Guys feeding liquid feed

[BlackCattleRancher]

Co-op mineral????? :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :roll:

For Gawd's sake, try ANY other mineral! PLEASE!!

There HAS to be a problem for them to be eating that much. Test the feed and water and have some rations run. Something is terribly out of whack. I've been in the liquid feed business for 15 years, and a scenario like yours has a reason. You just gotta go find it. Any idea how much of the rye hay they are eating on a daily basis? It can't be much if they are eating close to 40 pounds of liquid a day.

I had a guy who is no longer a customer have a fit at me when his calves wouldn't eat a brome alfalfa mix hay, but they would gobble LOOMIX like there was no tomorrow. After looking the bales over pretty well, there was so much mud and dirt and dust and broken baler pickup teeth mixed in with it that it was no wonder they refused to eat it. The hay was barely fit for bedding. I told him if he put out a bale of straw they would clean it up in less than 24 hours. They did. It was still all my fault so I picked up my trough and went on about my way. He's still pi$$ed at me, but that's OK. Neighbors told me later he ground the crap hay with some decent straw and prairie hay at a mix of 6 good to one bad and they cleaned it up.

Bottom line, there is a problem somewhere.

Figured up they are eating about 35lbs./day rye hay free choice. I have only been giving them access a few days a week to the syrup to control consumption. A couple of guys have recommended just giving them all they want for a couple of weeks and they should stabalize their intake.

I don't see how they can be eating 35 pounds of hay/day AND 40 pounds of syrup/day, too. Their rumen won't hold that much. 75 pounds is a LOT of feed, plus water, too???? They must be using the syrup as a substitute for water.

Loomixguy, The syrup is 70% water, so when they eat 40lbs. They are essentially getting 12lbs of ddg(not quite but similar to ddg) and 4 gallon of water, why do you consider that unrealistic? The water is likely just cut out of what they are drinking from the waterer. A 1400lb. cow eating 3% of bodyweight can theoretically take in 42lbs. of feed, with that high protein and fat from the syrup it will move through pretty fast too. The way they eat ddg too, I'd assume the syrup must have favorable taste to it too.

 

[loomixguy]

35 pounds of hay and 12 pounds of DDG still adds up to 47 pounds of feed, which is a lot, in my book. The 1400# cows in this country are all gone for the most part, as they weren't exactly thrifty and cost almost as much to feed as 2 1050-1100 pounders. 2 calves to sell for the price of one, if you will.

I'd still test the feed and water, in any case.

 

[BlackCattleRancher]

35 pounds of hay and 12 pounds of DDG still adds up to 47 pounds of feed, which is a lot, in my book. The 1400# cows in this country are all gone for the most part, as they weren't exactly thrifty and cost almost as much to feed as 2 1050-1100 pounders. 2 calves to sell for the price of one, if you will.

I'd still test the feed and water, in any case.

What specific would you suspect to be imbalanced or lacking in a feed and water analysis?

 

[MJS]

I have never tried feeding it as free choice but I know that they love it. Depending on the ethanol plant that the product is coming from it can range from probably just over 10% solids to about 30% solids. The plants will add as much of this back into the modified product as it can then be sold at a higher value. The best way to handle it in my opinion is to feed it through a mixer wagon utilizing poor feedstuffs as the filler. Years ago when it was almost free I ground cornstalks and sprayed this on right off the discharge conveyer on the tub grinder and the cows would eat it like candy. I put about a semi load on about 150 bales. Not a real scientific way to manage it. Today most of the people using it in our area have underground tanks and feed it through the mixer wagon. It comes out of the ethanol plant some were north of 100 degrees and it can freeze in northern climates thus the underground tanks. When it cools off it can pump fairly hard so some people set their tanks up using like Houle liquid manure pump. Also these pump can pump fairly large volumes and you will appreciate the volume.Sometimes it can be a challenge to find a dependable supplier so be sure your supplier is dependable before investing the money in the tank and pump.

Good Luck

 

[lefty]

sometimes cheap feed isnt .....25years ago we fed a potato waist product it was free you just paid the trucking from the plant it cost us 75 $ for 25 ton it was 85% water & made up of whole potatoes & peals & cooked frenchfries all mixed up together . Cows were addicted to it they would eat as much as you gave them .One day we recieved a load that was bad . what we fed in 1 day killed 35 stockcows & 75 baby calves out of 350 pair .It took 2 years to get it to court & never got a dime ....................sulfurioc acid is added to distillers products to get rid of it . That keeps the plants from a hazardus waist issue . thats why you can od cows on too much sulfer in your minerals . If your water is high in sulfer you can have a real problem .

VB always says what he's thinkin .

 

[cure]

35 pounds of hay and 12 pounds of DDG still adds up to 47 pounds of feed, which is a lot, in my book. The 1400# cows in this country are all gone for the most part, as they weren't exactly thrifty and cost almost as much to feed as 2 1050-1100 pounders. 2 calves to sell for the price of one, if you will.

I'd still test the feed and water, in any case.

What specific would you suspect to be imbalanced or lacking in a feed and water analysis?

I did get mine tested just to see what all it had mine was 12%fat 20%protein and 80%water. I do set out some trace mineral salt blocks and when they get done drinking they go over hit the salt and then the hay I have noticed my hay consumption is down but I just free choice the hay. I went out and weighed 20 animals today just to see what kind of lbs per day I am at. When I weaned on oct. 15 they averaged 450 today they averaged 637 I am right around 2lbs per day on nothing more than meadow hay and ddg. I really can't complain about that.

 

[loomixguy]

35 pounds of hay and 12 pounds of DDG still adds up to 47 pounds of feed, which is a lot, in my book. The 1400# cows in this country are all gone for the most part, as they weren't exactly thrifty and cost almost as much to feed as 2 1050-1100 pounders. 2 calves to sell for the price of one, if you will.

I'd still test the feed and water, in any case.

What specific would you suspect to be imbalanced or lacking in a feed and water analysis?

Hard to say. That's what the test is for. If there's no problem, you know. If there is a problem, you know.

 

[Denny]

Having fed alot of it the problem is the cows get addicted like someone on drugs. Best way to feed it is in a TMR mixture.Sulfer content will vary depending on the water source and fermenting process at each plant not all are the same.It's a bypass protein and our local plant is low on sulfer we fed as much as the cows wanted one winter with no I'll effects . When it was free you could feed cows very cheap now it's priced the same as Dried in a dry matter basis with trucking actually costing more per ton.I'm only feeding dried to my bull calves heifers and cows are on silage and hay.

To me cow feed is what ever it takes to feed a cow thru the year at the least cost as long it's not poison.

Change is hard for alot of people to grasp Hay maybe "Cow Feed" but it's not necceasarily the low cost food source.

 

[littlejoe]

I've never seen the stuff---would it work to stand a weeks worth of bales on end and put 5-7% by weight on?

I've done this with other liquid supplements---did first batch on a flatbed trailer, so i could see how much ran thru, but none did---tight j.d. bales tho.

Anyway, if you do the math and this will soak in, you should be able to get the consumption you want. In a week or two, maybe try the free choice deal again and see if they're still hogging it.

 

[Denny]

I've never seen the stuff---would it work to stand a weeks worth of bales on end and put 5-7% by weight on?

I've done this with other liquid supplements---did first batch on a flatbed trailer, so i could see how much ran thru, but none did---tight j.d. bales tho.

Anyway, if you do the math and this will soak in, you should be able to get the consumption you want. In a week or two, maybe try the free choice deal again and see if they're still hogging it.

It does'nt soak in it's not near a runny as you would think. Ours tested 1% drier than the wet cake. I tried it on our bales and they are soft core bales it just set on the ends not soaking in much. I've had friends that just let them in a area for an hour or two. I have enough cows with my trailer and tanks I'd feed a load per day.

Another thing is you can feed a zero phos mineral which is cheaper Vigortone has a 3V0S that's ment to be fed with the distillars products.It has a higher thiamine level to help combat the sulfar.

 

[cure]

I found out the other day that over consumming ddg is not a good thing the deal I went to yesterday said that with the fat content of ddg if you over feed it it can give your cows fatty udders and decrease milk they also said that it can hurt reproduction if your cows are well condition. They suggested feeding it as if it is a supplament and not a main feed source and you should be find with it.

 

[HAY MAKER]

I feed liquid through the winter, and they always consume more at the start then they settle down.
good luck

 

[TexasBred]

Been feeding distillers syrup in lick tanks and the cows are averaging almost 4 gal/day. I can't get them to slow down. WOuld like them consuming 1 gal/day. I've tried a 50 lb. bag of salt in on a fill and they still suck it down fast. Any ideas what I could add to "bitter" it up and slow down their intake without totally turning them off to it? The syrup is pretty much identical to Mix 30 minus the mineral pack. I know this because the trucker who hauls it, also hauls for mix 30 and he stated that all they do is add a mineral pack and distribute it. Any ideas?

If you can find it add some phosphoric acid to the mix at about 3.5% per ton. Most liquid feed companies use this as one of the limiters in their feeds and a good source of phosphorus as well. Add the vitamin/mineral premix as well.

 

[TexasBred]

Co-op mineral????? :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :roll:

For Gawd's sake, try ANY other mineral! PLEASE!!

There HAS to be a problem for them to be eating that much. Test the feed and water and have some rations run. Something is terribly out of whack. I've been in the liquid feed business for 15 years, and a scenario like yours has a reason. You just gotta go find it. Any idea how much of the rye hay they are eating on a daily basis? It can't be much if they are eating close to 40 pounds of liquid a day.

I had a guy who is no longer a customer have a fit at me when his calves wouldn't eat a brome alfalfa mix hay, but they would gobble LOOMIX like there was no tomorrow. After looking the bales over pretty well, there was so much mud and dirt and dust and broken baler pickup teeth mixed in with it that it was no wonder they refused to eat it. The hay was barely fit for bedding. I told him if he put out a bale of straw they would clean it up in less than 24 hours. They did. It was still all my fault so I picked up my trough and went on about my way. He's still pi$$ed at me, but that's OK. Neighbors told me later he ground the crap hay with some decent straw and prairie hay at a mix of 6 good to one bad and they cleaned it up.

Bottom line, there is a problem somewhere.

Figured up they are eating about 35lbs./day rye hay free choice. I have only been giving them access a few days a week to the syrup to control consumption. A couple of guys have recommended just giving them all they want for a couple of weeks and they should stabalize their intake.

I don't see how they can be eating 35 pounds of hay/day AND 40 pounds of syrup/day, too. Their rumen won't hold that much. 75 pounds is a LOT of feed, plus water, too???? They must be using the syrup as a substitute for water.

They syrup is 65-75% water so they're really not getting that much dry matter out of it and it is digested rapidly. Leaves plenty of room for the 20-30 gallons of water they need everyday.

 

[loomixguy]

I still say the man has a problem, but hey, whatever floats your boat. If he can afford to feed that much liquid, more power to him. 8)

 

[TexasBred]

I still say the man has a problem, but hey, whatever floats your boat. If he can afford to feed that much liquid, more power to him. 8)

The problem is free choice feeding with nothing to limit the intake. They drink the stuff like water almost. Without something to limit intake they'll do the same with molasses as well as dry feed. Pretty easy for a mature cow to suck down 50 lbs. of dry matter a day if it's available and she likes it.

 

[McGee213288]

We also feed the 16/11 ...starting about October...this past year we started in August as the pastures were burned to a crisp...Our's also start out slurping alot...but then they will settle down ...When green up starts...they stop...this year we have had an early green up...I believe we have filled the tubs for the last time this season... ...We call it Moo Goo....