Author Topic: Why Shouldnt I (Read 6831 times)

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #15 on:** July 29, 2015, 05:49:52 pm »

Sounds like a plan. If you find the three of them are too much for the land next spring, presumeably the older one can be sent off sooner rather than later.

Let us know how you get on.

shep53 · « **Reply #16 on:** July 29, 2015, 10:03:18 pm »

You will need a source of straw to bed them on overwinter , and you'll be surprised how much 3 beasts eating silage and having outside access , so getting wet will use . Somewhere to keep the straw dry , not vital but preferable . will you be feeding in a ring or half a ring on the concrete pad ? Do you have a loader to handle the silage ? or maybe a hay knife to cut it in slices . Some way to keep the outside pad clean ?

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #17 on:** July 29, 2015, 10:08:19 pm »

You'd be better to buy feed grade straw and let them eat it and use it as bedding. Silage goes straight through them

, they'll stay cleaner eating predominantly straw.

farmvet · « **Reply #18 on:** July 30, 2015, 11:12:09 pm »

As a rough guide most farmers work on 10 bales silage and 10 bales of straw per head per winter for adult stock. Dont forget to think about tractor access to your shed for feeding, bedding & mucking out midwinter. If you cant access from a hard track you'll really poach the field up.

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #19 on:** July 31, 2015, 12:52:21 am »

BH uses the calculation 20 beasts eat a bale of silage in a day. Or 10 beasts eat a bale every other day. He doesn't like it to be lying for more than 48 hours, although we used to feed the sheep a bale over three to four days on the moorland farm.

Our winter (when we need to be feeding the beasts) is generally about six months, can of course be up to two months longer. So 10 bales of silage per beast sounds like a reasonable rule of thumb.

Factotum · « **Reply #20 on:** July 31, 2015, 09:20:46 am »

A rule of thumb based on adults of typical large beef breeds will probably be far too high for Shetland youngsters. We keep a range of Shetlands over winter: adult cows with their spring-born calves; steers and heifers from the previous spring; and fattening steers from the year before. We feed them ad lib and I don't try to keep tabs on how much is consumed by the different ages. Overall they get through about 4.5 bales per head in a typical winter, more when the grass is slow to start in spring. It works out at roughly 0.7 bales per head per month, plus whatever rough grazing they manage to find since they're not shut in.

That's hay though. Never used silage so can't comment on that.

Sue

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #21 on:** July 31, 2015, 09:51:44 am »

Good point Sue!

Louise P · « **Reply #22 on:** July 31, 2015, 09:33:25 pm »

Very much depends on how wet your big bales are. We bale them almost dry for the horses and when the weather's cold they can last a good 10 days. You'll be able to judge for yourself once you've opened yourffirst bale

Pinecooler · « **Reply #23 on:** July 31, 2015, 09:55:54 pm »

Thanks all for all of your comments. It seems I'm getting closer to a workable solution pending confirmation of feed/straw supply.

Sally, can you clarify what you mean by feed grade straw?

I currently have a storage area that can take about 30-40 rectangular straw bales. this coulf probably be increased easily to 40-50. This will give me a buffer of hay/straw but I'll need to make sure I can get a continual supply through the winter.

Thanks again for your comments