Winter feeding kit

[Bill the Bass]

Currently we feed approximately 200 head of cattle (80 suckler and followers) in winter, we use a loadall to feed out clamp silage, cattle are bedded with a straw chopper.

The loadall does about 700 hours per year and uses about 4.5 litres of fuel per hour. Cows are feed twice a day, male young stock are mostly ad lib on hoppers.

I feed everything in the morning and father beds up and tips some silage out in the afternoon. I think this will be fathers last winter feeding in any anger as at 76 his body is failing him fast.

I am thinking about getting a used feeder wagon for next winter to make things easier so my questions would be;

1) would feeding a bit of straw in the diet of cows allow them to be Fed mornings only and just pushed up at night? Therefore saving time and labour at evening feed
2) what would fuel usage be on a diet feeder and would it allow for some reduction in overall fuel use as the loadall wouldn’t be reving around the yard feeding out?
3) what size of feeder would I need and would a tub or Keenan type be most suitable?
4) Am I just complicating the system? (Think I know the answer to this)

 

[hally]

We feed our suckler cows round bales through a diet feeder with a bit of straw just once a day and push up a night.
For eighty cows assuming sheds can handle size get a 10 or 12 but if you are looking second hand we found the smaller ones, which we needed for our narrow feed passages, are bad to find in good nick. One dealer said they are only traded in when they are knackered so be careful. In the end we bought a new one. Diesel use is as you would expect but it takes about 10mins at 450 revs to chop up a bale( ours are chopped in the baler) but a pit I would think if you tipped in your straw by the time you tipped in silage and drove to the shed it will be mixed up enough for sucklers.
we find the cows are more settled with the straw mixed in as previously we just put it on top of the silage with the straw chopper but they nudged it about for a while before they ate it.
saying that I bought the feeder for feeding the sheep a tmr ration if it was just cows I wouldn’t have bothered and just blow it through the bedder.

 

[Old Tup]

First off feed the cows round bales of Wheat straw with some protein....Soya etc.
They don’t need Silage pre calving.
Assuming they are spring calvers that is.

 

[hally]

First off feed the cows round bales of Wheat straw with some protein....Soya etc.
They don’t need Silage pre calving.
Assuming they are spring calvers that is.

In Cumbria silage can be cheaper than buying in wheat straw and protein.

 

[milkloss]

How do you feed out the clamp silage?
when do you calve?
Are the cows dry?
Do your cows need straw in the diet?

we used to have a mixmax but got rid because of the extra machine and the work you can generate for yourself quite easily with wonderful diets.

now just use the lucas g straw blower for feeding pit silo and bedding. Cows with 8 month calves get once a day silo. Old yards and a self feed pit area (too high for purely self feed) so we drive round the yards with the cows feeding out.
Have in the past blown straw into a bunker and layed some in the bottom of the blower woth silo on top. Works well but silage is cheaper than straw sometimes!

 

[Bill the Bass]

Yes spring calvers. We used to feed out with the straw blower but to be honest it wasn’t that successful, it kept blocking up.

Feeding straw and protein could be an option, we have easy access of the A66 and M6 for an artic. Let’s be honest, making silage is not a cheap job

 

[hally]

Yes spring calvers. We used to feed out with the straw blower but to be honest it wasn’t that successful, it kept blocking up.

Feeding straw and protein could be an option, we have easy access of the A66 and M6 for an artic. Let’s be honest, making silage is not a cheap job

I know what you mean, we have abandoned putting silage bales through our straw blower as it’s hard in them. They seem great when they are new but it seems to age them quickly.

 

[Bill the Bass]

I know what you mean, we have abandoned putting silage bales through our straw blower as it’s hard in them. They seem great when they are new but it seems to age them quickly.

We stopped feeding through the chopper three winters back to try and prolong the life of it - and we got sick of unblocking it. Maybe the thing for us would be to change it more regular and feed silage through it?

 

[hally]

We stopped feeding through the chopper three winters back to try and prolong the life of it - and we got sick of unblocking it. Maybe the thing for us would be to change it more regular and feed silage through it?

Yeah we come to the same conclusion, if I was continuing with this system I would swap it every 4 or 5 years. Tbh the diet feeder is a lot more robust piece of kit running at a fraction of the speed so should last a long time if not abused.

 

[HarryB97]

Are your round bales of silage fully chopped by the baler? If so feed and fed with the straw blower a mixer wagon is not worth it unless you are feeding a complex tmr. We feed and bed with a mounted Teagle and have an auger bucket as well, it works a treat. 'Emily' attachments make a range of feeding and mixer buckets which would be worth looking at, they make great kit.

 

[aled1590]

We’re pretty much same as you @Bill the Bass with 75 cows and fatten the progeny, also have sheep to feed. Would feed everything with telescopic and shear grab back and forth to the silage pit, and bag all the barley and feed every morning. Rightly or wrongly Just bought a s/h 10.5cube tub feeder beginning of winter. Can’t use it on every shed yet, need a few alterations but I can do a few groups. Tend to do enough to last 2 days or it would be never ending mixing little mixes for different groups of stock every day. Mostly pit silage and maize go into it, occasional old haylage bale goes in for dry cows just to make pit last longer. Obviously diesel usage up on the feeder tractor but less diesel being burnt on the telehandler. Also have a teagle 8100 chopper and tried feeding with it but gave up, took too long and using one machine to bed and feed everything took hours and hours whereas one feeding one bedding gets the work done quicker. I put a bit of straw in with the pit for dry cows, they clear the lot. Ideal world I would make a shed full of round bale hay for the cows and feed it straight at the barrier with loader to keep things simple and hopefully save on bedding!!

 

[Dave6170]

I feed 1 day, muck and bed the next day. Cut the amount of blocks I need for 2 days and tip it out with the bucket grab. The shear grab dropped too many lumps around the steading. Straw in a ring or at the end of the pass, if they eat all their silage they just have to eat the straw. Calves get barley every morning on top of their silage.
Try to keep it simple and quick then my afternoons are free to do others things like work for someone else.

 

[Bill the Bass]

We’re pretty much same as you @Bill the Bass with 75 cows and fatten the progeny, also have sheep to feed. Would feed everything with telescopic and shear grab back and forth to the silage pit, and bag all the barley and feed every morning. Rightly or wrongly Just bought a s/h 10.5cube tub feeder beginning of winter. Can’t use it on every shed yet, need a few alterations but I can do a few groups. Tend to do enough to last 2 days or it would be never ending mixing little mixes for different groups of stock every day. Mostly pit silage and maize go into it, occasional old haylage bale goes in for dry cows just to make pit last longer. Obviously diesel usage up on the feeder tractor but less diesel being burnt on the telehandler. Also have a teagle 8100 chopper and tried feeding with it but gave up, took too long and using one machine to bed and feed everything took hours and hours whereas one feeding one bedding gets the work done quicker. I put a bit of straw in with the pit for dry cows, they clear the lot. Ideal world I would make a shed full of round bale hay for the cows and feed it straight at the barrier with loader to keep things simple and hopefully save on bedding!!

This is pretty much identical to us, I would prefer to feed hay too. We feed some calving heifers hay and the whole place just smell better, drier and so much less slother. However making hay in the quantity needed for 80 cows is some task.

 

[Bill the Bass]

I feed 1 day, muck and bed the next day. Cut the amount of blocks I need for 2 days and tip it out with the bucket grab. The shear grab dropped too many lumps around the steading. Straw in a ring or at the end of the pass, if they eat all their silage they just have to eat the straw. Calves get barley every morning on top of their silage.
Try to keep it simple and quick then my afternoons are free to do others things like work for someone else.

How many cows do you run like that?

 

[Dave6170]

How many cows do you run like that?

90 plus their calves at the moment

 

[aled1590]

This is pretty much identical to us, I would prefer to feed hay too. We feed some calving heifers hay and the whole place just smell better, drier and so much less slother. However making hay in the quantity needed for 80 cows is some task.

Completely agree. Every year when it comes to August i think to myself ‘surely next year we’ll get some hay’ doesn’t seem to happen!

 

[tr250]

1)don’t listen to the anti feeder wagon people on here it’s similar to anti shed for sheep and anti ploughing brigade.

2)you have a silage clamp so that’s good if you were bales I’d say forget a feeder wagon.

3) I think you have enough cattle to just about warrant one

4) I think you will use similar diesel don’t think you will use less but you will be able to save work and have your cattle fed exactly right.
plus it gives you opertunity to use cheaper feeds and mix your own concentrates maybe even feed sheep

5) yes feeding a bit of straw will allow once a day feeding easily with 80 cows but just beware it’s chopping straw that takes the time
6) I’d go for a tub type single auger machine we have a shelbourne which we like but I’m sure there’s plenty of other good ones just buy from someone who will look after you I bought shelbourne because our dealer is good they are English and they recon they have a spare feeder in case of emergencies.

 

[hally]

1)don’t listen to the anti feeder wagon people on here it’s similar to anti shed for sheep and anti ploughing brigade.

2)you have a silage clamp so that’s good if you were bales I’d say forget a feeder wagon.

3) I think you have enough cattle to just about warrant one

4) I think you will use similar diesel don’t think you will use less but you will be able to save work and have your cattle fed exactly right.
plus it gives you opertunity to use cheaper feeds and mix your own concentrates maybe even feed sheep

5) yes feeding a bit of straw will allow once a day feeding easily with 80 cows but just beware it’s chopping straw that takes the time
6) I’d go for a tub type single auger machine we have a shelbourne which we like but I’m sure there’s plenty of other good ones just buy from someone who will look after you I bought shelbourne because our dealer is good they are English and they recon they have a spare feeder in case of emergencies.

Good advice

 

[simmy_bull]

1)don’t listen to the anti feeder wagon people on here it’s similar to anti shed for sheep and anti ploughing brigade.

2)you have a silage clamp so that’s good if you were bales I’d say forget a feeder wagon.

3) I think you have enough cattle to just about warrant one

4) I think you will use similar diesel don’t think you will use less but you will be able to save work and have your cattle fed exactly right.
plus it gives you opertunity to use cheaper feeds and mix your own concentrates maybe even feed sheep

5) yes feeding a bit of straw will allow once a day feeding easily with 80 cows but just beware it’s chopping straw that takes the time
6) I’d go for a tub type single auger machine we have a shelbourne which we like but I’m sure there’s plenty of other good ones just buy from someone who will look after you I bought shelbourne because our dealer is good they are English and they recon they have a spare feeder in case of emergencies.

What’s wrong with bales in a wagon? I work for one chap with 140 milking cows and he’s all bales and wagon fed.

 

[simmy_bull]

@Bill the Bass habe you got plenty of barrier space to feed once a day?
If you have I’d say go for it. You can make a straw/silage mix to suit stage of pregnancy and certainly put enough in front of them for a day at a time id of though. Got to be a lot easier to feed out once a day and just push up than feeding twice a day?