Feed rate in at higher prices?

[Cows 'n grass]

I deliberately cut cow numbers by more than 10% for this year to make for a more sustainable system that is less dependent on bought in feed and fertilizer

I am currently feeding 3.5 kg fw of 16% cake for 1.8 kg MS. Cake is £250ish a ton.

On an Arla contract my seasonal (B) litres are worth 32ppl. On the 1st of July the same litres will be worth 44ppl.

I don't want to build a farming system around high feed level but at current prices should I be feeding 6/7/8kg?

 

[jimmer]

Debating the sameish thing here, I changed to a cheaper parlour feed and lost more milk value than savings, going back onto old feed and might even up it a bit as well
Similar amounts to yourself

 

[Sid]

Does that help?

The budget you probably should be doing is a nutrient one, if more is leaving than is coming on, be that feed,fert,straw,nitrogen fixing plants then your "robbing" the farm short term which will hurt long term.

 

[Cowmansam]

I’d push them a bit harder easier to get a bigger peak then coast down than try to hold milk as the lactation goes on

 

[Llmmm]

I deliberately cut cow numbers by more than 10% for this year to make for a more sustainable system that is less dependent on bought in feed and fertilizer

I am currently feeding 3.5 kg fw of 16% cake for 1.8 kg MS. Cake is £250ish a ton.

On an Arla contract my seasonal (B) litres are worth 32ppl. On the 1st of July the same litres will be worth 44ppl.

I don't want to build a farming system around high feed level but at current prices should I be feeding 6/7/8kg?

When going to high levels cows lose appetite to graze ive always found more benefit in feed in a top class soya based nut at a small rate something thats better than grass i found with cheaper rations your only replaceing grass

 

[betweenthelines]

Have you got enough grass?

Feeding more cake will just result in them eating less grass. On a DM basis the grass is probably a better feed value than the cake.

 

[Beef farmer]

Rain Sunday, unsettled week next week. Feed 6kg will you not just create loads of surplus?

 

[Homesy]

If you have plenty of forage, cheaper concentrates are always a false economy. All they do is take up space in the rumen and lower forage intakes. I fed took out some beet pulp from my summer ration and replaced it with soya hulls. Won't be doing it again.

 

[Jdunn55]

Hopping in here, if you have loads of grass (too much!) are you better off feeding less of a higher quality cake than feeding a normal amount of a lower quality cake?

 

[pappuller]

I deliberately cut cow numbers by more than 10% for this year to make for a more sustainable system that is less dependent on bought in feed and fertilizer

I am currently feeding 3.5 kg fw of 16% cake for 1.8 kg MS. Cake is £250ish a ton.

On an Arla contract my seasonal (B) litres are worth 32ppl. On the 1st of July the same litres will be worth 44ppl.

I don't want to build a farming system around high feed level but at current prices should I be feeding 6/7/8kg?

Surely though you rely on grass to produce your constituents? Why push more cake when you might create a surplus of grass

 

[upnortheast]

Hopping in here, if you have loads of grass (too much!) are you better off feeding less of a higher quality cake than feeding a normal amount of a lower quality cake?

To get the best from your cow every mouthfull should be best quality you have available , be it grass, silage or cake. Waste of money feeding a "so called " lower quality cake

 

[Sid]

To get the best from your cow every mouthfull should be best quality you have available , be it grass, silage or cake. Waste of money feeding a "so called " lower quality cake

I did a rough calculation and to get the energy and protein in ration correct with a cheaper non fixed formulation conc it was more expensive as the amount extra you had to feed was greater than the saving in £/t.
They also ate more grass/silage as well.

False economy

 

[Cows 'n grass]

So despite the overwhelming opinion to be to continue at low feed rates I think I'm going to turn the feeders up next week.

I'm not going to suddenly start neglecting grassland management but every extra litre is 45ppl from a 25p kg of cake. If I get just 1:1 and feed 2 extra kilos I'll be £200/day better off for zero effort.

If there's not a reasonable response in a fortnight I'll turn it back down again.

 

[frederick]

So despite the overwhelming opinion to be to continue at low feed rates I think I'm going to turn the feeders up next week.

I'm not going to suddenly start neglecting grassland management but every extra litre is 45ppl from a 25p kg of cake. If I get just 1:1 and feed 2 extra kilos I'll be £200/day better off for zero effort.

If there's not a reasonable response in a fortnight I'll turn it back down again.

Nothing wrong with giving something a g o but be really careful with the maths. You might quite easily gain the litres but gain very little in solids.

You also have to be careful with some of this logic because on paper it might have been better to start feeding the cake a month a go because 1:1 would have still paid for the cake on a seasonal deducted litre but July's extra litres might then. Have been easier to find.

 

[deleted user 837354]

It is also better from a rumen health point of view to be feeding a smaller quantity of higher quality concentrate than feeding more of something cheaper.

All feeds should be fixed formulation these days, any company flogging something that isn't needs to wake the hell up, why should your cows have to eat citrus this month just because the price suits the compounder? We know the rumen microflora take time to adjust to changes in diet, yet companies are out there happily selling diets that they openly state can fluctuate randomly load to load? Come on.

 

[betweenthelines]

Decent grass has a similar or better ME than even the best cake, but cake lowers grass intake by more than a 1:1 basis on DM so you could well be lowering your cows overall energy intake.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Decent grass has a similar or better ME than even the best cake, but cake lowers grass intake by more than a 1:1 basis on DM so you could well be lowering your cows overall energy intake.

Grass is usually 50-60% water though.

 

[More to life]

Everyone has said extra cake will depress intakes,nobody has asked how much DM there currently eating.'

 

[jimmer]

If a cow eats 17kg dm of just grass, she will somehow find room for 14kg of grass and 5 kg of cake
No I don't know how either, well I sort of do, but you get my gist

 

[som farmer]

on cake, you get what you pay for, it's only cheaper, because they use cheaper product. Interestingly, we cocked up our cake order, and had to blow 3/4 ton of calf rearer in the bin, the milk went up, opposite to expectation, and the cow cake was duly changed, same spec, same price, dif ingredients.
Often quoted, 1kg cake, = 2 litres of milk, not sure l have ever found that to be correct either. The next load in, will be nearly £300/ton, which would be fine, if 1kg, = 2 litres, closer to the 1 litre, maths are very different.
We are starting to dry out again, which we didn't expect so soon, first sign, grass starts to run to seed, and quality goes down, so we may have to up cake. At least this year, we should have enough silage ! Pre mowing in front of cows now, quite surprised how well they are clearing it, 1st time we have tried it. But 8 acres lined up for wrapping, is on hold, till we know how much rain, we will get.