NWF Ewe Rolls

[Benr]

How have you found NWF ewe feed? They are £23/t cheaper than MVF’s 18% Rolls.
We have always used MVF’s and always had good lambs and plenty of milk.
We have managed to make excellent Haylage, 16.9% protein and 10.8 ME. Scanned 180%

This is the spec

 

[hally]

We used them last year, pretty good really, very smooth lambing but the year was kind. Going back to our usual supplier though as the bills were terrible, never matched the quote and a couple of orders went missing.

 

[tepapa]

How have you found NWF ewe feed? They are £23/t cheaper than MVF’s 18% Rolls.
We have always used MVF’s and always had good lambs and plenty of milk.
We have managed to make excellent Haylage, 16.9% protein and 10.8 ME. Scanned 180%

This is the spec

You've got a high protein haulage and want to feed a high protein concentrate. You ration will be seriously low in energy in relation to the protein.

 

[neilo]

More importantly, the ration will be very low in DUP. That ration is cheap because there is only a teaspoon full of soya in there, by the looks of how far down the list it is. DUP is what makes your milk.

The fibre level at 10% would make me rule it out as being full of filler too (‘wheatfeed’ can be anything from flour waste to bran).

Went to a talk by John Vipond the other day, who reckoned that as long as your silage was over 10.5 ME, any more CP in the ration over 1:1 with the ME would just be pee’d out. He was suggesting that, if you had decent silage over 10.5 ME, you could just feed 100g of Soya (or 50g of Sopralin) per lamb carried, and that would be perfect. A different approach and certainly one that could make some savings.

I have gone the other way this year, moving companies to a ration that is £30/t dearer than my old supplier, on account of the much higher soya levels. My plan is to feed less of it, making better use of the forage.

 

[Moors Lad]

`Scuse my ignorance. What`s evolution ? (As a feed ingredient!)

 

[hally]

More importantly, the ration will be very low in DUP. That ration is cheap because there is only a teaspoon full of soya in there, by the looks of how far down the list it is. DUP is what makes your milk.

The fibre level at 10% would make me rule it out as being full of filler too (‘wheatfeed’ can be anything from flour waste to bran).

Went to a talk by John Vipond the other day, who reckoned that as long as your silage was over 10.5 ME, any more CP in the ration over 1:1 with the ME would just be pee’d out. He was suggesting that, if you had decent silage over 10.5 ME, you could just feed 100g of Soya (or 50g of Sopralin) per lamb carried, and that would be perfect. A different approach and certainly one that could make some savings.

I have gone the other way this year, moving companies to a ration that is £30/t dearer than my old supplier, on account of the much higher soya levels. My plan is to feed less of it, making better use of the forage.

When I look the rolls we used were called ewetrition 19%, which was their best roll
Quite a few around here gone the soya route on advice from SAC and often just feeding them 2 or 3 times a week and are getting away well with it but reckon the silage needs to be extremely good for it to work.

 

[Benr]

I haven’t got the exact inclusions, but the main source of protein in the MVf ration is Soya and Protected Soya.
I have read about just feeding soya before, but we find rolls very convenient as don’t have enough feed space so feed on the floor as well. They are also easy for feeding after lambing.
Sounds like we should stick with MVF

 

[Wooly]

We have always used MVF’s and always had good lambs and plenty of milk.

I think you have answered your own question.

This is like a customer of yours saying, We always buy Bens lambs, they taste lovely but I think we will buy some cheaper ones from Tesco.

 

[muleman]

The alarm bells would ring a bit if you can get feed at £23/ton less than the other firms, what will be in it,will it be any good?

 

[Adam@Rumen]

`Scuse my ignorance. What`s evolution ? (As a feed ingredient!)

Their own branded protected fat, a cheaper version of Megalac

 

[neilo]

I haven’t got the exact inclusions, but the main source of protein in the MVf ration is Soya and Protected Soya.
I have read about just feeding soya before, but we find rolls very convenient as don’t have enough feed space so feed on the floor as well. They are also easy for feeding after lambing.
Sounds like we should stick with MVF

That’s the reason i’m Sticking with rolls for my early lambers too. All very well feeding a small amount of soya only 8n a TMR, or even sprinkled along a feed fence, but that requires a system with inherently higher fixed costs to start with....

Don’t NWF make higher spec rations than that, so you can compare like with like?

 

[neilo]

Quite a few around here gone the soya route on advice from SAC and often just feeding them 2 or 3 times a week and are getting away well with it but reckon the silage needs to be extremely good for it to work.

Yes, he did mention doing that too. He kept on about lower feed costs, but all the farms he was using as examples where either TMR or battling with sheep on troughs/walk through feeders. Even if my buildings suited it, i’d Have to add costs to save them....

I quite get the DUP argument, but it’s got to be simple (& cheap) to feed for me to consider it.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Don't skimp on your ewe ration quality. We've only done it once in 40 years when we were trying to pinch pennies where we could. It backfired. We learnt our lesson and went back to the top spec with our original supplier ever after that.
The pregnant ewe only has room for a little bit, so it's got to be top notch feed going in.
I see what is being said about feeding soya. But at lambing and along with everything else unless you have a mega set up and facilities for TMR then nuts and forage have got to be the way forward

 

[Johngee]

Yes, he did mention doing that too. He kept on about lower feed costs, but all the farms he was using as examples where either TMR or battling with sheep on troughs/walk through feeders. Even if my buildings suited it, i’d Have to add costs to save them....

I quite get the DUP argument, but it’s got to be simple (& cheap) to feed for me to consider it.

I went to listen to him the other night. Seemed interesting but doesn’t seem practical to feed soya outside. He did talk about DUP blocks but I guess that would be no cheaper than compound.

 

[Jackov Altraids]

In my experience NWF can be good but the give away is;
"key ingredients typically used"

One batch can be excellent and the next may have the same statistics, but me made up of crap.

 

[neilo]

I went to listen to him the other night. Seemed interesting but doesn’t seem practical to feed soya outside. He did talk about DUP blocks but I guess that would be no cheaper than compound.

He was in a rush to get off as he had a meeting in South Wales somewhere, so i’m Guessing it was the same day as we heard him.

Yes, I figured a high soya compound would be the only practical way to get halfway there unless you have housed sheep with a feed fence.

 

[DanM]

NWF do a product called ultrasoy. It’s a 80% DUP soya roll.
Would give opportunity to supplement high quality silage whilst retaining benefits of a roll?

 

[tepapa]

NWF do a product called ultrasoy. It’s a 80% DUP soya roll.
Would give opportunity to supplement high quality silage whilst retaining benefits of a roll?

They've stopped making it in a roll and will only sell it as a blend. Still an excellent feed but it's lost the ability to be feed outside and on the floor.

 

[hally]

Yes, he did mention doing that too. He kept on about lower feed costs, but all the farms he was using as examples where either TMR or battling with sheep on troughs/walk through feeders. Even if my buildings suited it, i’d Have to add costs to save them....

I quite get the DUP argument, but it’s got to be simple (& cheap) to feed for me to consider it.

Although we are housing anyway, the thought of feeding just 3 times a week is a little scary tbh

 

[neilo]

They've stopped making it in a roll and will only sell it as a blend. Still an excellent feed but it's lost the ability to be feed outside and on the floor.

JV did tell us about one farm that was on all grass wintering/cell grazing, and was feeding soya as a line on the grass every few days, just as they were let into a new cell. I’d be interested to see how much £320/t powder was left stuck to the soil after, as I can’t see they’d eat most of it, or even bother if they had a fresh bit of grass that day.

I did wonder about those NWF soya rolls a while ago, but never tried them before I heard they’d stopped making them. I wonder, did they stop because they can’t make it into a stable roll, or because sales were so low? When the majority of sheep farmers just buy on price per ton, I can’t imagine they’d ever be more than a niche product.