What to feed 3 month old plus dairy-bred beef calves?

[Farmertom1988]

To try and push them on on a semi-intensive beef system... usually we would feed an ad-lib rearer nut, but this year it is crucifyingly expensive, would just feeding rolled barley and silage work ok though a wagon?

Also, would ad-lib barley and hay be ok or is that too gung ho? What if barley, oats or wheat is treated with an alkaline product to make alkagrain any better?

Be interested to hear what others are doing...

 

[HarryB97]

How good is your silage? Where are you based? Is your feed tipped in bulk or bags and what protein?

 

[Farmertom1988]

How good is your silage? Where are you based? Is your feed tipped in bulk or bags and what protein?

Silage is actually 20% protein but it is really black in colour and quite wet, it's a 3rd cut from late 2018.

Based in the West Midlands.

Currently have 16% rearer nuts tipped, but they are very expensive, and then feeding very dry haylage alongside it, working well but they are getting to the 4 month age and starting to shift too much corn.

I can buy/fetch barley in rolled for around £160 a tonne... would it be ok mixed in with the wet silage and added straw for fibre?

Won't do it this year, but could 3 month old weanlings go onto ad-lib barley with haylage? Or would they be too young?

 

[gone up the hill]

Silage is actually 20% protein but it is really black in colour and quite wet, it's a 3rd cut from late 2018.

Based in the West Midlands.

Currently have 16% rearer nuts tipped, but they are very expensive, and then feeding very dry haylage alongside it, working well but they are getting to the 4 month age and starting to shift too much corn.

I can buy/fetch barley in rolled for around £160 a tonne... would it be ok mixed in with the wet silage and added straw for fibre?

Won't do it this year, but could 3 month old weanlings go onto ad-lib barley with haylage? Or would they be too young?

Cut the nuts back to 14 asap for starters.

Rolled barley is fine thou you will need to add minerals and some protein pellets to it.

As for Ad Lib, what is your plan for these cattle come spring? are you going to keep them indoors and get them away fat asap once they are over 12 months? or turn out? sell as stores etc??

 

[HarryB97]

Silage is actually 20% protein but it is really black in colour and quite wet, it's a 3rd cut from late 2018.

Based in the West Midlands.

Currently have 16% rearer nuts tipped, but they are very expensive, and then feeding very dry haylage alongside it, working well but they are getting to the 4 month age and starting to shift too much corn.

I can buy/fetch barley in rolled for around £160 a tonne... would it be ok mixed in with the wet silage and added straw for fibre?

Won't do it this year, but could 3 month old weanlings go onto ad-lib barley with haylage? Or would they be too young?

Get them started on some silage and reduce the pellets from ad-lib down to 2-3kg per head per day and a kilo or two of oats if you want to dilute the pellets and reduce the cost. It would be worth weighing them each month to see if the ration change is more cost affective etc. You could drop to a 14% pellet which we did but the price difference was around £5 per tonne from memory so we went back to a 16%. We get all ours on ad lib silage a few weeks after weaning and keep feeding an 18% calf nut at 3kg per day till they around 12-14 weeks old then transition onto a much cheaper 16% blend from Berrystock Feeds.
If you plan to keep them in then push them like above but if they will graze this year decrease the hard feed as you approach turnout date.

 

[steveR]

Silage is actually 20% protein but it is really black in colour and quite wet, it's a 3rd cut from late 2018.

Based in the West Midlands.

Currently have 16% rearer nuts tipped, but they are very expensive, and then feeding very dry haylage alongside it, working well but they are getting to the 4 month age and starting to shift too much corn.

I can buy/fetch barley in rolled for around £160 a tonne... would it be ok mixed in with the wet silage and added straw for fibre?

Won't do it this year, but could 3 month old weanlings go onto ad-lib barley with haylage? Or would they be too young?

How much hard feed/day are they getting through at present then?

 

[Farmertom1988]

Cut the nuts back to 14 asap for starters.

Rolled barley is fine thou you will need to add minerals and some protein pellets to it.

As for Ad Lib, what is your plan for these cattle come spring? are you going to keep them indoors and get them away fat asap once they are over 12 months? or turn out? sell as stores etc??

Plan will be to split the heifers and steers, heifers will go out to graze, then hopefully keep the steers inside and push them on, looking at switching them to a ration of wholecrop later in the year to aid finishing them circa 18 months next winter.

 

[Durry cows]

What price is you’re 16% when you say expensive? Pm if you like the simplicity of it is worth something!

 

[Farmertom1988]

Get them started on some silage and reduce the pellets from ad-lib down to 2-3kg per head per day and a kilo or two of oats if you want to dilute the pellets and reduce the cost. It would be worth weighing them each month to see if the ration change is more cost affective etc. You could drop to a 14% pellet which we did but the price difference was around £5 per tonne from memory so we went back to a 16%. We get all ours on ad lib silage a few weeks after weaning and keep feeding an 18% calf nut at 3kg per day till they around 12-14 weeks old then transition onto a much cheaper 16% blend from Berrystock Feeds.
If you plan to keep them in then push them like above but if they will graze this year decrease the hard feed as you approach turnout date.

Yes we've had a similar experience to you when enquiring about reducing protein in the nut and never seem to save that much.

Ok that sounds quite good, will cut them back to 3kg a head and mix it in with the silage.

 

[Farmertom1988]

How much hard feed/day are they getting through at present then?

4.5kg per head per day now

But they are growing well to be fair, but not sure how economic it is if i continue with them like that!

 

[gone up the hill]

4.5kg per head per day now

But they are growing well to be fair, but not sure how economic it is if i continue with them like that!

Do as suggested above and cut some of the cake out and feed some oats.

Be careful of cooking them too early by ad lib feeding unless you are going to carry on feeding them hard at grass as well.

 

[Farmertom1988]

Do as suggested above and cut some of the cake out and feed some oats.

Be careful of cooking them too early by ad lib feeding unless you are going to carry on feeding them hard at grass as well.

You mean like not to get them too dumpy and make sure they grow adequate frame?

 

[steveR]

4.5kg per head per day now

But they are growing well to be fair, but not sure how economic it is if i continue with them like that!

Wow! That's a lot of cake being used....

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

We ad lib till 12 weeks then hold it at 3kg and feed silage in a ring feeder, with a view to turnout at 6 months in the spring. This year have milled our own, barley plus protein pellets and peas (in hand) came to £200 a tonne including £20 a tonne for mill, mix and blowing into a bin. How much for rearer from the feed merchants?.

i would think that much past 4 months, barley and silage would do them till turnout, I'm not a proper expert though.

Housing those steers for 18 months is surely going to add some cost. Would it be possible to graze them through the summer before feeding from Autumn through to finishing?

 

[An Gof]

We ad lib till 12 weeks then hold it at 3kg and feed silage in a ring feeder, with a view to turnout at 6 months in the spring. This year have milled our own, barley plus protein pellets and peas (in hand) came to £200 a tonne including £20 a tonne for mill, mix and blowing into a bin. How much for rearer from the feed merchants?.

i would think that much past 4 months, barley and silage would do them till turnout, I'm not a proper expert though.

Housing those steers for 18 months is surely going to add some cost. Would it be possible to graze them through the summer before feeding from Autumn through to finishing?

Similar here, as lib concentrates to 12 weeks and then back to 3kg/head per day plus ad lib silage. Dairy cross BB steers and currently doing 1.1kg DLWG

Fortunately did a forward contract on rearer nuts back in August for 12 months. Bulk rearer now cheaper than rolling own barley and adding protein pellets.
I wouldn’t drop the concentrates below 16% protein before turn out/approx 6 months of age.

 

[Sid]

To try and push them on on a semi-intensive beef system... usually we would feed an ad-lib rearer nut, but this year it is crucifyingly expensive, would just feeding rolled barley and silage work ok though a wagon?

Also, would ad-lib barley and hay be ok or is that too gung ho? What if barley, oats or wheat is treated with an alkaline product to make alkagrain any better?

Be interested to hear what others are doing...

Beef ration calculator | AHDB

ahdb.org.uk

Would this help using own figures?

I've been looking at options for our B&W calves

 

[Full of bull(s)]

I would treat the barley with homendry or similar it will help a lot with the wet acidic silage as well as saving money . At 14%cp with the high protein silage shouldn’t need anything else. The alkalinity should keep them A bit firmer too, with straw this year that has to be a bonus

 

[HarryB97]

Yes we've had a similar experience to you when enquiring about reducing protein in the nut and never seem to save that much.

Ok that sounds quite good, will cut them back to 3kg a head and mix it in with the silage.

That should work well, we split the nuts between two feeds which suits our system. We buy our 18% nuts in bulk from Heygates for £280 per tonne but I bought a load of surplus 18% nuts from a neighbour who had a contract with a firm and they were only £230 per tonne in half tonne bags so it’s worth shopping around. 16% blend from Berrystock feeds is around £205 per tonne in bulk. We have got the older cattle sorted but do struggle with the younger stock, they’re work in progress!

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Similar here, as lib concentrates to 12 weeks and then back to 3kg/head per day plus ad lib silage. Dairy cross BB steers and currently doing 1.1kg DLWG

Fortunately did a forward contract on rearer nuts back in August for 12 months. Bulk rearer now cheaper than rolling own barley and adding protein pellets.
I wouldn’t drop the concentrates below 16% protein before turn out/approx 6 months of age.
[/QUOTE
I suppose if I had had the silage analysed, I may have been able to adjust the protein in the ration by cutting or upping the peas. 1.1 kg dlwg sounds good.

 

[Farmertom1988]

We ad lib till 12 weeks then hold it at 3kg and feed silage in a ring feeder, with a view to turnout at 6 months in the spring. This year have milled our own, barley plus protein pellets and peas (in hand) came to £200 a tonne including £20 a tonne for mill, mix and blowing into a bin. How much for rearer from the feed merchants?.

i would think that much past 4 months, barley and silage would do them till turnout, I'm not a proper expert though.

Housing those steers for 18 months is surely going to add some cost. Would it be possible to graze them through the summer before feeding from Autumn through to finishing?

Yes i think i'm leaning to grazing the lot now, 16% rearer nut is £255 delivered.