Feeding oats whole to cattle

[Full of bull(s)]

I am feeding moistened urea treated oats to cattle 6-18 months old. I know many feed them dry whole to young cattle fine as they cud more, when I feed them they are about 19% moisture. I wondered yesterday as my mill broke down would older cattle process them ok if instead of rolling, I soaked them again overnight and fed them at say 30%. Has anyone tried it?

 

[Agrivator]

They will do fine fed whole. It just isn't worth the bother of rolling oats to end class of cattle or sheep.

Most folk who processed cereals came out of the mill with grey hair - until they washed it and found it was still brown or black.

 

[Full of bull(s)]

They will do fine fed whole. It just isn't worth the bother of rolling oats to end class of cattle or sheep.

Most folk who processed cereals came out of the mill with grey hair - until they washed it and found it was still brown or black.

I found fed whole when dry once they hit about nine months a lot started to go straight through them that’s what got me thinking if they were very soft almost like green whole crop it might stop it or the majority anyway

 

[JoeMixedFarm]

Would feeding whole oats to 12 week old weaned calves be a good option, maybe with some protein mixed in?

 

[Agrivator]

Would feeding whole oats to 12 week old weaned calves be a good option, maybe with some protein mixed in?

Yes. And don't be influenced by the sight of whole oats in the dung. They are only a small proportion of the number of whole oats in the diet - perhaps only about 1 or 2 %. It gives the birds something to peck at, and at one time the house pig.

 

[JoeMixedFarm]

Yes. And don't be influenced by the sight of whole oats in the dung. They are only a small proportion of the number of whole oats in the diet - perhaps only about 1 or 2 %. It gives the birds something to peck at, and at one time the house pig.

Do you think I would need to add another source of protein or would oats be enough?

 

[Agrivator]

Do you think I would need to add another source of protein or would oats be enough?

The calves would certainly benefit from the addition of protein, to bring the mix up to about 17% crude protein on a Dry Matter basis. Presumably a local feed merchant will stock a suitable protein pellet with added minerals.

 

[Timbo]

I am feeding moistened urea treated oats to cattle 6-18 months old. I know many feed them dry whole to young cattle fine as they cud more, when I feed them they are about 19% moisture. I wondered yesterday as my mill broke down would older cattle process them ok if instead of rolling, I soaked them again overnight and fed them at say 30%. Has anyone tried it?

We don't mill our oats as part an ad lib diet either.

 

[ollie989898]

I understood urea treating grain meant you didn't have to mill them? Or am I wrong?

 

[Full of bull(s)]

They will do fine fed whole. It just isn't worth the bother of rolling oats to end class of cattle or sheep.

Most folk who processed cereals came out of the mill with grey hair - until they washed it and found it was still brown or black.

Well I tried and failed. They were testing at about 18% after treatment, so I added another 100kg of water per tonne first time. Didn’t really soften much, and anything over about 8 months old there was a lot of whole ones passing through. Next batch added 200kg/tonne in theory upping the moisture to 38%. Softened them but the bigger cattle you could count 30-40 whole grains in a pat. Too many for me. The urea treatment also makes the hull more digestible so I can’t work it out

 

[Nearly]

It's just the physical size of the cattle. Young ones chew the cud finer than adults. Grains are broken by young cattle but pass through older ones.

 

[Full of bull(s)]

It's just the physical size of the cattle. Young ones chew the cud finer than adults. Grains are broken by young cattle but pass through older ones.

Yes I just hoped by softening them I could get away with it

 

[Nearly]

Yes I just hoped by softening them I could get away with it

Probably chew most of them but there's a few that beat the (digestive) system.

 

[haybob]

Calves love oats, especially mixed with some molasses. My lambs are doing well on them at the moment

 

[Agrivator]

Well I tried and failed. They were testing at about 18% after treatment, so I added another 100kg of water per tonne first time. Didn’t really soften much, and anything over about 8 months old there was a lot of whole ones passing through. Next batch added 200kg/tonne in theory upping the moisture to 38%. Softened them but the bigger cattle you could count 30-40 whole grains in a pat. Too many for me. The urea treatment also makes the hull more digestible so I can’t work it out

1000 grains of oats weigh about 33gms. So a kg of oats contains about 30,000 grains.

If you feed your cows 2kg of oats, they consume 60,000 grains.

If they dung 6 times daily and each pat contains 35 whole grains, that comes to 210 grains passing through.

210/60,000 is 0.35%

And the 0.35% either feeds the birds, or it goes back on the land. So I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[milkloss]

Want to get back to oats this year…. Any idea where to get some 1t dumpy bags of hipro soya delivered from?