feed mix rations

[Herefordcross]

Anyone have their own favorite ration for wintering bred cows along with good quality hay. What are the contents of the ration and at what rate do you feed it?

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Range meal-2/3 cottonseed meal & 1/3 salt-self fed. The salt limits consumption, adds to the cost & has no significant nutritive value. Cheaper to hand feed 2-3lb/hd/day cottonseed meal cubes (cake).

Whole cottonseed or corn gluten feed-fed at 3-5lb/hd/day, can also fed fed 3 times weekly at 7-11 lb/hd per feeding. Note! Long term heavy feeding of whole cottonseed has the potential for a negative effect upon the fertility of bulls.

Lots of other options such as liquid feed, lick tubs, etc. IMO-byproduct feeds are usually most cost effective.

Good luck & happy trails.

Brock

 

[dun]

With good quality hay and mature cows, free choicer minerals, water, hay and maybe salt is all that is rquired except for sever winter weather conditions. Then a couple of pounds of CG pellets every other day is all that should be required.

dun

 

[Herefordcross]

we dont have acces to cubes or corn gluetin or anything like that. I am talking about when hay quality is poor, etc.Like a feed mix that some of you use. example= x pounds of corn meal x pounds of soybean meal x pounds of barley etc. etc.

 

[dj]

here are`some feed rations for your area.
http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/forglvst/rations.htm
hope you don't use #1 and #2

 

[Herefordcross]

Thanks once again for the quick reply DJ, but, I was meaning just an extra grain mix to go along with the good quality hay. We have never fed chicken/turkey ****. We do like to supplement with something other than minerals, etc. I know a lot of the old timers had their own old mixes they used but, can't find many left around here anymore. I have a neighbor that feeds **** constantly. No laws here YET, in WV or in neighboring VA

 

[msscamp]

Anyone have their own favorite ration for wintering bred cows along with good quality hay. What are the contents of the ration and at what rate do you feed it?

The only grain our cows get is the corn left in the fields after harvest. They are fed a mixture of ground alfalfa, grass, and a little straw with beet pulp mixed in once a day. When the corn stalks/grass have ran out, we feed 6 or 7 bales of grass hay with the occasional bale of alfalfa tossed in just because it was handy or in the way. During storms or if we have deep snow on the ground, the hay is increased to 10 bales. They always have mineral, salt, and plenty of water. Occasionally we throw out a Crystal X protein tub (if memory serves, they got 2 tubs from the end of October until they went out to summer pasture last week). Just my thoughts.

 

[aplusmnt]

here are`some feed rations for your area.
http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/forglvst/rations.htm
hope you don't use #1 and #2

I can not believe they would recommend chicken litter.

 

[Herefordcross]

It has been the norm for many years. There are no laws in West Virginia or Virginia as to the use of it. There have been studies in Virginia and they circulated the results and highly recomended not feeding it. Too many politician in Virginia have high stakes in the chicken/turkey business and farms are running short these days and if they can't dispose of it on farms. Then it will have to be incenerated from what I understand and the cost of doing that would be astronomical from what they say anyway.

 

[dj]

I think the lack of alternate disposal/uses is the reason the politicians don't pass legislation banning litter as a feed stuff.
As more poultry is imported this is a smaller problem?
If legislation to that effect was passed how long before the poultry producer is covered up? As big as the sack manure for the home garden business is how come nobody is turning it into a composted retail product?

 

[Herefordcross]

I read a thing that talked about the repiratory and eye problems that come from prolonged exposure to litter. I would imagine that is the reason it isn't bagged and sold. We use to sell a good bit for garden use out of our cattle lot. Once we started using Grazon we were afraid to do it anymore so now we just spread it.

Not far from us was an eboli and several other disease testing facility that used monkeys, chimps and various other animals for testing. They had a major problem when it started catching in people. They tore the building down including the footer then dug 20 below where the footers rested they hauled the stuff to NC and incenerated it and you know that they still found eboli and a few others in the ashes. So then at $3k a pop the used 10,000 stainless steel barrels to put the ash in and then they buried it! THese diseases are stronger than they allow us to believe.

 

[Howdyjabo]

Chicken manure is too hot for home garden use(by most people).

The manure is like gold around here as we still have plenty of pastures.


With high gas prices burning litter for fuel is becoming a feasable option.

 

[aplusmnt]

It has been the norm for many years. There are no laws in West Virginia or Virginia as to the use of it. There have been studies in Virginia and they circulated the results and highly recomended not feeding it. Too many politician in Virginia have high stakes in the chicken/turkey business and farms are running short these days and if they can't dispose of it on farms. Then it will have to be incenerated from what I understand and the cost of doing that would be astronomical from what they say anyway.

Just don't sound right to me. Years ago the stuff they fed cows that ended up with BSE was thought to be OK, and there was no laws against it.

Is it that hard to understand Bovine were intended to eat Grass or Plant foods. They were never intended to eat meat or Crap from other animals. Why can men not understand this and feed them the way God intended for them to eat?

 

[Herefordcross]

On the WVU web site it said to use 2.5% of body weight for feed. I can't see where that would work, if you fed straight hay then high grade Alfalfa and twice rained on fescue wouldn't be the same even by weight. It would take a lot more fescue to equal 2.5% Alfalfa. I have been around this stuff all of my life but, I am always trying to learn new tricks and get learned on the finer points of a cow/calf op.

 

[Howdyjabo]

2.5% body weight referes ONLY to maximum capacity.

Getting the nutrients needed to perform--- requires balancing that 2.5% (or less) properly.

 

[Herefordcross]

On another topic. If you mention range cubes around here people say "What"???? Is there any supplier out there that will ship these things to me?

 

[Texas PaPaw]

On another topic. If you mention range cubes around here people say "What"???? Is there any supplier out there that will ship these things to me?

Some refer to them as 20% cubes or 38% cubes-which is referring to the protein content. The 38% cubes are primarily a protein supplement while the 20% cubes have additional energy. Check out this link for Purina feeds.

http://cattle.purinamills.com/

Do a google search for range cubes and you should get hits for several feed manufacturers.

BTW-you can make your own "range meal" by mixing 2 bags of cottonseed meal or soybean meal with 1 bag of salt. This has been self-fed as a protein supplement for many years. You can add cracked corn if you need more energy. To increase comsumption reduce the salt%.

Good luck & happy trails.

Brock

 

[Herefordcross]

We ordered three tons of cubes, at $240 a ton. price is a little high I would say but, they aren't normally available around here so their coming a pretty long way. We got the 20% stuff. I figured I would get them in advance because, who knows what supply will be in six months.

 

[mnmtranching]

Up here in NC MN we have lots of turkeys and chickens, I think we are #1 in turkey production and close with chicken. However no one even thinks of using the litter for feed. It all goes on fields for fertilizer and is quickly tilled under.

 

[Herefordcross]

NONE OF US TRUE CATTLE RAISERS, be careful or you will get slammed hard for asking such a question.