cotten seed
- Thread starter txshowmom
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High levels of cottonseed will cause temporary sterility in bulls. That's as far as I know about it. One of the dairys lost a half dozen cows because of something to do with a load of cottonseed he had gotten at one time. It was tested and had some sort of bizarre toxin.
dun
dun
Craig-TX
Well-known member
Whole cottonseed is an excellent supplement. If you're feeding a lot of it you need to be set up to handle it. It can cause sterility in bulls if it becomes a major part of their diet.
Craig-TX
Craig-TX
Arnold Ziffle
Well-known member
I think the toxin dun alluded to was "aflatoxin", the same thing that can affect drought stressed corn down in our part of the country. Cotton seed can be similarly affected and obviously the tainted stuff would be "bad" feed for the cattle. As to bull sterility, there seems to be more chance of permanent sterility if young, developing bulls are fed excess amounts of cotton seed rather than the temporary sterility that could affect mature bulls -- based strictly on a lot of items I've read. Some accounts advise just to not feed any cotton seed to bulls that are not fully mature. My own practice is to lead my bull (regardless of his age) into the pen with a small bucket of cubes, close the door and then feed whole cotton seed to the cows. I don't know of anybody that feeds cotton seed to the exclusion of hay; rather, its just an additional supplement to go along with winter time hay feeding. I think I average about 5 pounds per head when I feed it, but of course the boss cows get more than their fair share. By all accounts that I've read, and discussions with various local "oldtimers", cotton seed is very good for the cattle. I understand that it is very much in demand by dairies as a feed to enhance milk production.
Craig-TX
Well-known member
txshowmom":9yc30497 said:
My understanding is that it's temporary. But don't take my word for it.
Craig-TX
PS Arnold's post went up before mine and is much more informative
Craig-TX":2bget364 said:
The pperiod of temporary sterility is one of the things that there doesn't seem to be all that good of a handle on. I know of two Holsteins that had the problem, same farm, one was sterile for only a couple of months, the other for almost a year. But they were both 2 year olds so the age may have factored in somehow. BTW, he wasn't doing it intentionally. The bulls figured out how to worm there way onto the feed floor with the cows then sneak back where they belonged.
dun
Craig-TX
Well-known member
dun":2gtlw24f said:
Too bad they were shooting blanks for a while. Bet they looked great doing it. Ha.
Craig-TX
TheBullLady
Well-known member
We keep free choice cotton seed meal in the feeders, but we mix it with mineral. It's not a substitute for hay, but a supplement for the protein value.
Ryder
Well-known member
You are talking cottonseed hulls, not cottonseed meal, right?
Ryder
Well-known member
Above question is for txshowmom. Forgot to do the quote thing.
Ryder
Well-known member
Did not mean to sound rude to you dun. You posted your comment while I was posting.dun":iacxuv7w said:
Texan
Well-known member
Showmom, as much feed as y'all use I'd say to try it. I haven't used any in about 20 years, but the best I recall it was a great supplement. Don't try to replace fiber with it, just use it to balance your hay/forage as a protein and energy source. Good fat content to it.txshowmom":3hezz2ij said:
I've thought about trying some more of it, but I prefer not to feed any supplements if I can get by without it by having dry cows in the winter. Also, I hate the thought of the old lady gettin' cold scooping it off the back of the flatbed and the windows fogged up so bad that I can't tell if she's doing it right or not.
We feed nuggets to all the cows about 3 times a week in th winteer and I was thinking about trying it in place of nuggets this year. Was just curious about the hay part. We have several hay pastures and we have a guy this will bale it on halves so we really don't "pay" for our hay directly. If we need the hay (and some winters we do) then we pay him 10 bucks a bale to cut and wrap it. I should also add that when we do feed hay in the summer we feed the old hay that we can't feed in the winter.
Texan
Well-known member
Showmom, at the risk of sounding iggnernt, do you mind me asking what a "nugget" is? Is that the same thing as a cube, just a regional difference in terminology?txshowmom":2j6ayf7w said:
Texan
Well-known member
Thanks!txshowmom":1p6stwbv said:
