feelnrite":3vm6k1mf said:
What brand of cubes do you feed and how much per head once or twice a week. That is the way I feed soy pellets. Run them out of a trailer on the ground when dry. Things like that go a long way on a cow.
The cubes I've been feeding for the last couple of years are from Big V Feeds in McAlester, Oklahoma. They're the most consistent quality cubes that I've ever used, and also the cheapest.
How much (and how often) I feed them depends on what I'm trying to accomplish. Right now, I'm using their 20% all natural cube at about 5 pounds per cow. This cube is soft enough for calves to start eating and also has a nice smell to attract them to it. The main reason I'm using the softer 20% now is so that my calves will already be started on them if I have to wean early.
I'm not really doing it on any schedule, since I'm also keeping out some meal and salt. It's been dry enough here that I mostly cube cattle just to get them to rotate pastures. I've been having to rotate through some pastures in as little as a day. They haven't been wanting to go through a gate because they know that they just left there and that it's just gonna be more of the same. The cubes help me move them and also provide a little protein and energy supplement in the process.
When I'm really serious about supplementing protein, I use their 38% cottonseed cube, which is basically a cottonseed cake. It's a much harder cube, but works very good for mature cows with plenty of teeth left. I wintered dry cows on sorry hay with that cube last year, with about 5 pounds every third day. I put out enough hay for two days, then cubed them good on day three and let them hunt for something to go with it.
