Talk to me about Molasses - is it better/cheaper than cake

[Chasingmytail]

Sorry, I dont know much about it. Apparently, years ago they used to put litres on the silage for the lambs here.

We are organic hence the price is high, currently putting buckets down but price wise its very expensive. We've already spent £500 for the tubs for lambs, ewes and cattle. The way they are devouring it makes it a unpalatable for us. They've all been bolused etc.

Alternately to keep costs low is it better to just use it on finishing lambs? Our lambs are a mix of good and bad. Prob go now in January Is it better to bring lambs in and take the poor out and just give these the molasses.

IBC tank £500. Tonne bag of lamb finisher be around £450 +.

Can you tell me who really benefits from it to make it cost effective. Ta

 

[Greythundercloudys]

450 for a ton of cake, that defo will never pay, l would just sell the lambs as stores if they are any size they will make 60£, they will die in debt otherwise.

 

[Chasingmytail]

My small lambs wont get anywhere near £60, last time I looked at stores at mart making between £11 - £30.

In general we are grass fed but the ugly need pushing on even if for just our freezer.

I also want to find out more on the molasses.

 

[Gulli]

It's messy sticky stuff best fed by someone else in my experience.
Good feed though. Very palatable so you won't have any trouble getting them to eat it. Fed ad lib make sure it has urea in it as this will self limit intakes. Or leave the urea out and you can have it on your porridge in the winter.
Are you comparing like for like price wise? Probably better off sending the smalls as stores. You'll struggle to feed them to a profit at £450/tonne

 

[milkloss]

Know nothing about organic sadly, so what would you expect them to make when fat? Would help gauge what to feed them on.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Lamb finisher is a balanced feed . Black Strap is just a big Lump of sugar . And ferments very rapidly in the gut

 

[Bones]

What breed of lambs are they

 

[livestock 1]

Molasses is great feed. On its own it is only sugar. You can’t really compare it to a fattening ration until have decided what you are going to feed with it to balance it out.

 

[spin cycle]

so you've got to feed organic cake ....but you could feed mollases which you don't know the status of

 

[texel-tom]

What are there weights? Old cliche but some times first loss is the best loss

 

[crazy_bull]

just to jump in on this, would molasses supplementing via ball feeders be a good idea to help finish lambs on poor quality grass (a lot of poor quality grass).

C B

 

[spin cycle]

just to jump in on this, would molasses supplementing via ball feeders be a good idea to help finish lambs on poor quality grass (a lot of poor quality grass).

C B

but for op by the time they've bought the ball feeders ect

i'm still puzzled how they could use mollases and stay 'organic'......surely just buy normal finisher and sell conventional.......unless there's a big premium for organic

 

[tinsheet]

Get some forage rape drilled next year

Sell your lambs now, if there that small and you start pushing them, your bound to lose one of two, let someone else take the hassle, advertise them through organic lines, you may get a pound or two extra!
Good luck what ever you do, Organic cake is just silly been there done that bad enough when it was £300 per ton, conventional is nearly there now!.​

 

[Al R]

Shop around with suppliers re the cake, I had a quote for £480/t back in early August, then bought 3t delivered from Dorset for £421/t, apparently they messed up the quote we mixed it 33:33:33 with barley, oats to lessen the cost of the creep ( selling barley/oats for £260/t mind)
Ive never had organic molasses but from my experience I’ve only seen dairy herds put it on silage to make bad silage half palatable.

Who are you buying licks from ? I was buying crystalyx organyx plus but at over £1350/t I asked for a quote from someone else and they said no more than “£900/t” so it’s worth shopping around.

 

[gatepost]

You have to work it out ,in pence per mj or gram dcp, start with the dry matter % of each feed mol about 40% against cake at 90% ish, then multiply DM% by analysis ie 13% to give you the amount of actual nutrient per kg/DM then divide that with the cost. only way of assessing value/cost of possible feeds.

 

[Chasingmytail]

so you've got to feed organic cake ....but you could feed mollases which you don't know the status of

organic molasses of course!

Currently buying Keith Dallas licks

Easycares

Mix of weights some are 34/38 got some 25 which need shaping up. If I can feed these up Im happy to put some in the freezer than take to market and get silly money.

Moved the good ewe lambs to our flock.

 

[Chasingmytail]

Shop around with suppliers re the cake, I had a quote for £480/t back in early August, then bought 3t delivered from Dorset for £421/t, apparently they messed up the quote we mixed it 33:33:33 with barley, oats to lessen the cost of the creep ( selling barley/oats for £260/t mind)
Ive never had organic molasses but from my experience I’ve only seen dairy herds put it on silage to make bad silage half palatable.

Who are you buying licks from ? I was buying crystalyx organyx plus but at over £1350/t I asked for a quote from someone else and they said no more than “£900/t” so it’s worth shopping around.

From Dallas Keith via local supplier https://dallaskeith.co.uk/

I dont get on with B&W feeds they have sent some chicken feed once that was supplementary feed not layers ended up losing a few chickens. Seems to me everything I deal with them its an error. I use HI-Peak. The problems with feed it we have to buy it in tonne bags so you have to pay courier on every pallet. I cant locate any barley or oats organic in small bags. I spoke to Mole valley and they cant get small orders only wagons for organic I have spent hours looking for barley etc. Seeing we are not in arable area I cant find farms direct either.

The lambs are sold as conventional as they have no additional value unless you sold finished via a organic box scheme etc.

After having the soils fully tested, grasses identified, compaction etc there is a lot of poor glassland here hence why lambs not finishing great. The issue is the costs associated with reseeding etc.

 

[TelesnaAg]

High in energy, low in protein.

Ant...

 

[multi power]

but for op by the time they've bought the ball feeders ect

i'm still puzzled how they could use mollases and stay 'organic'......surely just buy normal finisher and sell conventional.......unless there's a big premium for organic

Organic molasses

 

[multi power]

From Dallas Keith via local supplier https://dallaskeith.co.uk/

I dont get on with B&W feeds they have sent some chicken feed once that was supplementary feed not layers ended up losing a few chickens. Seems to me everything I deal with them its an error. I use HI-Peak. The problems with feed it we have to buy it in tonne bags so you have to pay courier on every pallet. I cant locate any barley or oats organic in small bags. I spoke to Mole valley and they cant get small orders only wagons for organic I have spent hours looking for barley etc. Seeing we are not in arable area I cant find farms direct either.

The lambs are sold as conventional as they have no additional value unless you sold finished via a organic box scheme etc.

After having the soils fully tested, grasses identified, compaction etc there is a lot of poor glassland here hence why lambs not finishing great. The issue is the costs associated with reseeding etc.

Reseeding is a LOT cheaper than buying cake