Author Topic: Feeding straw (Read 7561 times)

Rosemary · « **on:** December 30, 2012, 05:28:28 pm »

I'd welcome thoughts on feeding barley straw to my cattle. I have a 18 mth old bullock and two in-calf cows, due mid June. They are housed. I've been feeding them a mix of hay and straw with access to a Crystalyx Standard bucket. I wondered about changing them to plain barley straw; the chap that I buy the hay and straw from suggested addng pot ale syrup to the straw to improve palatability but tbh, they seem to love the straw.

The two weaned calves are getting hay and some coarse mix.

Sbom · « **Reply #1 on:** December 30, 2012, 07:23:48 pm »

Ours regularly have good quality Barley straw through the autumn and love it, as does our little pony who can't have grass or hay. They all do fine on it. The cows are on just hay now though as they are wintered outside and the grass is about gone.

shep53 · « **Reply #2 on:** December 30, 2012, 07:55:31 pm »

For the 3 cattle you have described it should be fine with the crystalyx , energy from the straw, protein and minerals from the lick , plenty of water

Rosemary · « **Reply #3 on:** December 30, 2012, 07:58:35 pm »

Someone told me barley straw can cause "wooden tongue". Do you know what it is and if this is true?

Just as well I read "James Herriot" - I recall "wooden tongue" featuring in that. Consulted my "Black's Veterinary Dictionary" as per JH and "wooden tongue" is a symptom of a bacterial infection; the bacteria can get into the animal through a wound or abrasion, so if the straw was rough then it could cause abrasion and if the bacteria was present, then "wooden tongue" could result.

Kinda tenuous, no?

shep53 · « **Reply #4 on:** December 30, 2012, 08:42:46 pm »

WOODEN TONGUE (actinobacillus ) can live in the mouth of many animals including man and can cause infection due to an abrasion in the mouth which can be caused by eating coarse rough foods, so is straw any rougher than hay ? slow response to treatment but normally not life threatening . Seen two cases ,one on hay , one on grass, seem to have one hill ewe every year, not contagious

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #5 on:** December 31, 2012, 12:42:51 am »

Depending on your hay and your straw, good barley straw may be better for very young calves than hay which can be a bit scratchy.

All cattle should do well on good barley straw. I worked on an organic dairy farm where the housed Jerseys got only barley straw for forage over the winter.

BH is most particular about where and what barley straw he will buy however - he won't have it if the fields have been sprayed, he prefers it crimped if poss, and says that some green stems of grass in it are a good sign. (Not least that it hasn't been sprayed.)

I doubt if you need to encourage the appetites of your Shetland cattle...

Hillie has got us onto offering rock salt at all times; they seem to need less from the Crystalyx when they have access to good chunks of mineral-rich rock salt.

kja · « **Reply #6 on:** December 31, 2012, 07:45:32 am »

we too feed barley straw (along with stock potatoes, rolled barley & sugar beet) they do very well on good quality straw. we are also lucky to have pea straw which is a great feed source for cattle.

the calf's are started off on soft hay until weaned then go onto straw / pea straw.

si-mate · « **Reply #7 on:** January 01, 2013, 08:50:59 am »

I've got all bar my 6 oldest cattle on wheat straw this winter and am only feeding them hay as I have some that isn't fit to sell.
With reared calves straw is meant to scratch and stimulate the rumen and I find they do really well on it. The other advantange to feeding straw is housed cattle stay much, much cleaner. I have 15 6 month olds in one pen and probably put a 5' bale in as litter once a month.
The pen of 6 12 month olds who are on hay have to be littered up weekly.

VSS · « **Reply #8 on:** January 01, 2013, 06:36:48 pm »

Quote from: si-mate on January 01, 2013, 08:50:59 am

I've got all bar my 6 oldest cattle on wheat straw this winter and am only feeding them hay as I have some that isn't fit to sell.
With reared calves straw is meant to scratch and stimulate the rumen and I find they do really well on it. The other advantange to feeding straw is housed cattle stay much, much cleaner. I have 15 6 month olds in one pen and probably put a 5' bale in as litter once a month.
The pen of 6 12 month olds who are on hay have to be littered up weekly.

Agree - straw is better for calves than hay as it stimulates better rumen function and they don't get a pot belly like the do when fed hay. They do stay ALOT cleaner which cuts bedding costs considerably.

Rosemary · « **Reply #9 on:** January 02, 2013, 09:30:11 am »

I'll change the calves on to straw too. I thought hay would have more nutritional value so would be better for them.

VSS · « **Reply #10 on:** January 02, 2013, 12:10:05 pm »

Straw IS nutritionally poorer and you may find that you need to give some additional feed. We tend to give cake to the cattle when they are fed on straw (but you save on bedding) and they don't get any concentrates in the winters they are kept on silage.

There are some additives (forage balancer type supplements) that you can give to cattle to enable them to get more nutriment out of the straw. have a look at this http://www.tithebarn.co.uk/boost.html the eco boost with the urea and yeast extracts would do the job - we have used this in the past and found it to be good.

si-mate · « **Reply #11 on:** January 02, 2013, 12:21:05 pm »

I give them an extra kilo per day of concentrate if they are on straw but the saving on litter almost wipes out the extra cost of the feed.

Not the best photos, but you can just about make out the difference in the cleanliness of the animals and their bed.