Wheatfeed through the parlour?

[Dragon]

We feed crackerfeed from kw through the parlour, cheap and cheerful, 13me, 15%cp

how many kg per day.
cracker feed is finely ground (and could becooked) so is quickly degradable I would have thought feeding at spring grass would have adverse effect on milk quality.

 

[Dragon]

Our cows are currently getting a standard 18% dairy nut through the parlour and a blend (barley, rapemeal, distillers, minerals) fed up the trough once a day at about 4kgs.

We are considering dropping the dairy nut (£210) and just feeding wheatfeed (£145) in the parlour at about 2kgs twice a day. Cows are mostly early lactation crossbreds and danish reds yielding 30kgs. What are people's thoughts?

Thanks

how many litres are you prepared loose, you will loose some! wheatfeed will be of a lower quality compared to cake.
We feed when grazing however i'm looking at cheaper alternatives on pence/mj/me rather than dry matter basis.

 

[TomB]

how many kg per day.
cracker feed is finely ground (and could becooked) so is quickly degradable I would have thought feeding at spring grass would have adverse effect on milk quality.

Only 2, 1kg per milking. Not on a solids contract and consistently exceed minimum solids requirements. I think last may our bf averaged 3.9.

 

[Dragon]

Only 2, 1kg per milking. Not on a solids contract and consistently exceed minimum solids requirements. I think last may our bf averaged 3.9.

works well for you then. 2kg probably wouldn't be a problem

 

[Baling Hay]

how many litres are you prepared loose, you will loose some! wheatfeed will be of a lower quality compared to cake.
We feed when grazing however i'm looking at cheaper alternatives on pence/mj/me rather than dry matter basis.

What alternatives?

 

[Dragon]

What alternatives?

wheatfeed is cheap dm but not necessarily least cost for ME it very variable when we tested independently.
Next best thing would be wheat gluten virtually the same but with a molasses type feed added, which makes it more palatable, higher protein and ME. cost difference in the south west last year was £10-15/t which is not enough difference to feed wheat feed in my opinion.

Alternatives - there isn't much but we can mix 2 feed quite easily when we load the parlour feed bin, so that gives me alot more choice.

 

[Baling Hay]

wheatfeed is cheap dm but not necessarily least cost for ME it very variable when we tested independently.
Next best thing would be wheat gluten virtually the same but with a molasses type feed added, which makes it more palatable, higher protein and ME. cost difference in the south west last year was £10-15/t which is not enough difference to feed wheat feed in my opinion.

Alternatives - there isn't much but we can mix 2 feed quite easily when we load the parlour feed bin, so that gives me alot more choice.

Who did you get the wheat gluten stuff off?

 

[Dragon]

Mvf or local firm usually Teignmouth docks or Portland

 

[Baling Hay]

Another option we have just thought about is to feed sodawheat up the trough and continue with the the dairy cake in the parlour?