dinderleat
Member
- Location
- Wells
How to feed cows?
- Thread starter Cows 'n grass
- Start date
Not really answering your question but feeding cows easily and cheaply is something I have pondered alot.
What I have is a central feed passage and also a single feed barrier face. Shoulders of the grazing season I feed first cut clamp silage through a hispec tub feeder that I bought for £800. It's attached to a tractor we bought in 1999 for £10,500 so depriciation is minimal! I can get 5 - 6 ton in the feeder so feed out is pretty quick and it's only used for 3 - 4 months of the year so wear and tear is minimal.
During the dry period I feed round bale silage. Fill the passage ways right up with bales and they last for 3 days.
As a one man band feeding 200 cows I find the above quick and easy with minimal problems.
What I have is a central feed passage and also a single feed barrier face. Shoulders of the grazing season I feed first cut clamp silage through a hispec tub feeder that I bought for £800. It's attached to a tractor we bought in 1999 for £10,500 so depriciation is minimal! I can get 5 - 6 ton in the feeder so feed out is pretty quick and it's only used for 3 - 4 months of the year so wear and tear is minimal.
During the dry period I feed round bale silage. Fill the passage ways right up with bales and they last for 3 days.
As a one man band feeding 200 cows I find the above quick and easy with minimal problems.
Stuart1
Member
That’s eye watering for what it is
kiwi pom
Member
- Location
- canterbury NZ
Built in NZ, everything that's built here is really expensive.
The place where they're built has a sales yard across the road, they usually have a few Marshall bale feeder/trailer thingy's in the yard.
It must be cheaper for them to buy them from Scotland and chuck them on a boat than it is for their welders across the road to knock something up. That's why there's so many UK and Irish grain/silage trailers here.
Stuart1
Member
What drives the cost up on NZ made products?
Dead Rabbits
Member
- Location
- 'Merica
Small isolated island in the ass end of the world and limited domestic labor market.
Barmyfarmer
Member
When I was in NZ I couldn't believe the price of tractors and machinery and especially cars, anything with a Landrover badge on it was crazy
Was cheaper to buy it here and put it on ship yourself for cars, family out there have done it before.
Cant get a holden ute in kernow though.
Them bloody expensive here
Attachments
15 years old.Them bloody expensive here
Buy one in NZ and stick it in the hustler, get it all shipped over, sell the car pay for the hustler
kiwi pom
Member
- Location
- canterbury NZ
Can't get a Vauxhall - sorry Holden - ute anywhere now can you?
kiwi pom
Member
- Location
- canterbury NZ
As Dead Rabbits says, small isolated place. A small population means everything is on a fairly small scale unless it can be exported worldwide, like dairy products etc. So it costs more per unit to make something than it does to bring it in even though bringing it in is expensive.
The problem at the moment is the supply chain has changed due to Covid and its getting increasingly difficult to get ships to call.
I'm told the price of sending a container anywhere has gone through the roof.
- Location
- somerset
friends son, works on an outfit with 7 dairies, takes 3.5 hours to feed the lot, big loader, only grass silage, and feed racks.
plenty of cheap diet feeders about, right place right time, it is good to know how much you actually feed..
Weight wise, when l started, had a 'pressure' gauge on the tractors loader, had to work it out, to get it calibrated right, but certainly cheap.
plenty of cheap diet feeders about, right place right time, it is good to know how much you actually feed..
Weight wise, when l started, had a 'pressure' gauge on the tractors loader, had to work it out, to get it calibrated right, but certainly cheap.
Barbers?
- Location
- somerset
must admit, they have got that sussed
although l have heard they are growing maize nest year, on away ground, so that will complicate it, if it's correct. The big dairy, 400 cowish, they have a mixer wagon. Up till now, grass silage only, plus cake.
They are successful, on a pretty simple system. I tend to think many farmers, are extremely good, at complicating their cow management/feeding. When perhaps we should be looking at their system, and making our own simpler. Self feed, is the simplest, but our pits simply not wide enough face, for number of cows.
although l have heard they are growing maize nest year, on away ground, so that will complicate it, if it's correct. The big dairy, 400 cowish, they have a mixer wagon. Up till now, grass silage only, plus cake.
They are successful, on a pretty simple system. I tend to think many farmers, are extremely good, at complicating their cow management/feeding. When perhaps we should be looking at their system, and making our own simpler. Self feed, is the simplest, but our pits simply not wide enough face, for number of cows.
Iron150
Member
- Location
- Conwy, north wales
How about a simple big skid steer, feed 220 cows here in half an hour, anyone can jump on it and do it,
- Location
- somerset
or square bale silage.
still reckon 3rd hand keenan, cheapest way, right place, under £1,000, even if the weigh cells don't work. l made the decision 30 yrs ago, to box feed, ever since then, it's all long straight feed troughs, so really buggered, as to expensive to change.
still reckon 3rd hand keenan, cheapest way, right place, under £1,000, even if the weigh cells don't work. l made the decision 30 yrs ago, to box feed, ever since then, it's all long straight feed troughs, so really buggered, as to expensive to change.
jimmer
Member
- Location
- East Devon
1200 quid feed box feeds 100 in one go
Bugger all distance from pit but do mix 2 forages and a meal
dinderleat
Member
- Location
- Wells
Depends how you view being successful