Cattle feed

[BHW]

Hi, Anybody have a simple cattle feed mixture with ratios of, rice straw, casava, urea, brewers yeast, molasses etc. All I get on google is University studies too complicated for this old timer.

 

Thanks in advance.

[kickstart]

First off what cattle I take it that they are beef cattle, are you trying to fatten them, for beef, just keep them ticking over, are they beef cows with calves at foot, and where are you, and what is the etc bit.

And brewers yeast is it yeast .or brewers grains.

Some more information.please. 

[BHW]

Hi Kickstart thanks for reply.

 

They are beef cattle no calves at foot but hope to have 2 in April, they are in reasonable condition they are very fussy eaters, we caused this by feeding them fresh green grass mainly Para grass, that's what westerners call it don't know the Thai name, they will only eat rice straw when very hungry, I want to make it more interesting for them as it's hard to keep the Para grass up to them, we have just planted more probably 45 days away before ready to cut, we water it every day but it takes time.

 

It is brewers grain.

 

We live Prang Ku Sisaket province near Surin & Sisaket border about 20 K south of highway 226.

 

Thanks for any tips

Bruce

[kickstart]

The reason I asked where you live, where I am is a big dairy area and we have all types of feed all ready mixed ,I pay 360 baht for a 50 kg bag of feed  14% if you have a place near you that sells cattle feed, easier than buying in raw ingredients and mixing a  ration,just feeding your cassava 1.8% protein and molasses 4% protein ,brewers grains 22% protein ,but a low dry matter, would leave the ration short of protein, and with molasses at 8 baht/kg ? and cassava at 7-8 baht/kg ? not cheap.

Most cattle feeds are mixed to a cost ,my mix now has a lot of cassava in ,cassava is now being harvested, and is a cheap ingredient for rations .and I can say that most mixed feeds and fairly balanced, all Thai cattle feeds  are short of energy ,it is energy in a ration that provides  the growth  for cattle, or in dairy rations gives the milk yeild ,and high enagey feeds are expnceive ie soya , but for you ,and mine, a 14% feed  would be good enough ,

You said urea, it is used by all the big feed comanys a cheap way to increas the protine of a ration, normal feed at a rate of 1 1/2-2 % of the ration, another reason I asked about what cattle you have, is that calves can not be feed urea ,they digetive stytem is not devolped eniugh to digest urea and can be fatal to young calves, when calves are about 4-5 months old and in good condition, a feed that has urea  can be feed . 

You have brewers grains, a good feed I feed grains 22% protine, has a low dry matter, that is the is a lot of water ,grains are about 28% DM, dry matter, or about 70% water, but still a good feed, and cattle will put weight on being feed grains .

Para grass or Yar-Con in Thai, is ok , like most grasses has to be feed young 45 days is about right  as It gets old it gets tough and cattle will not eat it, they can waist up to 50% of what you feed them, and it likes water .

On the subjuct of grass, have a word with TV's Khwaibah ,he is not so far from you ,he has this new grass Sweet Israle grass or Dwalf Nappier ,it has a protine of 21% at about 45 days it is a Napper grass , better than Para grass by far ,I got given a few stems grows well and cattle like it.

As for how much to feed in Kg's ,you have to look at the whole ratione ,when your cows calve you could feed 3kg of a 14% feed, 3 kg of breweds grains and add lib Para grass, if the grass is young, if the grass is old and a lot of rice straw is being fed, you would have to up the concentrate and grains, to compensate for the poor quality forage, but say you had some young Dwalf Nappier ,you could cut back on concentrat and grains, as the  protine of the grass would provide most of the nutriton of the ration (In New Zealand ,dairys cows diet is mainly grass  a cheap feed for cattle,hardly any concentrate is feed and cows will give 20kg of milk plus and maintain conditon ,in Thailand with the poor quality forage, mainly rice straw  a dairy cow giving 20kg of milk will be feed 7-8 kg of feed,1 kg about 10 baht,expencive) .

Not seen it done for a long time ,you can treat rice straw ,100 kg of straw, 100 kg of water 3 kg of urea, , use a watering can , dissolve the urea in the water pour the mix over the rice straw, cover with a plastic sheet, let it ferment of 21 days, and feed it to the cattle ,it will increas the protine of the rice straw and make it more palatable ,a few kg of molaesse could be added ,the end feed would be about 5-6%? protine, not a cheep feed but better than plain straw, look on the net at urea molass treated rice straw .

This I have wrot this before we feed the tree lergume leucaena leucolephala or Gratin in Thai , cut from roadsides and field corrners cattle like it and a good sauce of protein, we feed it , but I have been told that it dose not grow that well in Issan, for some reason .

 

[khwaibah]

6 hours ago, BHW said:

We live Prang Ku Sisaket province near Surin & Sisaket border about 20 K south of highway 226.

 

We area in the same area. I'm in Kap Choeng Surin. Some of your information can be found on this thread which is an on going operation. You're more than welcome to drop me a PM and to make a visit. The wife is still feeding her heard with the tropical grass along with all the fresh corn and other left overs from the Choeng Chom Market and this is free. She makes at least one trip and sometime two a day to that market for a solid pickup load. She does augment this diet with an vitamin based grain from the Department of Livestock and Development. The grass is Sweet Israel and Nappier grass

 

 

Edited February 20, 2019 by khwaibah

[IsaanAussie]

I am keen to try growing Gratin intensively. I had an article on doing this some time ago (searching). Basically about a 10" square pattern and growing it for a month or two then cutting it off about 6" above the ground. Our pigs loved the young leaves but the trees were spindly. Actually I think they are their own worst enemy here in Isaan as they will survive drought conditions, that what they get, no water!

Fermenting usually breaks down the fibres etc.. and hence makes things more easily digested. Is this what happens with the straw? Not so much protein levels being increased but more value is digested?

[kickstart]

3 hours ago, IsaanAussie said:

I am keen to try growing Gratin intensively. I had an article on doing this some time ago (searching). Basically about a 10" square pattern and growing it for a month or two then cutting it off about 6" above the ground. Our pigs loved the young leaves but the trees were spindly. Actually I think they are their own worst enemy here in Isaan as they will survive drought conditions, that what they get, no water!

Fermenting usually breaks down the fibres etc.. and hence makes things more easily digested. Is this what happens with the straw? Not so much protein levels being increased but more value is digested?

Gratin leaves have  a protein of 22% it is a by-pass protein (like urea), that is , it mainly gets digested in the intestines of the animal were more of the feed value ie protein ,is utilised by the animal ,with normal digestion,in cattle most food is digested in the stomach ,then passes out the back end ,but less food  value is utilized by the animal, in stomach  digested food.

With cattle   the animal eats the food, it passes into the rumen, basically a fermentation tank,  then he/she will chew the cud, that is swallowed then passes through the digestive tract, protein levels as you said are not increased,this is what happens with straw ,but with straw being so hard and tough, cattle have to chew the cud for a long time to break  it down, all that cuddling uses a lot of energy, and that energy produces heat, wears the animal out so they will not get the value out of the food ,old Nappier grass is the same, takes a lot of digesting, one advantage of treated rice straw, helps to break down the cellulose in the straw making it easier to digest  look at the dung of an animal feed rice straw very hard with traces of straw in ,all part of the slow digestion, not a lot is utilized by the animal .

As for the Gratin plant they are 3 varieties, one is your thin spindly one, then there  is a short verity grows up to 4-5 foot, the other one, grows slowly can grow tall ,young leaves have a white tinge to them ,and that is the one the wife eats, with her chili sauce .

Your spindly plant when it is cut to about 4 foot will put out more shots, so you should have a plant with say half dozon shoots on when cut .that will grow .

i have seen a vido on growing Gratin, from Australia I think it was the Northen Territories, a State Exstetion vido, Gratin being a legume it needed an enzyme to help with germanation, seeds where steaped in hot water for a few secods, to help break down hard waxy outer coat .

We tryed it one year seeds grew well and fast, then the rains come and our ex rice paddy fields got waterloged, and all the plants died, young Gratin plants do not like getting they feet wet.   

[BHW]

Thanks Kickstart & everybody else  for your replies, I'll study all more closely over the week end, busy on other stuff at present, we have started growing Para grass as the fields can become water logged over the wet season, we also have some Napier & Rusi grass.

Regards

Bruce