How to feed red clover silage

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devarainjan

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Hi everyone, I am small bio farm and this is first year we try to feed clover silage. I have being feed them for 2 months now but they really don't like it. A lot of waste food everyday. I wonder any trick to inspire them to eat more silage?
Thank you.
 
Hi everyone, I am small bio farm and this is first year we try to feed clover silage. I have being feed them for 2 months now but they really don't like it. A lot of waste food everyday. I wonder any trick to inspire them to eat more silage?
Thank you.
How wet is the silage? If it's changed or for wetter that can throw them off.
Try feeding them some dry hay. Cattle don't like overly wet feed. A little dry stuff will help keep their gut right.
 
Go take a sniff, and taste it yourself. If it's not all that appealing, you're going to have to blend with grass hay, or force them to eat it. Can be they aren't use to it, or don't have a taste for it, even though it's just fine smell/taste wise. Only feeding what they need, or not feeding till they clean it up, is the best route. Little drizzle of molasses might also help get them interested.
 
I don't know about that if you don't like it theory. I fed a lot of haylage. Some smelled of alcohol or tobacco. They slicked it right up. Some stunk so bad it would turn your stomach. Set it out thinking they won't eat it. The next morning it is all gone just like the good smelling stuff.
 
Go take a sniff, and taste it yourself.
When I was a teen, my job was to fork it out of the silo, then fork it into a wheelbarrow, and then take it down the feed way to dump it so the cows could eat. That was my routine for a couple of hours every evening after school in the winter. ( at least I was able to plug in a radio)

My point is, I loved chewing on the fermented corn while I was doing it.
 
I fed red clover silage bales last year and it was always the last thing they ate. They'd get hungry enough and eat it but I eneded up selling half of it because they didn't seem to like it.
 
I don't know about that if you don't like it theory. I fed a lot of haylage. Some smelled of alcohol or tobacco. They slicked it right up. Some stunk so bad it would turn your stomach. Set it out thinking they won't eat it. The next morning it is all gone just like the good smelling stuff.
Yeah silage is like alcohol. Maybe that the case.
 
Every forage has a "palatability rating".... but palatability can also be a "developed taste"... and it definintely is an individual thing, just like with people. Get used to strong coffee, and nothing milder will "taste right". Get used to hot, spicey food... mild is just too bland. Same with your cows. They will eat as much as they need of whatever's in front of them, ...eventually, and then they will get used to it, and even learn to prefer it.
Clover is hard to dry down, so often gets put up wetter than another forage cut and wilted at the same time. If the silage is too wet, consumption will drop off, because they'll get "full" faster because of the water in it. Only so much room in the gut.

Beyond that, the gut is going to be "wetter", which will potentially change its "processing rate".............. there's a sweet spot for everything, and if it's too wet, adding some "dry" into their ration, like with dry hay, will help with the fiber requirement and processing in the gut, tempering the "sour". Clover is also high in protein and goes through them "faster"... and you'll see more loose manure. More fiber lower in protein (dry grass again) will help that. They will need less total POUNDS of clover to get most of the nutrients that they need... so less of it... but they might be short of the fiber requirement to have a properly balanced gut.

I NEVER plant a single species forage because of this. Every plant brings something different to the "table". DIVERSITY... I'm typically planting 20 species now.
 
Our cows tend to prefer the silage bales over dry grass hay, UNTIL it dries out, then they stick their nose up at it. Feed them silage only what they will clean up in a few hours and have dry grass hay available to them. We don't feed exclusively silage/baleage. The cows seem to self moderate by eating some dry hay to balance themselves out. The palatability of the clover may depend on when it was cut. Our cows will go for whatever has clover in it first. However late cut, over ripe clover may not be eaten eagerly whether it's silage or dry hay.
 

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