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Wintering cows on cereal straw and millrun (wheat mids)

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turning grass into beef

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I was just wondering if anyone here had any experience feeding a diet of millrun (wheat mids) and cereal straw to pregnant mature cows over the winter. I was especially interested if anyone has found what the threshold level for cereal straw is before impaction happens.
 
i've wintered on straw and screening pellets a couple times-I think we fed free choice straw and about 8 pounds of a 13 percent pellet a day. I think Megan and Tyler packed close to 20,000 five gallon pails of feed that winter cheaper than a gym membership.
 
The NDSU Extension Service has several good bulletins which you might find useful for this topic.

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ansci/beef/as974.pdf
http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ansci/livestoc/as1175w.htm

I would recommend no more than about 35 to 40% of the ration as straw, depending on what other feedstuffs you put with it. Over that and you will increase the likelihood of problems with impaction. Free choice straw probably lessens the risk of impaction to some degree compared to chopped straw in a mixed ration.

The first bulletin above gives some example rations that have been successfully been fed to pregnant and lactating cows.

Greg Lardy
NDSU Beef Cattle Specialist
 
In theory it should work, with some minor adjustments. If you assume a 50:50 straw/midds diet, your protein would run around 11.5% protein with straw running 5% and midds at 18%. You would really have to watch your calcium though, as midds are really high in phos, and you might run into some milk fevers/retain placenta at calving time. Running a high calcium mineral would be a good idea. One question, what can you get midds priced in for? I think it is running around $120-$140/t? If so, that is a pretty cheap way to winter cows! The midds and straw would cost around $0.75-$0.80/head/day?
 
Although I haven;t had much experience with it, it seems to me that there is a difference in straw from different cereals, too.

I know we got by pretty good a couple of winters ago feeding about 1/3 oat straw to 2/3 hay.

But I rolled the hay out for them so our cows ALL had access to the hay at the same time or the big bosses got the hay and the smaller cows got the straw which was then given free choice in round bales feeders.

It seems to me that wheat straw is less palatable but some others might know more about it.
 
I agree burnt. Wheat straw isn't the best. Oat straw is perhaps the best.
And year old straw is better than new, as it has broken down some
due to age.

And I also agree that you need to manage straw, as you have
mentioned, so all get an equal share and the BOSS cows don't
push out the smaller, more timid ones.
 
A few years back I had a customer who had very little alfalfa or other hay. He did have a LOT of wheat straw. Some was plain and some had been ammoniated. His field of milo stalks was like the parking lot at WalMart. He kept the straw in front of them 24/7 and they ate 1.03 pounds of LOOMIX per day until 30 days before calving, then he began feeding some alfalfa and silage. They were on the straw and LOOMIX diet for almost 90 days and picked up a full body condition score, and it was damn cold during that time.

Best to get some samples of the straw and mids and test them and have somebody with Brill software run some rations to see what is feasible according to NRC guidelines.
 
TGIB; Could you post the nutritional values of wheat midds......would be interested in seeing the feed values. We've had several winters where straw was our only forage and have used either barley or screening pellets to supplement. Got through fairly well as long as we kept the energy & protein in balance. We did separate thinner & younger cows into a different lot so we could supplement them at a higher level. Usually is the cheapest ration going although I prefer to have a bit of hay or greenfeed available to cut back the grain supplement levels.
 
Wheat mids are usually 78-80 TDN and protein of 17-18%. They are the only thing we ever supplement with because they are not as hot as barley and they are a very consistent product. My guess is they will have a substantially higher energy density that screening pellets.

This impaction deal is new to me since moving to Canada - we often fed cows on straw in Scotland with never more that 4lbs of pellets and it was never an issue. How much is impaction a product of feeding in a very cold climate? do you get it in the states where it is warmer?
 
I am a little confused about impaction too GF. I grew up feeding barley and straw to cows. Mostly in the straw bunch form free choice. Never had a case of impaction here for either my dad or me in over 50 years. Not to say it doesn't happen. I helped a neighbour do a PM on a cow that was impacted, or should I say compacted. Saw if for my self couldn't get another straw in there. I would guess the key is enough protein and maybe not feed all at once. :?
 
The midds should give you somewhat of a laxative effect, just as wheat bran does. NRC ordinarily usies about 15% crude protein and thats about all most suppliers will guarantee although some will test as high as 17% on an "as fed" basis. Pretty digestible too at around 70% TDN. Sometimes cattle will actually get overconditioned fed too many midds.
 
The numbers that I use are as follows
Barrley straw: 4.4% protein and 40% TDN
Millrun: 17.66% protein and 80% TDN
All of these values are on a dry matter basis.
We have quite often made our cows eat some straw in their daily ration but never tried to have it make up 67% of their ration. I think impaction would come into play more in very cold weather when the cow is eating more feed. Our winters here are very different than what per has in Medicine Hat (I lived their for 8 years).
 
That is a pretty low analysis for barley straw in my opinion. We prefer oat straw and have had analysis of 5-5.5% protein and 50-55 TDN. Maybe different crops different areas? We are a poor, late crop area so the straw tends to be quite green with us most years.
 
turning grass into beef said:
sorry per. I just noticed you're from SW Alberta not SE Alberta. I'm getting you confused with somone else. Same thing though, our winters are very different than yours.
Click to expand...
No worries, my cows winter just south of Calgary and we are considerably milder than anywhere in Sask most of the time. I think your 4.4% on Barley straw is right on. We seldom test more than 5 and sometimes down to 4. I don't test it any more and use 4% for my figures. Is your source of mids close?
 
Our straw is always very mature. Not a speck of green in it. I really don't know where the millrun is being produced, we bought it through a broker and agreed on a price delivered to our bin.
 
I have no experience with mids but as a word of caution... I have brought in pellets on occasion and sometimes they are freshly made an warm when they arrive. If that is the case they can cool into cement in the bin. I will load them onto trucks and put them back in the bin the next day to cool off. Had to build a drill to loosen them up one winter. You don't need to repeat that experience. If they come cool I am sure all will be fine. Just a heads up.
 

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