Cattle feeding questions

[jon f mn]

I have little experience with raising cattle, mostly hogs for me. When I was young dad would sometimes feed out some steers but they just at at the bunk with the cows and got the leftovers from the barn. Been feeding on this farm for 4 years now, the first 2 were just hay and ground corn/oats. Last year I chopped silage and fed hay and ground corn. This year I'm thinking about putting in a self feeder like a steer stuffer with my good Hay and a mix of ground ear corn and barley. The cattle are holstiens. I may still chop silage too, but with the 11 plus inches of rain we got this weekend that would be an adventure to say the least. Plus feeding after work gets old. But my question is, if I feed silage will they eat it if they have ground corn in a feeder? Or will they just eat the ground corn and eave the silage? And what would be a good mix for the feeder if I do that? Will be ear corn and barley, maybe 1/3 barley by volume, plus tm salt and minerals. Would I need anything else? They will get all the good hay they want as well.

My other option is to do like last year, silage and hay and ground feed fed by hand.

 

[showcrop]

How about a used small mixer wagon like a Knight Little Auggie. They go for pretty short money. You could probably load the wagon once a day and put the mix out half in the AM and half in the PM. Your feed analysis reports would tell you what you need to add to your hay or forage.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Don't try to feed free choice ground feed to Holsteins they are pretty dumb and will bloat them selves on the ground feed. We had been feeding ground ear corn with all the hay they wanted free choice and were increasing the ground ear corn in an old water tank. Some of them bloated on the high moisture ground ear corn to the point we had to treat them with ginger water and soda or even ran a tube down to get the bloat down. Add a buffer like baking soda to the ground feed to counter the acid in the silage. Last thing you want is a DA (displaced Abomasom) Free choice hay will also help with buffering the acid in the silage and will add to the roughage they need each day. Beef breeds will gain faster on less feed than Holsteins also. Beef breeds will have a better ratio on the scale when butchering too.

 

[Bruce from Can.]

I would mix the ear corn/grain corn or barley with the silage, and feed dry hay free choice. As has already been stated, the twisted stomach is always a possibility when feeding ruminants. And your Holstein steers will need to have longer lives if you want to take them to a heavy finished weight, so you dont want to burn out their guts on hot feed.

 

[fastfarmall]

Well i had a new feeder built from the plans from North Dakota State University, and then i bought a used one,the same design,i fed out Holsteins with them feeders,they were about 700 lbs when i started this ration,It was ground ear corn, with Sodium Bicarbonate,and free choice Prairie hay! [A valuable resource] I cant remember how much i mixed in but when they stand up and they let their gas out,it's the right amount! I never lost one from bloat! WE have a GTA feed plant close by,and they get that Bicarbonate via the semi load, in 50lbs sack's so that was convenient me! My cattle went to La Vern Minnesota at IBP, and were sold Grade and yield,shipped to the New York Market ,is what i was told! I cant remember the cattle buyers name, from Britton South Dakota!

 

[RedGreenGuy]

Dad fed around 300 head of cattle each yr. I was the silo unloader from 2 vertical silos. Scooped silage up with small bucket manual trip loader and filled bunks. Poured ground ear corn by 5 gal bucket over top that he had mixed molasses into. Bunks were always tongue polished. Hay was always free choice from daily filled feeder.