who feeds soyhulls, and how

[polledbull]

I have been using loose soyhulls, they were very affordable for a while , now they have gone to $180 per ton, I was able to get them for $120 back in the early fall. we have a local cargill plant here. Now all of a sudden they are hard to get .We make our feed with hulls, cracked corn, oats and alfalfa hay, Bicarb, rumensien, and mineral pack , should i look to replace the hulls with a readily avaliable commodity pellet , or buy a complete feed , I look at the $ cost and the need to buy a 24 ton load if i go to a sourse other than the hulls. i can get them at 8 tons delivered a put in my bin for $100 del. charge . My neighboor has a short feed truck , and he hauls mine . what makes the most sense ?? Im feed breeding bulls and replacement heifers for sale , and bucket feeding the others for ease of catching them. i can lead my cows around the world with a bucket

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

I'm bumping this thread 'cause I'd like to read an informed response to a serious question.

 

[jasonleonard]

Hey guys, I am not a real cattleman, but I can tell you what I have been told.
I was using soyhull pellets in my creep mix for my fall calving group of calves from my put-together group of salebarn- trash cows.
A nutritionist convinced me that I should switch the sh pellets to plain old homegrown oats in the mix.
I do think the feeder calves are doing better on this mix.
IMO...soyhull pellets are way too overpriced for a dag-gone by-product of the bio-diesel program.
Also I am a big fan of natural(HOMEGROWN) feed......I was feeding a Cargill(Nutrena) complete feed to some weaned-off stockers, and I almost starved them to death with their guts full of pellets...I should have sent a sample to the feed lab at Penn State, that stuff was trash!

 

[TexasBred]

Hey guys, I am not a real cattleman, but I can tell you what I have been told.
I was using soyhull pellets in my creep mix for my fall calving group of calves from my put-together group of salebarn- trash cows.
A nutritionist convinced me that I should switch the sh pellets to plain old homegrown oats in the mix.
I do think the feeder calves are doing better on this mix.
IMO...soyhull pellets are way too overpriced for a dag-gone by-product of the bio-diesel program.
Also I am a big fan of natural(HOMEGROWN) feed......I was feeding a Cargill(Nutrena) complete feed to some weaned-off stockers, and I almost starved them to death with their guts full of pellets...I should have sent a sample to the feed lab at Penn State, that stuff was trash!

Biodiesel??? I think they're really a byproduct of the soy oil processing as is soybean meal. 10% crude protein and almost as high in energy and digestibility as corn. Very high in digestible fiber and extremely low in starches. I think I would have sold my oats for the $5 a bushel they're worth and fed the hulls or even corn. As for the Cargill product....I believe you 100%. It was probably full of rice hulls ;-)

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

I was hoping to hear from you TB.

Thanks

 

[TexasBred]

I have been using loose soyhulls, they were very affordable for a while , now they have gone to $180 per ton, I was able to get them for $120 back in the early fall. we have a local cargill plant here. Now all of a sudden they are hard to get .We make our feed with hulls, cracked corn, oats and alfalfa hay, Bicarb, rumensien, and mineral pack , should i look to replace the hulls with a readily avaliable commodity pellet , or buy a complete feed , I look at the $ cost and the need to buy a 24 ton load if i go to a sourse other than the hulls. i can get them at 8 tons delivered a put in my bin for $100 del. charge . My neighboor has a short feed truck , and he hauls mine . what makes the most sense ?? Im feed breeding bulls and replacement heifers for sale , and bucket feeding the others for ease of catching them. i can lead my cows around the world with a bucket

What is the composition of the commodity pellet and what are the guarantees?? Protein, Fat, Fiber (source) etc.

 

[muleskinner]

I have 2 more questions to add to TB. Can you easily store 24 tons of feed? How many tons of feed do you fed per month? Because of mold/rodent issues.

 

[TexasBred]

I have 2 more questions to add to TB. Can you easily store 24 tons of feed? How many tons of feed do you fed per month? Because of mold/rodent issues.

Sure you can. You can store it either in a feed tank or on the floor of a commodity barn. It will lose the fresh smell but will be ok. Down this way we sometimes do have a problem with weevils in the warmer month though. I feed very little feed except in the winter time when I feed cubes to mature cattle. When I owned a dairy I fed as much as 200 tons a month of the grain mix along with wet brewers grain, alfalfa, whole cottonseed and ground hay.