Educate me on cubes and cake

[John SD]

Bulk delivery must be available, because at almost $12 a bag, the price per ton would be so cost prohibitive, it'd eat up all the profits.

@ $12 a bag, my calculator says that is $480 per ton. I don't see how anyone could pay that and make cake pencil out. Haven't paid attention but that must be close to double bulk price. :shock: :shock: :shock:

Probably for that reason I have not seen bagged cake for years. Around here, I'd say most cake is delivered directly from the feed plant. My neighbors all have overhead bins that will hold a semi load and fill the cake feeder in their pickup from it.

 

[John SD]

The bottom falls out of our ground so bad in the winter, you cant unroll hay, or feed on the ground. I can see how that would be handy, just not useful here.

The ground is holding up pretty well here, and especially after a few of -10 or better low temps couple weeks ago.
;-)

Snow is melting now in the January thaw. With the ground frozen it all runs off, but we need that too.

 

[Bigfoot]

Bigfoot I am in N. Alabama and receive around the same annual rainfall that your area does and we do have mud but 3 yrs ago i started using 3/4 4x4 to feed hay ( currently have cannonball and deweze beds) unrolling here works, main thing i see with it is all cows get space to eat at the same time and spreading manure out, no hay rings with mud knee deep around them. And this is spread out on 5 farms in an 8 mi radius. I will say this it cut our feeding time in half based on using a tractor with fel.

We have a shallow soil that drains horrible. A pickup would get stuck to the frame. I know a tractor could unroll it as well. It kills the grass every where you unroll one, from the tromping.

 

[tom4018]

Bigfoot I am in N. Alabama and receive around the same annual rainfall that your area does and we do have mud but 3 yrs ago i started using 3/4 4x4 to feed hay ( currently have cannonball and deweze beds) unrolling here works, main thing i see with it is all cows get space to eat at the same time and spreading manure out, no hay rings with mud knee deep around them. And this is spread out on 5 farms in an 8 mi radius. I will say this it cut our feeding time in half based on using a tractor with fel.

We have a shallow soil that drains horrible. A pickup would get stuck to the frame. I know a tractor could unroll it as well. It kills the grass every where you unroll one, from the tromping.

Must be something about this KY soil, mine is the same way.

 

[TexasBred]

The cake term goes back to the days of cottonseed cake before they stared cubeing it

Yep...in the old days the oil mill would simply press the cottonseed meal into a slab about an inch thick and two foot long. You could throw it in a trough and let the cattle nibble on it. Pure 41% cottonseed meal. Latter companies made them into "cubes" which were actually square and 2-3 inches long. Most have sense gone to the round "cube".

Most range cubes are now 20% crude protein, contain some cottonseed meal but will also have grain by-products in it such as wheat midds, rice bran, corn gluten feed as well as sometimes some roughage products. But the old name of "cake" has carried forward even for the breeder cubes. Some feed companies also will make what they often call a "Cattle Caller Cube" which will be 12-14% protein.

 

[slick4591]

My cows usually make a fast trip to the pen when I pull in the pasture in hopes of me putting out cubes. When they start standing and watching me I know it's time for more cubes. There's not a place far enough away at the farm that they can't see a bag of cubes when I bring them.

 

[Brute 23]

I keep 20% L&E cubes on hand and ALL times. Think they are around $10 per #50.

When I was young every thing was square bales. They worked to some extent but the best money we have every spent... is feeding cubes on a regular basis. It just makes cattle enjoyable. Rotating pastures, penning cows... every thing is just easier.

 

[TexasBred]

I keep 20% L&E cubes on hand and ALL times. Think they are around $10 per #50.

When I was young every thing was square bales. They worked to some extent but the best money we have every spent... is feeding cubes on a regular basis. It just makes cattle enjoyable. Rotating pastures, penning cows... every thing is just easier.

We all came in a bit quicker when we new Mama had a nice "cake or pie" for us. ;-)

 

[Brute 23]

I keep 20% L&E cubes on hand and ALL times. Think they are around $10 per #50.

When I was young every thing was square bales. They worked to some extent but the best money we have every spent... is feeding cubes on a regular basis. It just makes cattle enjoyable. Rotating pastures, penning cows... every thing is just easier.

We all came in a bit quicker when we new Mama had a nice "cake or pie" for us. ;-)

Yes sir :nod:

 

[MudHog]

I called around and found the same LS 20% AN cube at another feed store for $10.40 per 50# bag.

 

[TexasBred]

I called around and found the same LS 20% AN cube at another feed store for $10.40 per 50# bag.

Good deal. LS use to make some of the better cubes around but were always higher than the competition. I bought cubes yesterday for $9.15 a bag which isn't bad.

 

[greybeard]

I can't imagine living somewhere that cubes aren't available--aren't carried. I've seen the local suppliers run out in 2011 when hay was gold, but always got some in within a few days.
Might be because it's a new store, but even TSC here has 20% cubes for $9.99. Local feed store told me if I bought 10 or more, he'd let me have them for 7.99/50.

TB, I too remember when cubes were actually square and almost all of them were the same length. Nowadays, you get more broken up ones than the long ones. Cows gonna eat 'em no matter what. I never met a cow that didn't love cubes.

The real cottonseed cake from way back, used to come in 100lb sacks--we called it crumbles. I don't miss those 100 lb sacks at ALL!.

 

[hurleyjd]

This is not about cake or cubes. At one time you could get cotton meal and hulls to feed. This went a long way when no hay was available. I have feed meal and hulls in the past, I do not know if they are available any more.

 

[cross_7]

This is not about cake or cubes. At one time you could get cotton meal and hulls to feed. This went a long way when no hay was available. I have feed meal and hulls in the past, I do not know if they are available any more.

The oil mill here used to have 80/20 in 100# tow sacks but quit sometime back in the the 90's
Now you can still buy bagged meal but you have buy the hulls bulk and to get a good price you have buy a semi truck load( 50000# I think)
But I never did have a place to store it
If a guy had the storage facility he could cut his feed cost

That's something else you don't anymore is tow sacks

 

[Isomade]

This is not about cake or cubes. At one time you could get cotton meal and hulls to feed. This went a long way when no hay was available. I have feed meal and hulls in the past, I do not know if they are available any more.

The oil mill here used to have 80/20 in 100# tow sacks but quit sometime back in the the 90's
Now you can still buy bagged meal but you have buy the hulls bulk and to get a good price you have buy a semi truck load( 50000# I think)
But I never did have a place to store it
If a guy had the storage facility he could cut his feed cost

That's something else you don't anymore is tow sacks

I'm feeding a mix of ddg, soy hulls, gluten, and corn. Delivered by semi it's 218/ton. Cubes are 270 delivered.

 

[cross_7]

This is not about cake or cubes. At one time you could get cotton meal and hulls to feed. This went a long way when no hay was available. I have feed meal and hulls in the past, I do not know if they are available any more.

The oil mill here used to have 80/20 in 100# tow sacks but quit sometime back in the the 90's
Now you can still buy bagged meal but you have buy the hulls bulk and to get a good price you have buy a semi truck load( 50000# I think)
But I never did have a place to store it
If a guy had the storage facility he could cut his feed cost

That's something else you don't anymore is tow sacks

I'm feeding a mix of ddg, soy hulls, gluten, and corn. Delivered by semi it's 218/ton. Cubes are 270 delivered.

You have a bin ?

 

[Brute 23]

This is not about cake or cubes. At one time you could get cotton meal and hulls to feed. This went a long way when no hay was available. I have feed meal and hulls in the past, I do not know if they are available any more.

Just priced cotton seed hulls... think it was like $15.xx per #100. They would sell it in bulk or #30 sacks. Be ready though because the deer guys are catching on that deer love it and hogs won't touch it. Prices may jump.

 

[TexasBred]

This is not about cake or cubes. At one time you could get cotton meal and hulls to feed. This went a long way when no hay was available. I have feed meal and hulls in the past, I do not know if they are available any more.

Hurley you'd probably have to buy the meal and hulls separately and mix it yourself . I remember feeding some of the 80:20 many years ago. Meets protein needs and CSH are great in the rumen.

 

[TexasBred]

I'm feeding a mix of ddg, soy hulls, gluten, and corn. Delivered by semi it's 218/ton. Cubes are 270 delivered.

WOW....That's a steal. Every one of those ingredients is more than that when purchased individually even if purchased bulk by the truck load. They're certainly not making anything off the cubes either as ingredient cost alone would be around $240. You need to be bootlegging that stuff ISO. lolol

 

[hevmando]

In our neck of the woods cake is a co-product of the ethanol industry, specifically wet distillers grains, cattle feeders love it.

"Since the ethanol boom began, around the late 1990s, producers have found a market for the co-product. WDG, or wet cake, is more palatable and nutritious for dairy cows and cattle than dried distillers grains (DDG), and is the preferred feed of many beef and dairy producers. It also saves the ethanol facility money and energy because there is no need for drying and related equipment. Although the product is a highly marketable feed, it has its downsides — its shelf life and handling characteristics make it hardly an ideal commodity."

http://www.feedandgrain.com/article/102 ... d-problems