What to feed heifer calves this autumn?

[Homesy]

People who feed hay to heifers need their head looking at

Excuse my ignorance but why ? Some springers wean their calves straight onto grass so why is hay so bad ?

 

[dinderleat]

Excuse my ignorance but why ? Some springers wean their calves straight onto grass so why is hay so bad ?

Fresh grass is not hay, maybe I’m wrong but I’ve yet to see any cattle on hay and think wow they’ve done them well.

 

[Blue.]

Excuse my ignorance but why ? Some springers wean their calves straight onto grass so why is hay so bad ?

It gives them a fine pot belly.

 

[Nenuphar]

We don't normally but we had too much 2nd cut silage to fit in the clamp so ended up with a barn full of big bale seeds hay (weather was fantastic and we already had some bale silage and that's so expensive with wrap and disposal fees).

It has been noticeable how much drier they have been compared with on silage. We normally stop the cake after Christmas but kept it going to turnout this year as they were on hay. Still got some hay left as well as some silage in the clamp, compared with the previous spring when we had to buy silage in for the milkers.

How did they do adg wise?

 

[Nenuphar]

It gives them a fine pot belly.

You would want to have big water troughs for them too. Hay is only for calves, cows pre calving and can be used effectively when ad-lib finishing

 

[BELOWAVERAGE]

It gives them a fine pot belly.

But isn't that just what you want, a big belly so they have plenty of capacity to eat lots of food, some of these holstien heifers you see have such small stomachs you wonder how they eat enough to survive.

 

[Jamer]

Feeding hay is fine so long as you don’t expect to cut the hard feed by a significant amount. And therein lies your problem.

 

[buffalo_soldier]

My recipe is:
Starter pellets + straw,
When taking 3kg switch over to 3kg cake + straw,
At around 4/5 months switch over to TMR 50:50 grass/wholecrop with 2kg of cake.
Keep them on TMR till turnout.

 

[betweenthelines]

Do you mean a 50/50 silage mix and 2kg of cake on top?

 

[Conrod96]

Do you mean a 50/50 silage mix and 2kg of cake on top?

Think it’s 50% grass silage 50% wholecrop was what I took from it

 

[betweenthelines]

Not a TMR then?

 

[buffalo_soldier]

I know what I mean, which is what matters

 

[crashbox]

It'll be hay and cake here then onto maize silage, hay and 2kg cake.
Might try maize with haylage and 1kg cake but... needs to be square bales to split between groups to get through it fast enough.
Don't run a TMR so not an option.
Need to calve by 24 months to fit block.
Theory is haylage will help develop rumen function, so they'll do well on grass the following spring.
Sample comparison I did showed hay has nearly twice the ME of barley straw (8 instead of 4).
Happy for feedback.

 

[Princess Pooper]

It'll be hay and cake here then onto maize silage, hay and 2kg cake.
Might try maize with haylage and 1kg cake but... needs to be square bales to split between groups to get through it fast enough.
Don't run a TMR so not an option.
Need to calve by 24 months to fit block.
Theory is haylage will help develop rumen function, so they'll do well on grass the following spring.
Sample comparison I did showed hay has nearly twice the ME of barley straw (8 instead of 4).
Happy for feedback.

Are you able to chop the hay. I know someone who tried feeding long seeds hay to calves and 2 died. They did a PM on the second one and the hay was not digesting as the rumen was still developing and it basically bunged the works up.