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How to get cows eating cake

D

Dakota Plainsman

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Joined
Jan 7, 2010
Messages
31
Location
Between I-90 & I-80
Am fairly new here but have been reading posts for some time. I get
some very good info. Was wondering on how different people get
there cows to eating cake. I had some winter wheat that was sprouted
this summer so decided to have it made into cake at the local feedmill.
They mixed it 1100 lbs wheat, 800 lbs DDG, and 100 lbs molasses
pre ton making it 18% protien. The older cows are eating like crazy
animals but the younger ones don't seem to want it. I have not fed
cake for several years.
I have tryed just cake, mixing it with ground hay through feed wagon,
and stringing it out on top of hay fed with the processor. Is there
something else I can try? Thank you in advance.
 
Dakota Plainsman said:
Am fairly new here but have been reading posts for some time. I get
some very good info. Was wondering on how different people get
there cows to eating cake. I had some winter wheat that was sprouted
this summer so decided to have it made into cake at the local feedmill.
They mixed it 1100 lbs wheat, 800 lbs DDG, and 100 lbs molasses
pre ton making it 18% protien. The older cows are eating like crazy
animals but the younger ones don't seem to want it. I have not fed
cake for several years.
I have tryed just cake, mixing it with ground hay through feed wagon,
and stringing it out on top of hay fed with the processor. Is there
something else I can try? Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...

Some cows just never do figure out how to eat cake. The best thing is to sort them off separate, into a corral with a feed bunk. Give them some sweet feed (grain with molasses) that they like, and sprinkle some cake on the top. It might take a few days. Withhold hay from them if that what it takes.
 
Soapweed's suggestion would be the best way. We start ours on cake as yearlings before they go to grass in the spring. Some of them get started when we start caking the replacement pairs before the calves are weaned. We've had some calves that wouldn't eat grain until we got them out of the bunch into a small pen where they could be hand fed and not compete with the others.
 
The last few years I was feeding liquid protien through the feedwagon
with ground hay. I was short on good hay so was grinding straw, weeds, junk, and good hay all together to get by. Was working pretty
well. When Dad and I used to cake, I don't ever remembering having
this much trouble. Suppose the cows are spoiled. Might try to sort
some off when I get the lots opened up when I sell the calves and the
fences dug out from the snowbanks.
 
This reminds me of something that happened to my wife the other day. She is a Social work proffesor at the local Baptist College here and was explaining some definition to her class, (she told me but i wasn't really paying attention) and used the analagy of me feeding cake to the cows. she said that this big football player was extremely confused, you feed your cows cake????!!! long story short she had a hard time explaining it to him and not sure she got it across, i'm taking him with me next week to try and educate him a little. This guy has not a clue only cattle or horses he's seen is going down the road. No idea where milk comes from (another story and i don't type well). Sad really when you think about it of how uneducated city folks are to where food and things come from. Sorry i didn't mean to hyjack the thread just thought i would share that experience.
 
Different meanings to words now.. "Cookie" for instance-now it has something to do with computers. Did mean oatmeal or chocolate chip.
Gay did mean happy,cheerful.
Hope you can give the kid an idea where food really comes from..
 
First off, do you already have the younger cows segregated and are any of them eating much cake? If they are segregated and only a few are eating cake, I would sort some older cows off and put with them to teach them how to eat it before I would bunk feed the younger cows. If they all run together maybe you should segregate all of the younger cows so they do not have to compete with the older cows for cake. If none of these are the case or work for you, Soap probably has the solution. I really don't like the extra chore of having something in to feed, I guess I'm just lazy but that would be my last resort. There's always plenty to do with out adding chores. I had the same problem with some bulls in my fall cows, it took quite awhile before they came to the feed line.
 
We had to winter on pellets and flaz straw one winter-my cows had never seen anything feed worthy come out of a pail but they eventually got on to it. It really improved they're hearing they could hear the key turn in the feed truck a half mile away. If your rolling out hay I'd just spread it on top. One thing nice about bale grazing is if a bad storm hits I can open a gate and their good for feed and shelter for ten days. I'm going to set up a storm padock in every field we do that in.
 
flyingS said:
First off, do you already have the younger cows segregated and are any of them eating much cake? If they are segregated and only a few are eating cake, I would sort some older cows off and put with them to teach them how to eat it before I would bunk feed the younger cows. If they all run together maybe you should segregate all of the younger cows so they do not have to compete with the older cows for cake. If none of these are the case or work for you, Soap probably has the solution. I really don't like the extra chore of having something in to feed, I guess I'm just lazy but that would be my last resort. There's always plenty to do with out adding chores. I had the same problem with some bulls in my fall cows, it took quite awhile before they came to the feed line.
Click to expand...

I am like flyingS and don't like extra chores, either. I have an experiment in progress. :wink: There are a handful of my young cows that don't eat cake. My experiment is to see how much worse they will look come springtime than the cows who do eat cake. From past experiments of this nature, there is definitely a difference in condition. Does it affect the weight of their calves and percentage of breedback? My records are not detailed and complete enough to actually tell. Right now, one of my experiment cows in a 2007 model, long, tall, not particularly pretty, and she has no ears. She won't eat cake on a bet, and she is easy to pick out of the bunch. It will be interesting to follow her progress. Last year she had a big tall steer calf, born on a cold night, and he also has no ears. We put him in the Sandhills Cattle Association carcass contest and are anxious to see how he does in competition.

Some cows are smart enough to realize they can have their cake and eat it, too. :roll: :wink:
 
Soapweed said:
flyingS said:
First off, do you already have the younger cows segregated and are any of them eating much cake? If they are segregated and only a few are eating cake, I would sort some older cows off and put with them to teach them how to eat it before I would bunk feed the younger cows. If they all run together maybe you should segregate all of the younger cows so they do not have to compete with the older cows for cake. If none of these are the case or work for you, Soap probably has the solution. I really don't like the extra chore of having something in to feed, I guess I'm just lazy but that would be my last resort. There's always plenty to do with out adding chores. I had the same problem with some bulls in my fall cows, it took quite awhile before they came to the feed line.
Click to expand...

I am like flyingS and don't like extra chores, either. I have an experiment in progress. :wink: There are a handful of my young cows that don't eat cake. My experiment is to see how much worse they will look come springtime than the cows who do eat cake. From past experiments of this nature, there is definitely a difference in condition. Does it affect the weight of their calves and percentage of breedback? My records are not detailed and complete enough to actually tell. Right now, one of my experiment cows in a 2007 model, long, tall, not particularly pretty, and she has no ears. She won't eat cake on a bet, and she is easy to pick out of the bunch. It will be interesting to follow her progress. Last year she had a big tall steer calf, born on a cold night, and he also has no ears. We put him in the Sandhills Cattle Association carcass contest and are anxious to see how he does in competition.

Some cows are smart enough to realize they can have their cake and eat it, too. :roll: :wink:
Click to expand...

Seems like I allready have too many bunches to feed. Two bunches of cows and three bunches of calves. Yes flyingS, I kinda have them sorted.
One bunch is 70hd of first calf heifers with about 15hd of old cows that
really know what cake is. The other bunch is a all the rest consisting of
about 95hd of coming 3 and 4 year old and the rest running age. The old
cows also know what cake is. The ones that like the cake can hear me
coming. The rest just stand of about 100 yds and look at me like what?? I took a old haystings gravity flow caker, mounted it on a trailer
to pull behind my 4-wheeler. It holds 500lbs and I don't have to start the
pickup every day. Its not real nice on days like this but I figure I can be
about done by the time you get the windows defrosted.
 
Faster horses said:
You can spend $25 and get a hay sample and find out if you EVEN need cake. We don't feed cake, never have...but we feed plenty of hay.
And range cows don't need super hay, 10% hay works fine, if you feed
enough of it.
Click to expand...

According to hay samples, my feed man that works the rations for the
calves says I need a little to balance the ration for the cows. I mostly
feed a little protien for a carrier for the rumensen which my vet says
it really helps on controling scours in baby calves. 4 bales grass hay,
3 bales of wheat hay, 2 bales sudan grass, and 2 bales 1st cut alfalfa
to just under 300 hd. Thats between 45-50 lbs per head and still cleaning
it pretty much all up. I know if you put them on full feed of ground hay
in this kind of weather, they will eat over 60lbs a day.
 
I guess I didn't know rumensin helped scours. I'll have to check
that out. How about mineral? Do you feed mineral? I know for
certain that copper and zinc help scours because it makes
better colostum which enhances the immune system of calves.
Be careful feeding too much protein after calving.
And I can't imagine that you need more protein if you are
feeding that many pounds of hay/etc.

A cow only needs 2 lbs. of crude protein in the last trimester.

Here's an example of how to figure it.

30 lbs. of hay @ 10% protein. Call the hay 10% moisture.
So 30 lbs. minus 10%=27 lbs. DRY MATTER. 27 lbs. dry matter
x 10% protein = 2.7 lbs. crude protein.

I'm sorry, but I have to ask this. Is your feed man selling you the cake?

I'm really interested in this. What kind of cake are you feeding?
How many pounds do you think you need to feed? 20% cake @
2 lbs./hd/day is only .4 lbs of protein and that's before taking any
moisture out. What's that cake costing you, if you don't mind my asking.
 
Faster horses said:
I guess I didn't know rumensin helped scours. I'll have to check
that out. How about mineral? Do you feed mineral? I know for
certain that copper and zinc help scours because it makes
better colostum which enhances the immune system of calves.
Be careful feeding too much protein after calving.
And I can't imagine that you need more protein if you are
feeding that many pounds of hay/etc.

A cow only needs 2 lbs. of crude protein in the last trimester.

Here's an example of how to figure it.

30 lbs. of hay @ 10% protein. Call the hay 10% moisture.
So 30 lbs. minus 10%=27 lbs. DRY MATTER. 27 lbs. dry matter
x 10% protein = 2.7 lbs. crude protein.

I'm sorry, but I have to ask this. Is your feed man selling you the cake?

I'm really interested in this. What kind of cake are you feeding?
How many pounds do you think you need to feed? 20% cake @
2 lbs./hd/day is only .4 lbs of protein and that's before taking any
moisture out. What's that cake costing you, if you don't mind my asking.
Click to expand...

My vet recamended to start feeding rumensin to the cows approx 6weeks
befor you start calving to help prevent cyrpto scours, a form of coxcitia.
Feed at a rate of 180-200 milgrams/hd/day.
(excuse my spelling, no wonder I flunked spelling in school)
I feed a high copper mineral and salt. The amound they are packing away now, I need someone to help pay for it. The feed man said last fall I was going to
probably have to feed some protien. The feed man sells cake and liquid
but done this on my own. My own wheat, they added the DDG and molasses, plus rumensin at a 2 1/2 pound feeding for $97/ton making it 18% protien. The wheat was sprout damaged so was non saleable except for feed. Might as well use it myself.
 

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