Mixing straw and blend

Location
West Wales
Trying to find an easier way of feeding our weaned calves. Feeding about 800kg of blend currently a day and as they grow going in to put it into troughs isn’t going to work.
If we chucked it into the mixer wagon would we need some molasses to make it bind?
could we just add the blend on top of the straw in the straw chopper and blow it to ring feeders or would all the blend just drop out?
 

frederick

Member
Location
south west
Trying to find an easier way of feeding our weaned calves. Feeding about 800kg of blend currently a day and as they grow going in to put it into troughs isn’t going to work.
If we chucked it into the mixer wagon would we need some molasses to make it bind?
could we just add the blend on top of the straw in the straw chopper and blow it to ring feeders or would all the blend just drop out?
What is the overall diet you are aiming for per head. How many kgs per head.

With straw and blend where it is money wise is securing silage or haylage and reducing blend quantity an option long term. Our 11 year old daughter is still happily feeding & month old calves in troughs groups of 40.
 
Location
West Wales
Are they on ad-lib possibly ad-lib feeders or 3in 1 feeders work well, I think @farmer on a bike uses them can get the blend blown straight in.
4kg a head a day. We tried them on ad-lib last year and they looked fantastic but would’ve just run way too fat. Unless we make a blend that’s not very palatable but suspect that defeats the object.

think the 3in1’s are the answer long term but £££ right now when we need to feed 260 of them when fully weaned.
 
Location
West Wales
What is the overall diet you are aiming for per head. How many kgs per head.

With straw and blend where it is money wise is securing silage or haylage and reducing blend quantity an option long term. Our 11 year old daughter is still happily feeding & month old calves in troughs groups of 40.
Currently it’s ad-lib hay in a ring feeder with some barely straw blown on top and bedded well. With 4kgs of blend fed split between two feeds.
Suspect we could get down to 3kg safely if we had smaller groups but find 4kg means there is less bulling and a chance to get all the feed in before they’ve eaten it all.
Group size and the fact we have to go in is definitely an issue as there is 120 in there.
silage is readily available ( first year it could be as their home for the first time ever) but do feel they perform better on cake and straw certainly up to 6 months.
Sort of an annoying size right now as we’d have to feed silage in troughs as they wouldn’t reach all around a ring feeder.

estimated cost a day if my maths are right
£263 a tonne for blend = 0.263 pence per kg x 4 = £1.052 + 15p for hay/ straw consumption = a smidge over £1.20 a day.
 
Trying to find an easier way of feeding our weaned calves. Feeding about 800kg of blend currently a day and as they grow going in to put it into troughs isn’t going to work.
If we chucked it into the mixer wagon would we need some molasses to make it bind?
could we just add the blend on top of the straw in the straw chopper and blow it to ring feeders or would all the blend just drop out?

I know lots of guys who are very successfully and cheaply feeding calves 3 months onwards with a TMR. obviously not everyone has the set up for it. If you do though they have gone completely away from blends and feeding grass silage, brewers grains and small amount of barley. if cant get Brewers they use wheat or maize DDG.
 

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