What to feed?

[tuppyandjess]

Well the yoghurts hit the fan here ... almost no feed in the paddocks

I don't want to sell any of my cows (3 jerseys, 1 friesian/jersey cross) or the jersey heifer or one of the jersey bull calves. I'm willing to sell the other 3 calves if I have to (1 hereford/friesian bull calf, 1 hereford/friesian heifer calf, 1 angus heifer calf & 1 jersey bull calf).

The cows were all raised on pasture & have reared their calves on pasture ... one of the jerseys raised 3 calves - her own & 2 fosters. The friesian/jersey cross raised one & a half - her own, & she lets one of the heifers nurse her as well.

I highly value their ability to live on pasture & don't want to do anything that would decrease this ability. So the question is: what do I feed them? What is the best feed for them that will be the most cost effective for me? I have no idea how to calculate & compare calories/nutrients/quantities required etc to figure this out. I'm reading through all the feed adds in the newspaper & online to try & get an idea of what's available at what cost in my area. Can I feed silage? If so, what type & do I need to feed anything else with it?

There is still some feed in the paddocks (I have 40 acres cleared but not all of it has good quality feed) but I really think I need to start supplementing right now to reduce the grazing pressure on the grass or the situation will only get worse (we're in early autumn now).

Thanks for any advice. I've only ever had one or 2 house cows at a time in the past & wasn't concerned about feeding them grain. I just bought them lucern hay & dairy meal & feed them twice a day on top of their pick in the paddock. Being faced with having to buy a lot of feed with not much money is new to me.

[Heidi]

T&J
Quick reply... you and I are in the same boat..normally our carrying capacity is pretty good, but this year, definitely not.

To my jersey, I'm hand feeding her a biscuit of lucerne hay ($7 bale) and a few scoops of dairy meal twice a day (which you don't want to feed because of grain content). I've taken the foster calf off her, and only milking once a day, but getting progressively less each day, which is fine by me, that she dries herself off heading into winter. She's getting some grazing, but not the quality that I would like. I'm also going to be supplementing with molasses, which as you know is not expensive up here. there are differing opinions on the nutritional value of molasses, but unfortuntely, I can't have champagne tastes on a beer budget, and if it keeps weight on her, well that's what she needs. If she's not producing a lot of milk, and no calf on her, her nutritional needs will be more easily met.

Silage is tricky to keep, and to feed, you'd do best to ask a dairy farmer how you go about it. Its a fine line to it being good and it being very bad! I think it needs to be fed within 7 days of it being exposed to air as its meant to be kept in an anaerobic state.

Its going to be a hard winter I think. When you figure it out, let me know too!

H

[tuppyandjess]

Hi Heidi ... if I feed a small amount of grain will it change the microbes in my cows rumen so that they can no longer digest pasture as efficiently? If it doesn't do any harm & is cost effective & keeps weight on I'm willing to feed grain.
Lucern hay here is $15.00 a bale & up if you're buying it individually! I've been checking out The Land classifieds & see it for much less but I'm assuming that I'd have to buy a LOT to get the smaller price. It's also all a LONG way away

Where are you?

It's raining here now ... the days are still warm so I'm hoping to get some pasture growth, but it's not going to be enough. At the moment I'm "cow sitting" them along the little nooks & crannies along the track through our gully, but the neighbours have valuable small crops & no fences so I can't take my eyes off them for one second & it's getting old fast spending most of each day camped out with the cows. OK - I admit - I love being out all day with the cows & the dogs - it's most entertaining. But obviously I have other stuff to do & I can't keep this up much longer. I'm just trying to stretch it out before I put them in one of my paddocks - none of which are ready yet! I'm very mindful of what (I think) Sheldon is always saying about overgrazing making for a pasture full of weeds eventually.

[Heidi]

Hi,
Personally, I think everything in moderation. I feed a bit of grain/dairy meal to sweeten up her lucerne hay and give her something to dig around for. Its "cow hay" which means my horses would turn their fussy noses up at it, but the cows eat it well. Although there are some hard and fast "grass only" people, I don't think the small amount that I feed her (probably about 1kg morning and again in the evening) will really do much to change her rumen.

I am up near Grafton, and its raining again here (insert swear word here).

Regarding your Jersey's, are they in milk at the moment? Can you dry them off over winter to reduce your feed bill? Don't forget, the beef crosses will do okay on less than the pure dairy cows. I've separated mine so I can give the Jersey some extra TLC.

Have you tried electric fence to keep them out of the neighbours' paddocks?

Yes, overgrazing does make for a paddock full of weeds, but sometimes, its just unavoidable, still, if you can do some rotational grazing its better than nothing.

Would it be any cheaper to agist some of them somewhere? Maybe a hobby farmer is sick of slashing their paddocks around there? An ad in the local shop window might be worth a shot to see if someone is interested in having the more placid animals in their paddock? I know when we first came to our farm we had a friends cattle on our property for free because we had no idea what to do with all the pasture and no way to slash it.

Will keep an eye out for cheap feed for you.

H

[Jenn]

Can you give they access to just one day's grazing at a time? Resting the grass will make a huge difference in a drought/winter situation.

A little bit of grain to stretch isn't going to harm long term. Drying off will reduce input needs.

-Jenn

[Heidi]

T&J,
I'm pretty sure this is around your neck of the woods. $6 bale for cow hay is not too bad, and it will get them through winter if you augment it with molasses, and a bit of dairy meal for the pure jersey, who will need some extra TLC if she's in milk.

At one stage I had to feed some pretty awful hay to my Jersey when she was in milk, following the 2009 flood during winter, and I had to drench it with molasses to make it palatable. However, it did keep her going, and she didn't lose weight, and she was pregnant.

www.tradingpost.com.au/Rural-Machinery/Rural/Livestock/AdNumber=TP004298211?BackToResult=true&AdOnTop=

H

[tuppyandjess]

Hi Jenn ... I have the place fenced into several separate paddocks with hot tape. The problem I have right now is that there is not much grass in any of them. Not one of them is ready to have the cows on it - hence me spending so much time out walking them along the roads (we live in the middle of nowhere so this isn't too much hassle). I have a feeling part of the problem is that my partner was too over zealous with the mulching - he does each paddock as they come out of it & even though he always says he's "just going to top it" he always ends up cutting it way too short in my opinion. It was OK during summer when the grass was growing really fast, but now that it's slowed down we've been caught short. There are also several little bits of pasture "missing" at the moment because we've re-seed it, or we've been clearing fence lines etc & made a mess of that part of the paddock etc.

Hi Heidi ... thanks for the link. I'll check it out. I'm really wary about feeding lower quality hay ... what are the dangers ? What should I look out for in the hay? How will I know if they'll eat it or not before I haul it home?
It's still raining here too. It just never seems to stop
We picked up a molasses lick tub for $110.00 at a clearance sale west of Kempsey yesterday. I still don't have the molasses ... we figured out the weight of it was way more than was safe to put on the ute & it would have been dangerous trying to get it off as well ... so we're having it delivered tomorrow. Another $100.00 on top
The cows are all in milk but none of them are pregnant. The friesian/jersey cross has 1 & 1/2 big calves on her & one of the jerseys has 3. The other 2 have 1 each. The 3 jerseys are purebred - they came from a stud at Kempsey. They were all raised on grass as the old fellow who bred them had stopped dairying several years before & just had a few as an interest. I'm trying to find a paddock somewhere close to wean 3 of the calves to. I can't wean them all because I have no facilities to milk at the moment. There are lots of little vacant paddocks around here but not many people want cattle on them. It's a fairly "alternative" area now ... (use to be dozens of little dairy farms - my house is an old dairy ) & not many people are interested in the hassle of having cattle.
It's supposed to be clearing up here over the next few days - fingers crossed

[Heidi]

Hi,
Quick response...time poor...

Dangers of feeding lower quality hay...
look out for dust and mould (dust can be damped down with water, mould can cause illness);
don't want to import weed seeds onto your farm.. so check what the paddock is like that it was harvested from. Too many seed heads in the hay isn't good. (particularly parramatta grass);
you can buy one bale, see if they like it, go back for more;
Bye
H

[Heidi]

Try this site for calculating feed economics...
www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/livestock/nutrition/values/feed-cost-calculator-instructions
H

[tuppyandjess]

Thanks for the link Heidi. I've checked it out & run a few figures through it.
I rang Norco & the manager said I can store feed there if I buy it in bulk (I have no way to store a tonne of dairy meal!) which is nice of him.
What type of dairy meal do you buy? He has a couple of different ones. He also has the calf starter pellets - not sure if they're any good for lactating cows. Do you ever feed copra? I've used it for horses in the drought & they loved it. It made them really shiny too
He can't do lucern any better than $16.50 a bale - he says there's no money in it as it is.
Molasses he can do for 50 cents a litre if I buy it in bulk.