Author Topic: Pea straw / Other straws (Read 5269 times)

Coximus · « **on:** August 19, 2015, 01:04:37 am »

I've got the option of pea straw to buy as a feed quite cheap - about £1.20 a small bale - I know its got a feed "value" higher than straw but lower than hay,
at this price I was thinking as a cheap filler and emergency feed for bad weather - buy 100-150 as its cheap and can be used as bedding, but also a feed if we have a long hard winter - what are peoples thoughts on this?
Has anyone fed it before?

Also what are peoples thoughts on feeding straw to sheep? I can get 4ft rounds for £10 so The temptation is to bulk out the rations of any ewelambs being retained for future breeding.

Carse Goodlifers · « **Reply #1 on:** August 19, 2015, 07:23:55 am »

Pea straw

I'm guessing you mean the haulms left over once the pea's have been picked/vined?
Never seen anyone up here bail it but I'm not ruling out that some folk do. There are folk who bale OSR straw up here.

Not sure of the feeding value of pea haulm but if the stuff isn't fully dry, then it would got mouldy in storage.
Bedding wise - I would avoid it as its likely to go to mush very quickly.

The best thing for pea haulm is to dig in to the veg plot as a 'green manure'.

mowhaugh · « **Reply #2 on:** August 19, 2015, 08:32:28 am »

My OH says he thinks you would really struggle to get sheep to eat it, and it is very brittle and spiky as bedding. We do feed oat straw to sheep, alongside liquid feed, and they do well on it.

landroverroy · « **Reply #3 on:** August 19, 2015, 09:18:13 am »

They'll eat it if it's well made, but as mentioned, is more likely to have mouldy patches than wheat or barley straw. It has higher protein but less energy than cereal straw. To me, it's too coarse for effective bedding.
At £1.20 a bale it's not particularly cheap as you'll find the bales are extremely light, so weight for weight it probably works out the same as other straws.
But having said that, I wouldn't totally discount it. It's worth trying a few bales to throw in to your sheep for a change. But it's really too low in energy to use as the main fibre source for pregnant ewes unless you are feeding them something with a high ME to go with it.

Marches Farmer · « **Reply #4 on:** August 19, 2015, 09:24:20 am »

I use wheat straw for bedding - it's likely to be completely dry and doesn't shatter like barley straw.

Hellybee · « **Reply #5 on:** August 19, 2015, 09:35:22 am »

We get what we can round here, At lambing though we make sure we got short straw, heard some freaky stories of lambs strangling themselves in long straw

Buttermilk · « **Reply #6 on:** August 20, 2015, 10:01:23 pm »

We always got pea straw to feed to the milking goats. Discovered the hard way that it can be rocket fuel for ponies that cleaned up after the goats. Not tried it for sheep though.

Coximus · « **Reply #7 on:** August 21, 2015, 01:34:00 am »

Thanks for the feedback guys -
I've decided to plunge and get 200 small bales for £200 as they were getting cheaper and will see how they go - The chap selling recomended mixing it with regular hay to get them used to it and keeping at that ration as he felt it can be a big rough and maybe not as palatable, I checked a few bales and they are all well got so not worried about the mould issue.

Will try feeding some this week and report back.