Supplement

[Jakes]

What would you use to supplement a bunch of cows on mostly crested wheat/crp this winter?

 

[jodywy]

What would you use to supplement a bunch of cows on mostly crested wheat/crp this winter?

Yes Cake, or alfalfa hay, or alfalfa cake, or lick tubs. Bet you are short protein.

 

[gcreekrch]

All the above and pea screenings are high in protein too.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

I supplement winter grazing with a Canola meal, salt and mineral mix. Just use steel lick tubs to dispense it.
It was fed at about 3lbs/hd every other day. I figured what I used was half the price of lick tubs.
If they have lots of dry matter this will sure help the digestion and appetite

 

[Jakes]

I supplement winter grazing with a Canola meal, salt and mineral mix. Just use steel lick tubs to dispense it.
It was fed at about 3lbs/hd every other day. I figured what I used was half the price of lick tubs.
If they have lots of dry matter this will sure help the digestion and appetite

What are you using to mix this?

 

[Jakes]

All the above and pea screenings are high in protein too.

Would you feed screenings right on the ground or would that waste too much?

 

[Faster horses]

I supplement winter grazing with a Canola meal, salt and mineral mix. Just use steel lick tubs to dispense it.
It was fed at about 3lbs/hd every other day. I figured what I used was half the price of lick tubs.
If they have lots of dry matter this will sure help the digestion and appetite

OOPS. I thought you were the original poster.

 

[Faster horses]

What would you use to supplement a bunch of cows on mostly crested wheat/crp this winter?

They need protein to digest that undigestible forage. Alfalfa hay is your best bet over purchased supplement if you can feed them every other day, or if you have to, every third day. Just make sure you give them enough to do them some good. If you get a hay test, and I heartily advise that (You can't manage what you can't measure) then you know how much protein in the hay. You can figure it out from there. A cows daily protein requirement is 1.5# crude protein a day and 2# as she gets closer to calving and after calving. We never fed alfalfa hay after calving as we didn't have alfalfa hay, but we gave PLENTY of the hay we had.

Good luck!!

 

[jodywy]

All the above and pea screenings are high in protein too.

https://mugglibros.com/products/
these guys would rather deal Stright with the rancher and take out the middleman, got a round granary they could fill, but really rather have overhead cake bins.

 

[Faster horses]

https://mugglibros.com/products/
these guys would rather deal Stright with the rancher and take out the middleman, got a round granary they could fill, but really rather have overhead cake bins.

That's the best 'cake' money can buy. Last year I think they had problems finding enough alfalfa hay so they weren't able to supply everyone. No matter how great the product is, enough needs fed to meet the daily requirements of a cow.

 

[redrobin]

Whole cottonseed on the ground

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

What are you using to mix this?

I've been getting it from Taurus Feeds out of Cardston Alberta,
I used to use just Canola meal with 20% salt added but we did a feed trial for a couple years and tested the grass. They lowered the salt to 15% and added mineral to make a real good supplement. They also put some Canola oil back in to control the dust and add some fat.
Any feed mill that can get Canola meal should be able to mix it up for you.

 

[gcreekrch]

Would you feed screenings right on the ground or would that waste too much?

Right on the ground, these are pelleted but there is a lot of dust in them. 5 lbs of these will take the place of 8 lbs of poor quality hay and add protein to what you are feeding.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Gcreek, you should see if they cold press Canola at your friends colony.
I bet that's better meal then the stuff I get from the big plants where they wash it.

 

[PPRM]

What would you use to supplement a bunch of cows on mostly crested wheat/crp this winter?

Kind of a great question that needs more information to answer.

Biggest question goes to your time and resources. If they are close to a stack of Alfalfa, then flaking that out will do wonders. Even as expensive as it's gotten, it's lower cost.

Fuel and time and the cost of everything have us using protein tubs more than ever. Plus, we are grazing 20 miles from home. We take a little $180 per ton Alfalfa/grass when we check them every third day and set the next paddock after moving them.

We are a long way from cottonseed and many other supplements common to other areas.

Buy really good mineral formulated to your area.

 

[PPRM]

Also, too many people worry about wasting hay. We flake out and move where we feed. Once I understood the value of hoof action, paddock rest and that the carbon in what my cows preferred to not eat did more for soil Biology than it would for my cows, I stopped over worrying. I don't waste it but I do utilize it better

 

[Faster horses]

Also, too many people worry about wasting hay. We flake out and move where we feed. Once I understood the value of hoof action, paddock rest and that the carbon in what my cows preferred to not eat did more for soil Biology than it would for my cows, I stopped over worrying. I don't waste it but I do utilize it better

We never had really good quality hay but we fed a lot of what we had. They wouldn't clean it up when first fed in the morning, but they would go back through it in the afternoon and finish cleaning it up. I think problems are caused when people feed poor hay and the cows don't (unable to digest it is what is happening) eat it all in a few hours after being fed, so the rancher cuts them back to make them clean it up. Poor hay isn't very digestible. We never fed lick tubs, we just gave them plenty of hay and we had zero problems. I do understand feeding lick tubs, we just never did do it. And didn't need to with how we were feeding.