How to feed cows?

[som farmer]

Depends how you view being successful

they just bought another 2 farms.

 

[Jamer]

View attachment 995375View attachment 995376View attachment 995377
1200 quid feed box feeds 100 in one go
Bugger all distance from pit but do mix 2 forages and a meal

Bit different for feeding 500 cows though. Still think those bed chains will cause much swearing when too much weight gets fired in there.

 

[bigw]

Surely the easiest thing would be a big sheargrab and tip the silage in a passage and push it up.

 

[dinderleat]

they just bought another 2 farms.

Farm side or the cheese side? They e also just given up milking at 2 units and another one not far behind

 

[jimmer]

Bit different for feeding 500 cows though. Still think those bed chains will cause much swearing when too much weight gets fired in there.

Yet noone thinks twice putting a million tonnes of fym in a rear discharge spreader

 

[som farmer]

Farm side or the cheese side? They e also just given up milking at 2 units and another one not far behind

that remains to be seen, rumour is to milk, whether true, or not, l really don't know, but very obvious some major changes afoot. Perhaps they realise the price they pay for milk, leaves very little freeboard, and they can buy it in, cheaper than producing it

 

[Jamer]

Yet noone thinks twice putting a million tonnes of fym in a rear discharge spreader

Cos they’re built to a way higher spec. Build your forage box like a Bunning HD spreader and you’ll be fine. The old forage boxes were made of cheese. 2 Bamfords and a Kidd here in my youth loaded with a Parmiter block cutter and later a straight grab. It used to kill them.

 

[Spier]

Here’s an out of the box idea

Mobiel voerhek - Weelink Staltech

 

[jimmer]

I do agree, we put maize on the bottom and try to shake the grass in a bit so it's not in solid blocks
Wagon grass too

 

[O'Reilly]

You've got a Lucas that works, why would you want anything else? It will do clamp and bales. Only problem being it won't weigh. I agree about counting grabs, I can't feed the same amount two days running like that, two different people definitely couldn't. I guess you can't feed 500 cows a winter ration in one go through the Lucas either.
Second best would have to be a big tub mixer. They can do bales, weigh, you can put urea in if you're a bit short of protein, mag flakes in spring buffer feed, consistent mix so you don't get them flicking silage everywhere as they look for the maize at the bottom, and so on. With the right wheels, you can take it in the paddock if needs be. They aren't that complicated, and no more likely to break than a forage box.
A skiddy would take a lot of trips from the clamp, and a pivot steer loader would cost a fortune. Both would drop silage round the yard still, unless you had a bucket grab or shear bucket.

 

[Stuart1]

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

when you’ve cows to feed at 7am but slurry to spread at 11am. Very multipurpose machine. Likely not giving you a solution to your problem here

 

[Thick Farmer]

I feed everything with the bucket on the telehandler. Quick, simple, never breaks down.

 

[vantage]

I feed everything with the bucket on the telehandler. Quick, simple, never breaks down.

The bucket or the telehandler?
If the latter, frankly amazing, not EVER happened here!

 

[Thick Farmer]

The bucket or the telehandler?
If the latter, frankly amazing, not EVER happened here!

The bucket has never broken down. The telehandler is a different story...