• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Feeding Straw

Decker said:
Anybody have any experience with straw rations for cows during the first part of winter?
Click to expand...

Even though I am not a big fan of chicken, I would sure rather eat chicken than feathers. The same principal applies with straw. The wheat is the "chicken" and the straw is the "feathers."

My guess is that it can't be too nutritious. It does make good bedding.
 
We feed it every year to our bull calves. It is great filler. We grind it and mix it with better feed to make our TMR. We ussually do 1/4 straw to 3/4 other type hay when grinding.
 
BRG, it is my guess that you are using straw for dry matter and the
nutrition requirements have been met with your other feed. I don't think
Decker should feed 25 lbs. of straw and some alfalfa. For one thing,
I don't think 2 year-old heifers can eat 25 lbs. of straw because it is
highly indigestible. Please notice that BRG said straw makes good filler. That's about it, I'm afraid.

Decker, I plan to show you the requirements of your 2 year old heifers during the winter and how what you plan to feed falls short of meeting their nutritional requirements. But I'm having trouble finding the feed
value of barley straw. Old cows can digest straw better than young cows
because they have had more experience doing it. The fact that your
straw is 2 years old, is helpful because it has been broken down some,
due to age.

Digestibility is a big deal in feeding livestock. Mature or over-mature
hay is not as digestible as hay cut early on. Of course, straw is very mature feedstuffs.

I'm happy that you are asking questions.
This forum is a good place to find answers.
 
Ive ground straw with alfalfa quite a bit. I do 2 or 3 straw to one alfafa depending how good the alfalfa is. It works great i believe. I fenceline feed with a hot wire and the cows clean every bit up. Last year i ground 3 cornstalks to one good alfalfa and i didnt have to supplement all year. The cows were in there best shape ever. I truly believe finding ways to feed cows cheaply in the winter is where you make your money. I try to graze cornstalks as hard as i can. They do really good on stalks after i wean the calves. Cows get into great condition before winter. Gives them good exercise and keeps all the manure out of here is probably the biggest thing. The other big thing is, im not starting my tractor everyday to feed. Depending on the quality of the straw and hay i wouldnt be afraid to go with a 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 grinding ratio, from my expierences anyways.
 
My cows are older mature cows and the average weight is about 1400 lbs. I am only going to feed this ration to them in thier second and early part of thier third trimester. There are alot of people up here who feed chaff straw to thier mature cows in the early stages of pregnancy, some just have chaff piles in the field and let the cows go through it. I don't like this way as they waste to much and your left with a mess to contend with in the spring. Feeding straw does save you alot of money in feed costs, but you should make sure your cows are in good shape going into winter. You would be surprised at how much protien content is in straw, you do have to be careful though and make sure to supplement them to avoid compaction either with grain or alfalfa/grass hay.
 
Years ago I know Dad went into winter with 9 bales of hay and tons of 3-4 year old straw. He fed them the straw in bale feeders, all they could eat and poured on 5 gallons of molasses per bale. They did just fine. After they calved he fed some ear corn to the pairs. I don't remember what the calves weighed the next year or what the conception rate was but Dad mentioned several times after that you can get by on just straw if you have to.
 
A lot of folks use wheat straw in TMR's around here or jsut fed free choice as some gut fill. More use corn stalks, either baled or standing in the field.. I know in the stalks there is a lot more nutrtion than people would think. A lot of folks I know would run them ons talks with a protein tub and that is it for the first part of the winter until snow got to deep... Neighbor of mind has over 4000 bales of stalks and over 1000 of straw put up.. His feed yard is a sight to behold, lol..
 
Decker said:
My cows are older mature cows and the average weight is about 1400 lbs. I am only going to feed this ration to them in thier second and early part of thier third trimester. There are alot of people up here who feed chaff straw to thier mature cows in the early stages of pregnancy, some just have chaff piles in the field and let the cows go through it. I don't like this way as they waste to much and your left with a mess to contend with in the spring. Feeding straw does save you alot of money in feed costs, but you should make sure your cows are in good shape going into winter. You would be surprised at how much protien content is in straw, you do have to be careful though and make sure to supplement them to avoid compaction either with grain or alfalfa/grass hay.
Click to expand...
To get us through the first part of winter we only take one cut of hay early July,then after the first hard frost the cattle get turned into the hayland,if theres snow the horses paw enough the cattle eat through that. When we had the few years of really bad drought we fed straw with pellets,the cattle seemed to really devour that.

Also,not sure what your straw is but for everyone else on here thats kinda not getting the straw thing.....pea straw is GREAT feed.
 
Straw with Cake. Works great. We fed it all winter one year when we had no hay. Best calves we ever had. You probably want a high protein cake though.
 
Decker - I am an ex-Alberta boy - coming form Peace River country. I only have about 3 minutes of satellite time - so here goes.

Straw is excellent feed. The more chaff in it the better. Treated right it is good enough for cows to live on for a long time. I fed cattle straight straw for two winters running due to hay shortages. Calved out and they did all right considering.

There are issues you need to be aware of. Compaction being the biggest trouble. There is good feed value in it.

Supplement with mineral and some grain.

Your provincial ag boys have a whole schedule that they will give you for free to help you out. Make sure you talk to them - hit the Sask and Manitoba gang as well - they are full of good info and do not care that you are not a resident - ag folks tend to stick together - especially when some folks are short on feed. Best of all their info is free for the asking.

When it hits minus 45 and the wind is blowing hard you want those cows fed and happy. Time to get planning it was a long time ago but Monday is coming so get on the 'net and the phone!

http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/forages/bjb00s09.html

I have done the above with good success. Read it closely there are dangers - I had the pros do mine because I am the person who will screw it up if it is possible.

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/faq7594

Above is some additional info for reading.

Never let the anti straw feeding folks tell you different.

It can be done. It works and remember this final piece of advice - cows like straw that is older. Two years is good - three years is better. Even older if stored well makes them happy.

Do not ask me why - I have yet to learn how to talk to cows!! LOL!

Pea straw is good. So is lentils if you can find it. Often free for the baling if you treat folks nice. I used to give my neighbour a side of beef for his lentil straw - I baled it and hauled it IMMEDIATELY after baling. I have even fed some soybean straw when I could find it.

I always keep about a years worth of old straw on hand for feed and buy it whenever I can get it. Store it well and use it. If you watch closely, you can usually pick it up cheap - right out of the field. See someone combining - drive right in and ask.

Good luck

BC
 
If you talk to the animal nutrictionest (sp) at Purdue they recommend feeding straw whith changes in temp as they say the straw ( wheat in this area ) has excess calories that will produce heat. If you follow their recommendations you can replace up to 50% of the normal hay with straw at 40F or below but they don't want you feeding straw above 50F at all.

I'm not sure how to handle feeding straw on a regular basis - - - If you were to make sure to provide protien and minerals I feel straw could be a good part of your program.
 
We used to run our cows on stalks for the first part of the winter. But this practise doesn't fit in with no till farming. So have started chopping the stalks and feed stover mixed with chopped alfalfa. Works good. Can winter cows on it. I have felt stalks from triple stacked corn are tough and cows don't eat them. This solves several problems. I asked our fertilizer applicator about the tough stalks bit and he tells me they go through twice as many tires on their floater as the used to. Poor cows will need false teeth to eat that stuff.
 
I would feed more straw if I could find a better way of collecting it. These rotary combines make baling harder and you lose alot of chaff. The other thing is that in our area, all the spring wheat has gone to sawfly resistant wheat which is solid stem or or semi solid. Cows don't like that as well. I have always thought cows like winter wheat straw better and of coarse barley straw is great. Have never been able to collect pea straw, but I am working on that, it comes in powder form.
 
Horseless said:
I would feed more straw if I could find a better way of collecting it. These rotary combines make baling harder and you lose alot of chaff. The other thing is that in our area, all the spring wheat has gone to sawfly resistant wheat which is solid stem or or semi solid. Cows don't like that as well. I have always thought cows like winter wheat straw better and of coarse barley straw is great. Have never been able to collect pea straw, but I am working on that, it comes in powder form.
Click to expand...


Have you tried a Chaff wagon and leave piles in the field to extend your grazing?
 

Latest posts

Back
Top