I am trying feeding oat bales to my calves this winter. With the hay shortage it seemed to make sense. They were cut quite ripe and there is alot of oats in the bales. The calves seem to be doing fine but i was wondering if i could give them some rolled barley/wheat mixture as well or would that be to much. Other years they get fine hay and the grain but i know they are getting some oats from the bales. Also would the wheat added to the barley make it hotter feed?
calves on green feed
- Thread starter Rancher3!
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Northern Rancher
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They should get by just fine-if anything I'd maybe give them some decent qusality hay. I wintered 150 char heifers on baled sprouted durum one year they wintered just fine.
Faster horses
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I agree with NR. Don't make that feed too rich.
hillsdown
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I am feeding my replacement heifers oat greenfeed this year too. The hay is saved for the springers and fresh cows. They are doing phenomenal on it , they are fat and sassy. We did the same as you, cut early and baled early so the bales are very green with tons of grain in it.
When it gets really cold they get steam rolled barley to help out a little too. Grain is cheap compared to buying and shipping in hay.
Where I am hay is not an option, there isn't any ,worst drought in 50 years.
When it gets really cold they get steam rolled barley to help out a little too. Grain is cheap compared to buying and shipping in hay.
Where I am hay is not an option, there isn't any ,worst drought in 50 years.
I'm feeding 2 skidloader buckets of corn silage 1 of ground oat/barley hay,1 of ground hay and 1 scoop of distillars syrup mixed in a tmr. I've never fed anything like this before so I don't quite know what the outcome will be. The manure looks about like they are on summer grass though.They have free choice hay also.I don't have any extra cash for grain so they have'nt been getting any.They do get Vigortone mineral :wink:
John SD
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Denny said:
I agree Denny. If the choice is between giving the cows grain or mineral, go with the mineral. :wink:
salt grass flats
Member
All those rations sound ok to me. Mine are getting 1000lbs ground 1st and 2nd cutting alfalfa (mixed 50-50 when ground) 1500 lbs cane silage and 4 lbs corn per head per day. and keep feed in the bunds all day. these cold nights they sure eat it up.
What do you think? they have a great haircoat
What do you think? they have a great haircoat
hillsdown
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Edited as I have bitten my tongue, yet again you stray from the original question.. :roll:
Rancher PM me if you need further info as I do know what you are talking about and understand your circumstances.
Rancher PM me if you need further info as I do know what you are talking about and understand your circumstances.
cowsense
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Any type of ration without a feed test is a guessing game! A feed test is relatively cheap compared to overfeeding expensive feed or even worse in having to extensively supplement to regain lost condition. As well it is important in growing yearlings to be able to target growth & gain rates to reflect the intended final use of the animal (feedlot steers vs. grasser cattle or replacement heifers).
I like to run what-if feed rations to see if I can change feedstuffs to produce as economical a ration as possible and to check out that I'm feeding a balanced ration. I use the CowBytes computor program & would hate to go back to guessing if I'm feeding right!
I like to run what-if feed rations to see if I can change feedstuffs to produce as economical a ration as possible and to check out that I'm feeding a balanced ration. I use the CowBytes computor program & would hate to go back to guessing if I'm feeding right!
Faster horses
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Good idea, cowsense. With the information and capabilities we have
at hand there is no reason to be flying by the seat of your pants. And running rations can save you a pile of money.
And your Vigortone reps will run a ration for you...free of charge...
:wink: (Denny :wink: )
BTW Denny, how are those Viking GD60's doing?
at hand there is no reason to be flying by the seat of your pants. And running rations can save you a pile of money.
And your Vigortone reps will run a ration for you...free of charge...
:wink: (Denny :wink: )BTW Denny, how are those Viking GD60's doing?
Faster horses said:Good idea, cowsense. With the information and capabilities we have
at hand there is no reason to be flying by the seat of your pants. And running rations can save you a pile of money.
And your Vigortone reps will run a ration for you...free of charge...
BTW Denny, how are those Viking GD60's doing?
They are about to burst tonight,tommorrow very soon. Had our 1st calves yesterday a set of twins from Sitz Alliance 6595 1 bull and 1 heifer.
Faster horses
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Darn. Why couldn't that have been 2 heifers and 2 bulls?
At any rate, glad they are fine!
Keep me posted on the GD60's.
At any rate, glad they are fine!
Keep me posted on the GD60's.
Rancher3! said:
My experience has been that dry oat bales are not the best feed for calves. It seems they don't digest the straw well, and spend most of their time picking for the oats. It's not until they get older that they do well on the oat straw. If it is fed along with hay they seem to make out alright though. I would feed the oat hay to the cows and grass or alfalfa hay to the calves.
burnt
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I am feeding our calves (born April/May mostly) one bale of soft second cut alf/grass dry hay to one bale of triple mix balage - oats, peas and barley.
No grain - I don't even have a feed bunk in the barn (yet). They are not growing as fast as other years when we fed some chopped grain, but they are pretty soggy calves I think. The idea is is grow them out for grassers in the spring.
I sure like the simplicity of feeding this way so the spring weights will tell the tale.
One most important thing about green feed is the cutting date. It takes less than a week to make the difference between cow feed and calf feed. Ours was cut about two days late for calf feed and the straw is just bordering on being stemmy but they eat it all up.
But they sure like to dig for that grain and pea plants.
No grain - I don't even have a feed bunk in the barn (yet). They are not growing as fast as other years when we fed some chopped grain, but they are pretty soggy calves I think. The idea is is grow them out for grassers in the spring.
I sure like the simplicity of feeding this way so the spring weights will tell the tale.
One most important thing about green feed is the cutting date. It takes less than a week to make the difference between cow feed and calf feed. Ours was cut about two days late for calf feed and the straw is just bordering on being stemmy but they eat it all up.
But they sure like to dig for that grain and pea plants.
Justin
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Denny said:
i've found that grinding the oat hay with some good grass hay works the best for calves. i grind 1 oat bale to two hay bales, sometimes 1 to 1. the calves have seemed to do pretty well on it. and very little gets wasted.
burnt
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I missed one heck of a deal on some dry oat hay lasst fall. A guy had a bunch of 5x5 bales of dry oats with underseeding mixed in a for $25/bale and while I dithered on it, someone else didn't. :?
Nw I'm paying almost double that for hay. My own fault . . .
Nw I'm paying almost double that for hay.
My own fault . . .Soapweed
Well-known member
burnt said:I missed one heck of a deal on some dry oat hay lasst fall. A guy had a bunch of 5x5 bales of dry oats with underseeding mixed in a for $25/bale and while I dithered on it, someone else didn't. :?
Nw I'm paying almost double that for hay.
20-20 kick-yourself-in-the-hind sight :roll: I've been there and done that. :wink:
When talking about waste with the green feed is the straw really waste? They do pull some out but then they have something to lay on in these
-30 nights. I have a feeder similiar to the one posted earlier on here it holds two bales, i have put one hay, one oat a few times and they won't even look at the good hay until the oats are gone. They seem to be quite loose so I am sure they are getting enough juice from the oats.
-30 nights. I have a feeder similiar to the one posted earlier on here it holds two bales, i have put one hay, one oat a few times and they won't even look at the good hay until the oats are gone. They seem to be quite loose so I am sure they are getting enough juice from the oats.
Justin said:
Thats what I ended up doing grind 1 oat 1 grass then I mix 2 loader buckets of it with 2 corn silage and 1 distillars syrup and just keep the bunks full. They also have acess to a bale of the same hay unground.