Feeding crimp and silage without feeder wagon

[Redcows]

Crimped 120t of Barley last month and ensiled it in a clamp by itself. Plan is to feed 4kg per head a day to our cows in the feed passage. Only snag is we don’t have a feeder/mixer wagon and don’t intend on buying one either. What would be the easiest/most cost effective way of doing this. Until now we have just fed blocks of silage in the passage and cake in parlour.

 

[Bald Rick]

How many kilos are you intending to feed per day? And are you going to spread the silage out or leave it in blocks?

 

[vantage]

If you have a decent loader mix it with the silage against a wall ,then put down the passage. @neilo used to do this if I recall correctly.

 

[Redcows]

How many kilos are you intending to feed per day? And are you going to spread the silage out or leave it in blocks?

4Kg a head and milking 70 cows so 280kg.

 

[dinderleat]

A bucket by hand twice a day
It should be only 5 buckets if they hold 18kgs

 

[neilo]

If you have a decent loader mix it with the silage against a wall ,then put down the passage. @neilo used to do this if I recall correctly.

We did, not with crimp, but mixing various forages at the clamp face before bucketing into feed racks for 300 cows. Concentrates also fed to yield through oopfs. If I was devising a simple system to feed cows, I would do exactly the same again.

All depends on the yard set up of course. If it’s a narrow feed passage where you can put blocks down, but not turn at an angle to drop buckets of feed in, then maybe not a go’er. If you can tip feed at the manger, then it might be. Or even tip the forage then run along with an auger bucket to feed crimp on top, assuming they can all feed at once of course?

 

[HarryB97]

If you get on well feeding it this year by mixing it with the bucket against a wall then I would invest in an auger bucket, Emily have a fantastic range of bucket based feeding equipment

 

[yin ewe]

Cut out the silage blocks and tip the barley on top, mix it up with the shear grab and put it into the feed passage with the bucket. Less chance of cows being cheated or bullied. We did it this way a few years ago when we were short of silage and had to buy a replacer blend (mainly soya hulls I think). Helped increase silage intakes as well iirc.