Whole cotton seed feeding questions

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texoman

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Geronimo, Ok (sw ok)
I have never fed wcs (or know anybody that does), but I’ve been seeing more of those round bales this year instead of the huge square bales. It got me thinking about feeding some next winter since it might be more manageable and have some questions.

Approximately how much does one of those round bales weigh?

Lots of people say you should top dress it when feeding, but others shovel some in a home made self feeder and let it roll. Some people weigh it and feed in a bunk. How is the top dressing done? What do y’all do and why?
 
The bale shape does not effect the seed. The seed comes from the gin that processes the cotton you see in the bale. The main thing currently is the very low price of cotton. At today s price there will be a lot less cotton grown and a smaller amount of seed which is a byproduct of the cotton.
 
Ill probably give you more info than you want but its easier to explain the big picture because others jump in with questions.

So if I go to a cotton gin and buy bulk it is the cheapest. A guy on here use to have a dump trailer and would buy it. They weigh you in and out and just dump it in the trailer with a bucket.

The next option is #1000 totes. Its a little more expensive due to the bagging. For the purpose Ill say a tote is $220.

The next option is a pallet of #50 sacks. #2000 per pallet. Its running some where around $550-600.

Now the bales have come out. The bales are #1000 and are small enough to fit in the bed of a truck. I believe their original purpose is for deer so you can get them on a trailer and roll them off in feeder pens by hand. They dont require any equipment like a tote or sacks to offload. I have been seeing them for around $260-280.

Handling has always been the issue with wcs. Fence had weighed molasses tubs and 5g buckets at one time. Basically a large molasses tub with wcs runs about #50. You have to shovel it in and carry it though.

We feed it now when our grass loses protein in the winter or like a drought. I also catch cattle with it or feed it when animals get penned up. #5 per head once or twice a week is all we usually feed. No top dressings or any thing like that. We dump the feed in regular troughs or you can put it on the ground.

I did tubs for a couple years to make sure I liked it before investing in a hopper to put it out. We buy totes and hold them over the hopper to fill it.

Screenshot_20260225_200344_Photos.jpg

I have never dunped a pile out free choice and seen how much they would eat. TB said they would regulate themselves because of the high fat content.
 
Brute, could you elaborate a little on that feed hopper in the picture? How does it operate on the inside? I have never seen a “trip hopper” type feeder that would handle WCS. This would be a game changer in our part of the country, Alabama.
 
To add to the discussion, there is a very big time cotton farmer in our area, central Alabama, who is also a big cattle producer. For years they have fed WCS free choice, along with free choice hay to their fall calving cows. They feed out of a feed wagon with stanchions like you see. They swap out wagons when empty, go back to the storage and refill with a FEL bucket. They estimate about 10 lbs/hd/day. Years ago, there was a concern about free choice feeding. They decided to try it and have stuck with it. No problems that I know of. As was mentioned, the fat content apparently limits consumption. Sure beats hauling those 50 pound buckets everyday or two!
 
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anewcomer said:
Brute, could you elaborate a little on that feed hopper in the picture? How does it operate on the inside? I have never seen a “trip hopper” type feeder that would handle WCS. This would be a game changer in our part of the country, Alabama.
Click to expand...
Its a Deweez CS Edition Feeder. It has twin augers in the bottom. You can run cubes, ground feed, or wcs.

https://www.deweze.com/cake-feeder/beefcake-cotton-edition/

There are other brands like Herd Boss that run a chain drive system also that are much larger.

The deweeze holds #1000 wcs, #2000 of other feeds, so its kind of borderline from a size standpoint depending in how many cows you feed. The plus side is I can pull it with a sxs.

My only complaint on the Deweeze is the small opening on top. Its hard to fill through. We took it off. Its just bolted on. I had a large lid made that make the whole top open so we can hold a tote over it to fill.

I also have a wireless remote for it or you can use the wired remote that comes with it.

20250127_160418.jpg

 
Last edited:
Brute 23

Thank you for the run down on cotton seed. There are three of the round bales of cotton seeds at a local feed store, they've been there since just before the first of the year and haven't moved.
 
Allenw said:
Brute 23

Thank you for the run down on cotton seed. There are three of the round bales of cotton seeds at a local feed store, they've been there since just before the first of the year and haven't moved.
Click to expand...
Most people here dont know what wcs is. They will walk right past it and go feed a 20% cubes. Thats both big and small operators. Small guys buy it in sacks and big guys pull their cube hopper up. Both shoving all protein and no fat to momma cows.

Our local feed store just got totes of cubes that are like 20% protein and 8% fat and they cant move them.

I just sent the info on the bales to rhe people here 2 weeks ago. They are checking on getting them for me. Ours will go to deer though, not cows.
 
Brute, many thanks for the info on the Deweeze product. Saw your discussion of your purchase a year ago. This could be a game changer for many producers in this area.
 

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