In matter of opinion whats the best recipe for feed blen

[Crookedcreekjerseys]

Even though I only feed out around 5-7 steers a year, I still very much enjoy grinding my own feed. I run a Deere 700 on a White 2-105. I mix 250lbs dried distillers, 80lbs of bean meal, 400lbs of rolled corn, per ton of ground ear corn. I run 12lbs of a mineral mix per ton as well and I usually just free hand some Redmond garlic salt as well. I worked at a feed mill driving the bagged feed delivery truck for a few years up until this past April. Ive seen more feed recipes than most people could ever imagine. Anything from one man that fed out 2 steers on only soy hulls to mixing potatoes chips by the bucket load in a tmr mixer. I even remember as a small kid my neighbor mixing expired cookies in with ear corn for his creep feeder. The best part about watching was getting to eat the cookies while trying to help. Being probably 8-9 at the time I never even flinched about those molasses cookies being expired. But I just wondered what different ideas people factor into there feed mix, I realize location is a big factor. The man who mixed potato chips in his feed got them for free from a near by factory so why not. Ive always wondered if anyone from the south feeds cattle with peanuts. I should also add my cows have free choice high moisture hay.

 

[Texas Cowboy]

Im in south Texas and feed peanut hay sometimes. Its considered south Texas alfalfa. Some feedmills mix peanut hulls in rations for roughage. Tony

 

[Wheat47]

Neighbor feeds about 1000 head of steers and heifers to fat throughout the year.
He gets all the bread oops from the local commercial bakery. He gets 2-3 big dumpsters
a week. You know, the 20 ft or so demolition type dumpsters.
Some guy delivers it when the dumpsters get full. All it costs him is the delivery fee.
He's got it figured into each pen's ration. Only thing is, he has to get the bread well mixed
into the feed and broken up as much as his mixer truck will break it up
or the cows will root out the bread and not eat much of their rations!!

 

[craigco]

Back home there was a Gummi bear factory. One farmer got the rejected Gummi bears to feed hogs.

 

[casecollectorsc]

A lot of dairies use cottonseed as a supplement here, E SD. Do you folks?

 

[Tony in SD]

Depends on your desired end result. The 2 main end results are taste and profit. Some feeders are in it for profit only and feed what ever it takes to maximize profits. On the other hand some feed for taste without respect to cost. You are correct about many different recipes. I dont think it matter as much with cattle as it does with pigs. If you want some reall good tasting pork, feed them apples 2 - 4 weeks before slaughter. I have never tried apples with cattle.

 

[Texas Cowboy]

Yes as much cotton seed as we can get hold of. Or afford. It can get expensive to buy transport and store but whole cotton seed is very good feed. We also feed a lot of cotton seed meal usually mixed with ground corn or milo and 20% salt to limit intake. All of this with natural forage if it is available or hay. Tony

 

[caterpillar guy]

Back in the late 80's or early 90's we hauled milo/mize to feed yards they popped it like popcorn to feed. Maize even though that is the wrong name for it and maize is really what we call corn.

 

[showcrop]

I am not suggesting that this is what you do but dairy farms have their grain vendor "balance" their ration for them. The company has a tech sample the farms various silage bunkers to see what the feed value of the silages are. They then will figure up various rations for different classifications of cows on the farm telling how much BMR corn silage, how much conventional corn silage, how much grass and or alfalfa silage, then how much of each concentrate to add. It gets pretty technical, but you can basically look at it as what needs to be added to the feed produced on the farm to get the most milk possible.

 

[rrlund]

I kinda learned a long time ago that there's no sense buying feed to add in if you have enough home grown feed. Aside from minerals, what's the sense in paying good money for other sources of protein and fiber if you have corn, hay and silage?

Back in the early days when I as milking cows, I was buying soybean meal and mixing it with ground ear corn. Then I read University of Kentucky research saying that one of the best sources of protein in a dairy ration was ground ear corn. I slapped myself in the forehead and said ''You dummy, why are you replacing ear corn with something that research says breaks down in the first stomach and doesn't make milk anyway?''.

A feed salesman stopped in one time and wanted to sell me a beef supplement. I told him I was doing fine feeding all home grown. I wasn't aggressive about it or anything, I was respectful. He didn't even try to push it. He just said ''Well, there's nothing more profitable than home grown''. It's just my own humble opinion, but I'd say if you have feed, quit buying all that other stuff. It's for when you're scraping the bottom of the barrel and feeding nothing else but poor roughage.

 

[DR. EVIL]

Dad fed between 35 to 45 head of beef cattle each year, He picked between 7000-8000 bushels of ear corn each fall and put it in the crib, and each Saturday I'd get to scoop 100+ bushel into the Knoedler burr mill and it augered into the enclosed cattle feeder we fed them out of. Plus we made 60 acres of alfalfa hay every summer, 3 cuttings on 20 acres, plenty for 4-5 bales every night in the stanctions in the back barn where the cattle slept. We always had a steer butchered, half for Us, half for the Land-lady who owned the farm. Dad eventually worked up a nice profitable business selling sides of beef on the hoof to people who much preferred the taste of our corn fed beef over the grass fed meat from most grocery stores and butcher shops. We had probably a dozen people buy cattle to butcher, they would pay Top price from the Chicago Stockyards for fat cattle the Day Dad delivered them to the slaughter house. The corn fed beef has more fat marbelled into it and that's where the flavor comes from. And don't knock it till you've tried it.
A good friend fed 10-12 cattle with ground earcorn also, only had 22 acres to raise corn on, lot of work putting his New Idea mounted picker on his D-17, He had a Deere 4400 combine to cut a few acres of oates, plus his 22 acres of beans from his Corn-corn-beans crop rotation. We had steaks on the grill there one night. There was that same great taste of corn-fed beef Mom cooked for supper most nights. I asked if we could buy a half of a half or something similar, I asked several times in fact, no response, so I stopped asking.
Yep, animals used for meat production Are what they Eat. Our hogs mostly ate finely ground shell corn, mixed with some meat scraps for flavor, commercial feed for minerals and vitamins, I'd get 5500# loads 2-3 times a week from late winter to mid-fall, We'd have the feedmill deliver via truck in winter, but that cost more than MY time and the 2-3 gallons of gas to go the 4-1/2 to 5 miles to town with a tractor & auger wagon. We never butcher a hog, no idea how our hogs tasted compared to grocery store pork.

 

[tlock0331]

my grandpa used to run three different pens of feeders and we would grind different for each one. he would also take manure samples to our local ag college for analysis, they always liked him, and he would adjust per their findings. he was an impeccable record keeper and we were looking at his life time average gains and they were impressive.

That said, we had a dairy close by and they would fatten hogs on leftover raw milk and WOW, buttery pork chops that would melt in your mouth.