottom to chop and feed out. I've adapted it too fit the merlo headstock and taken the chopping grill out. If you run the hydraulics backwards you mix the corn, run it forwards and out it comes. Feed all our bulls with it now and fill all the Hogg hoppers too. Takes an hour to do 2 days worth of feeds where it was 2 or 3 hours per day before! Plus I can put the grill back in and chop beet/carrots etc when I want too. Amazing little bit of kit

 

[Nithsdale]

If you're buying 2nd hand, just make sure the floor has life in it.

A Keenan feeder can be re-barrelled. Tub mixers can not.

 

[Skintagain]

If you get your bales chopped in the bale could you manage with a bucket mixer? Open the days bales up against a wall then scoop them up and add your meal from a bin etc then mix and go?

Then again some of these fancy buckets are As much brass as a mixer wagon!!

 

[clod hopper]

If you get your bales chopped in the bale could you manage with a bucket mixer? Open the days bales up against a wall then scoop them up and add your meal from a bin etc then mix and go?

Then again some of these fancy buckets are As much brass as a mixer wagon!!

As much as I like the idea and imagination of feed buckets and wagons what worries me is brake downs. How long do you have to wait for parts and repairs. A good plan B is a must for me

 

[Pistonbroke]

I am currently humping about 500kg of cake into cattle and sheep on my back everyday and starting to get a bit of back bother. So was thinking about going to a tmr system.
A couple of questions, what size feeder do I need for a mix using 2 round bales and whatever meal needed? Also next year planning to feed our cattle plus 700 texel ewes housed for 2 to 3 months.
Are these best fed on a meal from the local compounder or buy crushed barley and just add soya/ minerals as required?
Also plan was to make mix for the twins, and give the singles just silage until the last 2 weeks then just give them the twin mix as well. The triplets could just get the twin mix but give them ad lib access to feed blocks to give them the extra they require. Will this work or am I missing something?
Before any clever boys say you can’t justify a feeder etc etc , it’s not a financial decision but a way of carrying on farming as I get older. Feeding housed ewes can be a rough job even with walk through feeders and our hill farm is too wet to carry them outside.
TIA.

I've got a Keenan 115 with knives which is supposed to be 11.5cubic metres but one dry bale is enough because it stays fluffy. Wetter bales are better and chop better. If it wasn't for the narrow passage I would change for a lot bigger model. Been TMR feeding sheep since 1985 so had plenty of practice now

 

[hally]

Excuse my ignorance as I’ve always fed nuts but how do you buy soya. Is it bulk or in bags and who supplies it or supplies crushed barley?

 

[Skintagain]

As much as I like the idea and imagination of feed buckets and wagons what worries me is brake downs. How long do you have to wait for parts and repairs. A good plan B is a must for me

Bucket on a loader against a wall and mix it up not as good but as a plan B it would do a job

 

[Pistonbroke]

Excuse my ignorance as I’ve always fed nuts but how do you buy soya. Is it bulk or in bags and who supplies it or supplies crushed barley?

It might be worth getting a base blend that will feed the ewes and add rolled cereals to it for the cattle because you only need two bins/ bunkers to keep them in.If you want to make your own ration up from scratch, by the time you have storage for all the ingredients and the higher price of small lots you might not save much in money terms.

 

[Nithsdale]

Excuse my ignorance as I’ve always fed nuts but how do you buy soya. Is it bulk or in bags and who supplies it or supplies crushed barley?

Any feed company should can supply whatever you need/want.
If they can't, or won't, don't be afraid to look elsewhere.

I only buy straights. But my local feed company mix the order/quantities to my spec in their store, we just collect it in our trailer - they load the lorries and trailers with a loading shovel and they have a mixing bay anyway... its no inconvenience to them to make up a load. They are very flexible and no order is a problem

 

[Anymulewilldo]

It might be worth getting a base blend that will feed the ewes and add rolled cereals to it for the cattle because you only need two bins/ bunkers to keep them in.If you want to make your own ration up from scratch, by the time you have storage for all the ingredients and the higher price of small lots you might not save much in money terms.

I've always found that. We don't grow any cereals so it all comes on a lorry. I have 4 bins & 2 8tonne trailers to stores feed in. I get basic blends and add various other things in depending on species, type and age. That's why the auger bucket comes in so handy for mixing before feeding. If I were to buy all the blend componants i'd need a bloody massive feed store. One day maybe, but not now!

 

[milkloss]

When we did sheep we went round and bought all the w4nky wheeled hay feeders locally, threw lids off and lined them up to fill with the wagon. Worked really well

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Excuse my ignorance as I’ve always fed nuts but how do you buy soya. Is it bulk or in bags and who supplies it or supplies crushed barley?

I buy mine bulk blown, about 5 ton at a time...I get mine off a local feed company but try H Walton at goole...they do nationwide delivery’s of it