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Feeding replacement hiefers

J

just a small guy

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Joined
Jul 18, 2009
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23
Location
southern alberta
We bought some Red Angus/Semi cross replacement type hiefers weighing average of 600#. We are feeding 1St. cut grass/alfalfa hay in round bale feeders. Also a lick tub. of mineral-protien. Other years we have fed about 4# whole oats. This year we have barley of our own. Plan to roll some and feed about 3# each. Any comments would be appreciated.
 
With everything added together, it sounds like too much to me.
I'd get rid of the tub and feed the barley and hay and free-choice mineral.
That tub is for protein and with your hay, it's most likely got enough
protein, especially having some alfalfa in it. It's expensive to overfeed
protein. Not necessary to kill them with kindness. Too much protein can cause them to get loose behind and you don't want that.
The barley will provide energy which is good because of the cold in the winter. I wouldn't think 3# of barley would be too much
if you start them slow and up it slowly til you get it where you want it.
I also don't think they would get too fat on hay and 3# barley.
But you probably know more than me about feeding straight barley.
What I do know is that oats are a safe feed.

FWIW we had 600# Angus heifer calves that only got grass hay all winter
and they did fine. We limit fed them because there is so much waste in a
feeder and it really is better for them to clean up what they have and then
get more in the evening, if possible.That way they don't get those big
hay bellies. Ours didn't even get more in the evening, but we fed them plenty in the morning.
Remember, cattle are a forage animal.

Good luck!
 
just a small guy said:
Other years we have got about 1.5#/ gain using oats. Is 3#'s barley too much?
Click to expand...

When do you plan on breeding them?

I would guess that your hay and the lick tub would be sufficient to grow them out.

We like to see ours go to grass at a green 650-700 lbs. The bulls don't go out until July 1 so they are really on the gain by then. 84 head this year, 7 open, 6 outside the first cycle. They weigh 900 to 1000 lbs now. Big enough for us.

The emptys were 2 younger heifers and 5 of the biggest heifers.

Barley is close to $400 per metric ton delivered here, rolled. GSP pellets are about $240 and can be very poor in quality. Ours will get average hay, lick tubs and a bit of oat and pea silage about 140 days (all the bale silage we have). Have not done this before so it will be interesting how they do.

As BMR said, don't get them too fat. 3 lbs is not too much if your hay is average to poorer quality.
 
Don't forget that barley is a source of protein as well as energy. We often use alfalfa as a source of protein so there might not be a need for a supplemental source. In my experience barley plus alfalfa equals bloat. Depending in on when you want to breed them makes how much they gain all winter more or less important. In gcreeks case 1 lb of gain is likely enough because he will make up for it with compensatory gain on grass in the spring. We see similar results on swathgrazing and either barley or tubs as a protein source. This year 8% open on a 30 day breed in the hf pen.
 
per said:
Don't forget that barley is a source of protein as well as energy. We often use alfalfa as a source of protein so there might not be a need for a supplemental source. In my experience barley plus alfalfa equals bloat. Depending in on when you want to breed them makes how much they gain all winter more or less important. In gcreeks case 1 lb of gain is likely enough because he will make up for it with compensatory gain on grass in the spring. We see similar results on swathgrazing and either barley or tubs as a protein source. This year 8% open on a 30 day breed in the hf pen.
Click to expand...

How many hfrs to a bull do you use?
 
3 M L & C said:
per said:
Don't forget that barley is a source of protein as well as energy. We often use alfalfa as a source of protein so there might not be a need for a supplemental source. In my experience barley plus alfalfa equals bloat. Depending in on when you want to breed them makes how much they gain all winter more or less important. In gcreeks case 1 lb of gain is likely enough because he will make up for it with compensatory gain on grass in the spring. We see similar results on swathgrazing and either barley or tubs as a protein source. This year 8% open on a 30 day breed in the hf pen.
Click to expand...

How many hfrs to a bull do you use?
Click to expand...
I only bred 51 hfs this year and we started out with one bull for the first 2 weeks and then added one for the last 2 weeks.
 
Take a feed sample and see what you need. They don't need much energy to gain 1.5 lbs/day, but the protein is the real important part. They need somewhere around that 12 to 14% protein. The feed sample is cheap compared to feed costs and the possibility of having open heifers.

It might be best to sell your barley and buy a higher energy cake or pellet with the sufficient protein. Ditillers would be ideal if you can handle it.
 
BRG said:
Take a feed sample and see what you need. They don't need much energy to gain 1.5 lbs/day, but the protein is the real important part. They need somewhere around that 12 to 14% protein. The feed sample is cheap compared to feed costs and the possibility of having open heifers.

It might be best to sell your barley and buy a higher energy cake or pellet with the sufficient protein. Ditillers would be ideal if you can handle it.
Click to expand...

I agree, except it is the energy that helps them gain. And I'm curious why
you think he should sell his barley and buy a commercial feed? Barley has
some protein in it. It is my thought that the more you can feed that you grow on your ranch, the better off you are. You just can't know what all goes
into a cake or pellet.MHO

Feed sample is the best way to go. Could save you a lot of money.
Guess I was too shook up about the election last night to mention forage
sampling. Glad you brought it up BRG. That's sure the way to go~way
better than flying by the seat of your pants.

When we were on irrigated places, we grew a mixture of oats and barley.
We would take that grain in to have it rolled with just a bit of molasses
to keep the dust down. We fed that to everything. Calves, horses, chickens,
pigs--we didn't feed the mature cows grain, but everything that got grain
ate that mixture for years with no adverse effects. Even the dog liked it. :D
 
I say you might want to sell the Barley because after the feed tests come back (if the tests say your hay has enough energy but lacks protein or vice versa) it just might make more sense financially to sell the Barley and replace it with a better product of what you need instead of feeding the Barley and still have to buy another product. Sometimes you can save your self $ if you feed the right product instead of just what you have.

As an example, last year was the first year we ever raised corn, but we sold all the grain instead of feeding it and purchased distillers back as it was actually financially smarter, as we needed both energy and protein. The corn had the energy, but was low on protein, so we purchased the distillers for nearly the exact same price and got both the energy and protein needed out of it.
 
We give free choice grass hay or millet hay, not high quality. Protien tubs the last month and a little pasture is available then. They don't look that great at that time, but really gain well on pasture. We have some opens doing it this way, but it's a good way of checking your genetics. If they are open this way, you didn't want them anyway. It will make for some pretty efficient cows down the road while culling fertility.
 
Ran this through my CowBytes out of interest. Ran it at 600# Brit x Cont heifers eating 3# barley, and 12# Alf/Grass hay with 1/2# of 32# Liq Supp (guessed that it might be close to your tubs). Also set previous month temp at 0 and current at -5C with night cooling and assumed they were sheltered and relatively dry (no mud/deep snow)
Predicted ADG is 1.3# per day. Of course feed test results could/should change this.
If they are eating 15# of hay they should be doing almost 2# per day.
 

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