How to feed cows?

[Fendt820]

Forage box. Cheap and easy. Or just block cut and push in.

 

[Fendt820]

Forage box has been my thought but they're generally quite small/old and knackered. I didn't start feeding from the new clamps until this weekend and it just felt so pointless double handling the silage to move it only a few metres

 

[Martyn]

It's 15m so there's just room in my mind so long as the troughs themselves aren't too wide.

I made our internal troughs 5ft wide seam about spot on for Fri cows you probably won't want to be much more than 4ft wide. If you make your side of the trough high enough, (but not to high to be restrictive/still reach centre point) then we have found you don't need a bar or wire to keep cows from climbing in.

 

[Jamer]

Forage box. Cheap and easy. Or just block cut and push in.

I hope modern forage boxes are better than the examples I spent far too much time re-setting the bed chains on in my youth. It was always a Sunday morning as well.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

I made our internal troughs 5ft wide seam about spot on for Fri cows you probably won't want to be much more than 4ft wide. If you make your side of the trough high enough, (but not to high to be restrictive/still reach centre point) then we have found you don't need a bar or wire to keep cows from climbing in.

Thanks, I'd love to see any trough photos

 

[DairyGrazing]

Thanks, I'd love to see any trough photos

However you design them line the bottom with parlour plastic.

 

[Stuart1]

Mixer wagon is certainly not ruled out. The great thing about bales was anyone could put out a dozen bales and the cows would get the right amount of silage. There are three of us who feed now and I think/know that the amount they are given daily by counting grab fulls is quite variable. I quite like the idea of someone with weigh cells.

A mixer wagon would be a better investment rather than the box feeder trailer thing. Down the line if you need to add concentrates or two more more forages you can get a even mix.

 

[sidjon]

A mixer wagon would be a better investment rather than the box feeder trailer thing. Down the line if you need to add concentrates or two more more forages you can get a even mix.

Sounds like a bloody Slippery Slope to me for a spring calver, next thing he'll be keeping 600 days in milk friesians

 

[early riser]

I quite like the idea of someone with weigh cells.

Telehandler, big rehandling bucket and weigh cells. Simple

Do you need two tractors or could a telehandler replace one of them?

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Telehandler, big rehandling bucket and weigh cells. Simple

Do you need two tractors or could a telehandler replace one of them?

Both tractors are owned since new but have 20k hours between them so they are worth more to me than their monetary value. I do actually have a little handler as well, I just forgot to list it. It still wouldn't be little enough to turn 90 degrees in a 6m passage though. Only a skiddy would do that.

 

[Fendt820]

A mixer wagon would be a better investment rather than the box feeder trailer thing. Down the line if you need to add concentrates or two more more forages you can get a even mix.

Fuel price and clocking up hours on tractor mixing food up. Can put concentrates in clamp and feed out. Keep it simple

 

[Ormond]

Be running keenan’s at our farm since 1996. I would arrive in from school and feed up with the easi-feeder 100. Were on our 4 th now that twice as big as the first one. Reliable machine, had very few problems over the years but the backup here is excellent. I wouldn’t move off them

 

[DairyGrazing]

Fuel price and clocking up hours on tractor mixing food up. Can put concentrates in clamp and feed out. Keep it simple

Not simple at all. Ring feeders PITA to scrape round. Too tight to get a decent sized loader in to feed into troughs.

 

[DairyGrazing]

Seven years into my CFA and we finally have some decent infrastructure. For this winter I will get by with the machinery I have but looking forward to next winter I'm still struggling to work out the best way to physically feed silages to the cows.

This is the layout we nearly have now.View attachment 995026

I've never had a clamp before this year so the cows were just on round bales fed in rings in the feed yard. There is room, just, for 2 X 200 foot troughs in the feed yard and there are two sheds each with a 200foot feed face onto a central passage.

Current machinery is two loader tractors and a straw blower.
View attachment 995028View attachment 995029View attachment 995030

I have a number of ideas for the simplest way to move forage from the clamps to the cows. I'd like to get rid of the rings because they don't offer enough feed space and they're a pain to push around and scrape around. The two parallel troughs won't leave enough room between them for a tractor or handler to turn 90 degrees to drop silage in.

Ideas please

What is to the left? Can you not flatten the hedge and have another passage to eat from?

 

[Wesley]

It's 15m so there's just room in my mind so long as the troughs themselves aren't too wide.

We’ve got two 5ft wide troughs in a 50ft wide shed. It works fine & thats with fairly big holsteins.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

What is to the left? Can you not flatten the hedge and have another passage to eat from?

Unfortunately, there not a chance we'd get permission to remove the hedge. My cows really are quite small, I spent months feeding on this 16m wide yard in NZ which seemed to have loads of room.

 

[Jdunn55]

Sounds like a bloody Slippery Slope to me for a spring calver, next thing he'll be keeping 600 days in milk friesians

Oi I heard that

 

[Kevtherev]

Anyone self feed nowadays with movable barrier at the silage face?

 

[In the pit]

Sounds like a bloody Slippery Slope to me for a spring calver, next thing he'll be keeping 600 days in milk friesians

And calling her massive Martha

 

[DairyGrazing]

Anyone self feed nowadays with movable barrier at the silage face?

Yeah with a step so they can reach higher.