peas and oats baleage - cattle don't like it!

[pd]

I had a beautiful crop of peas and oats made into baleage (wrapped bales of sileage) a few months ago.

I have just started to feed it out to cattle - and they don't like it!!!

It looks fine, but it tastes sharp and kinda sour. Is that normal or is there something wrong? I thought about putting some molasses on it to sweeten it up. It is the first time I have made baleage out of peas and oats -normally it is just pasture grasses and clover which smell and taste sweet.

Any thoughts please?!

 

[Dee]

I think it takes time for cattle to learn to like something. I have 180 head that will run for the feed wagon to get silage. The 7 head I bought over 3 months ago will not eat it. They are out in the pasture eating dead grass. Same with gluten, at first they wouldn't touch it, now they sort the bunks for gluten first. Mix it with whatever you were feeding before if possible.

 

[jerry27150]

i think they will eat it in a few days & learn to love it

 

[jkwilson]

One thing I've noticed when adding a new feed source. Once one animal starts eating it, the rest get in a hurry to try some too. I started giving my cows range cubes every few days a couple years ago, and several cows wouldn't eat them at first. After two or three feedings of grain and cubes at the same time, the heifers were going nuts for the cubes, and the cows started too.

 

[shorty]

What is your moisture , I baled some sorgum-sudan grass and wrapped it and some was alittle too wet,(over 70 %) when you take the plastic off the juice runs out the bottom and it has different smell than it should , not really sour just not what I,m used to . first bale I put in they stood there and smelled at it and walked away but it's hard to get one of those heavy bales back out of my feeder so I just left it in and by the next morning it was gone. I've been feeding it the last three months with no problem, they just had be hungry enough and get used to it , they love it now. I had triticale and peas mixed and that fed good too.Best moisture for me seems to be 50-65%

 

[pd]

Hi - thanks for all your helpful replies.

I held off feeding it out for a couple of days so that I could get the pH tested, as this is the critical parameter for nasties being able to grow or not. For safe eating baleage should be <4.5 on the pH scale. The samples I tested all came in under this - which was a huge relief. So tonight I fed the rest of it out with some salt and molasses and they loved it!!

Shorty, I think you are right about the moisture. This turned out to be more moist than I am used to and next year (now that I know!) I shall monitor this more closely with my contractor. How do you know anyway when it is ready to bale - do you use a moisture meter or what?? :?:

Well, its things like this that really make me learn! The old learning curve goes real steep then it all makes sense. From now on I am going to check the pH on each bale using a cheap garden pH meter. Works well, and you can check that the meter is working properly by sticking it in some good old household acetic acid (vinegar!).

Thanks again for all you great comments

 

[shorty]

No I don't have a tester for high moisture hay, I try to guess but I miss it sometimes, we baled this hay over about 3 weeks , the first stuff we baled I guessed at about 60%,before we were done the feed salesman came and took a sample to get tested, we finished baling and I knew it was wetter than the first stuff, I thought it was about 70% and would be okay. Well it turns out the sample came back at 71%, I never had the wetter stuff tested but was higher than that. the stuff that tested 71% came out good , the wetter stuff had juice running out and smelled different but fed okay . When you get a feed value test done it always comes back with the moisture of the sample. I don't test everything but I get a few samples taken every year ,it helps to give you an idea of what's going on

 

[pd]

You know what? You guys were right - they just had to get used to it - they love it now! :lol:

Thanks shorty -I'm sure going to take more notice of the moisture content now.