Straw usage

[Lovegoodstock]

we are using home sourced woodchip there is no way the boss will spend on straw at the mo. Worth getting in touch with some local arboriculturalists to see if they need somewhere to dump it. Woodchip is excellent are absorbing moisture. We'll keep it back and use the muck to make compost.

Think you have a perfect solution. I am sceptical of spreading the woodchip manure with the demand of nitrogen to break it down, but the compost route I see as a perfect minimal input maximum output, good on you for doing it unlike folls like me that don't have time with too many cattle and carry on with my suited system

 

[Lovegoodstock]

Ours are in the same size pens as you and same stocking rate. We use approx 2 ton a week per 100 cattle so slightly less than you but they are on hay rather than silage

In a roundhouse we are using 3t on 165 cattle a week, so more or less exactly the same, though we are on silage and blend mix, we have had a dry spell s obviously using less. Mine are always dry, but far from spotless, im a store seller, so long as dry the ones I will summer I don't mind some dirt on them, just wondering your sizes though to compare, id have 90 8 months, 75 14 months roughly

 

[Derrick Hughes]

is a bit of nitrogen that important when wood is £100 ton cheaper

 

[beefandsleep]

For stores thats fine, for finishing cattle i use one quad per 25 3 times per week.. It probably isnt massivley more on a liveweight basis though.

 

[Sussex Martin]

i'm using 1 330kg bale to bed down 250 cattle of all ages a day, and they're doing fine, although they are lower stocked than your sheds and eating 40%DM silage, which helps a lot

Can you turn water into wine too?

I think he's just willy waving .

 

[Dan Attle]

We deep litter and use 30 bales a week for 260ish cattle these are hesstons exsperimented with wood chip just not as effective we found and takes more bloody nitrogen to brake down than it puts in

 

[Poorbuthappy]

is a bit of nitrogen that important when wood is £100 ton cheaper

You deliver sawdust in to me for £10/ton I'll be delighted to use it.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

You deliver sawdust in to me for £10/ton I'll be delighted to use it.

the op would have to pay a lot more for straw than your are .Wood bedding would be about £30 to you

 

[Poorbuthappy]

the op would have to pay a lot more for straw than your are .Wood bedding would be about £30 to you

On a rigid?

And how far will a ton of wood bedding go compared to a ton of straw?

 

[John Chance]

SAC say 1T straw per cow per winter and 0.75T per store.