faster horses
Well-known member
I did not realize that. I will fix that. Thanks for letting me know.
Fat cows from TSC sweet feed?
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wbvs58
Well-known member
J+ Cattle
Well-known member
This was the best and least expensive winter feed supplement until the local cotton gin shut down. You could pick up the fuzzy cotton seed and "gin trash" which also had lots of cottonseed mixed in it. You just had to be careful and not feed too much to the bull because high feed rates can cause temporary sterility in bulls.
Now I buy 20% range cubes from the feed mill.
greybeard
Well-known member
Used to be so very commonplace. How many 100lb towsacks of that stuff I unloaded as a teenager probably too a few years off my life too.
Dave
Well-known member
In the large general area to here there are lots of acres of alfalfa raise. Lots of irrigated ground that use it as a rotation. Potatoes, wheat, and alfalfa is a typical PNW rotation on the irrigated ground. The majority is sent to the dairies or export. They re-compress it pack it in containers and ship it to Japan. That is where the big dollars are in alfalfa. The rained on and other poorer quality stuff gets fed to beef cows. The exception is the ranchers who raise their own alfalfa. They pretty much feed all that they raise. But they shoot for volume not the highest quality.
faster horses
Well-known member
We have a friend in Texas who is feeding that, what he calls 'gin trash' as I type this. He says his cattle do really good on it. I had never heard of it before. We don't grow cotton up here in the north, of course. We always knew Cottonseed Cake was the best before they took the oil out of it like most places do now.
callmefence
Keyboard cowboy
Gin trash generally isn't considered a supplement but more of a filler. It's very inconsistent and usually pretty low in feed quality. Used to be able to get it for free before the drought . I really don't consider trash worth storing.
I stuff that shed floor to ceiling full of wcs every fall a couple pounds a day goes along way at 20 protein and 20 fat.
Most cotton varietys today won't affect your bulls.
faster horses
Well-known member
Maybe he just called it 'junk'...not sure...but he likes it. It's cheap and someone brings him a truckload as he needs it. Not sure what size of truck, but not a semi. Maybe it's not as good as he thinks.
TexasBred
Well-known member
TexasBred
Well-known member
Only real nutrients in gin trash come from the whole cottonseed that may have been left in it.
Silver
Well-known member
According to the U of Nevada:
Minerals
If one pound of alfalfa hay is fed per 100 pounds of "bodyweight", the beef animal will normally meet its daily requirements for calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulfur, iron, cobalt manganese and zinc. Phosphorus levels of alfalfa are more moderate, but are still high enough that, if fed at the above rates, will supply about two-thirds of the daily requirements needed. The high level of calcium in alfalfa is especially important for lactating cows, young developing replacement heifers and bulls. However, the mineral content of alfalfa is related to fertilization and local soils. Hay quality tests are required to determine the actual amount of minerals in a given lot of hay. Beef cattle, fed alfalfa hay during the winter, are less likely than those fed grass hay to get grass tetany or hypomagnesemia tetany at turn out time. The elevated magnesium levels of alfalfa seem to curb the problem.Vitamins
Leafy, green alfalfa hay is unusually high in carotene, the precursor of vitamin A. Vitamin A is the most common beef cow vitamin deficiency. Good quality alfalfa hay can usually furnish all the vitamin A needs of beef animals. In addition to the many dietary functions of vitamin A, this vitamin may also have some therapeutic value, and it may be a contributing factor in preventing "shipping fever complex" and other disorders associated with animal stress. Because vitamin A will leach out of hays stored over extended periods of time, freshly harvested alfalfa is usually the best source of vitamin A.Vitamin/Mineral interactions
Alfalfa is usually a good source of vitamin E and selenium, depending on the nutrient status of the soil on which the hay was grown. Selenium is often deficient in soils across Nevada. "White muscle disease," which sometimes causes serious losses of calves, is caused by a deficiency of vitamin E and selenium. Sun-cured alfalfa hay is also a source of vitamins D and K as well as riboflavin and niacin.
J+ Cattle
Well-known member
Gins would let you take the trash for free if you would haul it away. As Fence said it has limited value so only a good deal if you are close and a short haul. Just dump it out on the ground and let the cows pick through it, they're good about separating the good from the bad. The trash that's left over is good mulch and ground cover.
Incorporating alfalfa in forage systems could lead to environmental benefits
Alfalfa, once a dominant forage in Georgia, is the third-highest crop for economic returns in the United States. Combined with cheap nitrogen prices, difficulty growing the desirable forage crop in Georgia’s challenging climate led to a decline in alfalfa production in the state after its peak...
newswire.caes.uga.edu
simme
Old Dumb Guy
A little information on cotton for those not familiar with it. Cotton is grown in rows. There are many flowers that result in "bolls". A boll is an elongated ball shape with four internal quadrants. Each quadrant containing fiber and seed. As the crop matures, stems dry, the leaves shed, and the bolls open to reveal the cotton. The material separating the four sections of fiber dry into a tough, sharp pointed burr. (If you ever hand-picked cotton, you remember that the burrs are sharp.)
There are two methods of harvesting. A stripper removes the cotton and burr (strips it off the stalk) and the burr must be removed at the gin. That method results in more weight, volume and trash going to the gin. Most cotton is harvested with a cotton picker which has rotating barbed spindles/fingers which pull the seed and fiber off the burr. But still ends up with pieces of the burr, pieces of leaves, stems and other fibrous material (trash) mixed in.
The gin separates this into three components - cotton fiber, cotton seed with some short fiber still attached, and the other stuff (gin trash). Gin trash is trash - like harvested corn has some pieces of cob, stalk, leaves and weed seed. It has a little nutrition from undeveloped cotton seed. And some N-P-K. Can be spread in the fields or pasture or garden as mulch/fertilizer. Can be burned (BTU content) if it is dry. Not worth much money due to benefit vs bulk weight.
The short lint (cotton linters) is removed from the seed and used for industrial uses. The seed becomes 3 components - same as soybean seeds do. Hulls, oil and meal. Cottonseed hulls for use in livestock feed. Cottonseed oil for cooking. And cottonseed meal for protein supplement.
Hulls.
Whole cottonseed contains the oil, the meal and the hull. Plenty of protein and energy and fiber. Sort of "fluffy" as far as handling and storage. Not at all like corn, oats, milo, wheat, or soybeans as far as storage and handling. No augers or feed bins or gravity flow for handling/storage. Can be delivered in a van trailer with a walking floor, moved/pushed with a loader bucket, stored in a shed or maybe a shipping container. Needs to be kept dry. Fed from a loader bucket.
Cotton is an expensive crop to grow. Many trips through the field. And heavy in chemical use - herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, growth regulators, defoliants. Whole cottonseed is excellent to supplement poor forage or hay and for keeping condition on cows during winter.
Downside is gossypol - it is somewhat poison. Sort of like that magic fescue grass is poison. Therefore, cotton needs to be limit fed to cattle at a rate of a few pounds per day.
There are two methods of harvesting. A stripper removes the cotton and burr (strips it off the stalk) and the burr must be removed at the gin. That method results in more weight, volume and trash going to the gin. Most cotton is harvested with a cotton picker which has rotating barbed spindles/fingers which pull the seed and fiber off the burr. But still ends up with pieces of the burr, pieces of leaves, stems and other fibrous material (trash) mixed in.
The gin separates this into three components - cotton fiber, cotton seed with some short fiber still attached, and the other stuff (gin trash). Gin trash is trash - like harvested corn has some pieces of cob, stalk, leaves and weed seed. It has a little nutrition from undeveloped cotton seed. And some N-P-K. Can be spread in the fields or pasture or garden as mulch/fertilizer. Can be burned (BTU content) if it is dry. Not worth much money due to benefit vs bulk weight.
The short lint (cotton linters) is removed from the seed and used for industrial uses. The seed becomes 3 components - same as soybean seeds do. Hulls, oil and meal. Cottonseed hulls for use in livestock feed. Cottonseed oil for cooking. And cottonseed meal for protein supplement.
Hulls.
Whole cottonseed contains the oil, the meal and the hull. Plenty of protein and energy and fiber. Sort of "fluffy" as far as handling and storage. Not at all like corn, oats, milo, wheat, or soybeans as far as storage and handling. No augers or feed bins or gravity flow for handling/storage. Can be delivered in a van trailer with a walking floor, moved/pushed with a loader bucket, stored in a shed or maybe a shipping container. Needs to be kept dry. Fed from a loader bucket.
Cotton is an expensive crop to grow. Many trips through the field. And heavy in chemical use - herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, growth regulators, defoliants. Whole cottonseed is excellent to supplement poor forage or hay and for keeping condition on cows during winter.
Downside is gossypol - it is somewhat poison. Sort of like that magic fescue grass is poison. Therefore, cotton needs to be limit fed to cattle at a rate of a few pounds per day.
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I noticed some strange "weeds" growing in some of the sections of pens that were closed off. Thought it was odd and didn't really recognize the plant but didn't think much of it. As they got bigger I saw the cotton bowls forming on them. Guess cattle are pretty good at planting cotton.
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
We used to buy WSC for our show cattle. Great for their hair. Can't get it anymore.
TexasBred
Well-known member
They use to give it away here or simply burn it but the last 20 years it had become a commodity and really gone up in price.
