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| I guess I dont QUITE understand your question.
Let me make a stab at restating the obvious,then you ask from there.
There is NO limestone that is palateable enough for cattle to 'like'. Straifght limestone is like getting them to eat dirt,it they want to they will,,,mostly they wont. I forget the calcium stuff meant for dairy cows,,,thats the closest to it. It is very powdery and fine. Not like limestone at all,,,must be a different carrier.
BUT the most likeable thing the cattle WILL reddily eat and go for first is alfalfa hay,specially fed cattle,they like the 'scratch' it offers and it obviously tastes good to them too they will eat the stems first and NOT eat the leaves which is the best part unless they have to.
You said,I think that you are feeding all the timothy hay they want. You do what you want but here is how that will shake down ,did for ME here, about 1/3 of the catle will eat mostly corn and not eat 'much' hay,,,next 1/3 will travel back and forth and eat too much hay and not enough corn(tranlated,they wont gain as well),,,then the 1/3 that eats primarily hay and hardly any if at all grain,,,those will never grade good, because they remain as hay fed.
Any hay over 4-5# per head per day is way too much and leads to them NOT eatting enough corn, period,hay wont gain,just maintains. Now the fact remains they ALL have to have their 4-5# and not just the boss hogs that push and shove and eat the most,,,give them all an equal shot at it. ground coarse and fed daily in a bunk,,,threw over the fence with a pitchfork(IF you have waste you forgot to weigh how much you are feeding 4-5 # isnt VERY much,,they will lick her ALL up if thats all you feed. Feed the timothy to your cows or something else,,,go get some good alfalfa and feed your steers,,,and dont listen to the ding dongs that try to tell you"They will get the ****s from eatting alfalfa,,not after they are used to it.
I know you guys back east think I am plum crazy for feeding holsteins alfalfa hay,,cant work,,,wont make a difference,,,hogwash,,,I have heard it all before. Take the challenge,split the pen,feed them hard and long, see what happens.
My personal opinion of stein perfect ration is 4-5# of alfalfa hay,a pound of 38% pellets give or take some%(which includes Bovatec and NOT rumensin) and all the whole shell corn they will eat. IF you start them young enough they dont eat NEARLY as much as started as yearlings. Most I ever pounded in a calf fed stein is about 18# of corn a day,,,a bit more when they get REAL close to market weight. You can throw a block of salt in the pen but most pellets include enough to do whats needed,but a block they can play with and last a goodly time. Thats as balanced as you need. Around here IF you can get wet distillers it is priced as high as dry shelled corn so not much advantage. Protein is higher but higher phos knocks your cal-phos ratio worse than it already was,so not much benefit. I had colored yearling cattle eatting 38# of corn,pellet a day once,,,guy said that was impossible, but they did. IF you figure up, long term steins, dont eat much more corn than colored cattle IF they are started early enough.(Steins early,colored started late)
In short,,,any limestone,leave it OUT,,,feed some alfalfa and get the GOOD out of it!!! Cattle wont eat dirt and grow,they will eat alfalfa and do great!!!!
If you think they need a bit more gut filler you could 'try' to put a bale of bean straw out there,,,they dont tend to eat too much of THAT,,,just enough to scratch their tummies. NOT to replace the hay tho,,,NOT the same at all.
Feeding steins IS a whole different can of worms as feeding regular colored cattle and those that THINK they can feed them the same,,,good luck,more knowledge to follow after experience on YOUR part!!! First of all you HAVE to have a lock system to enter the pen, yourself,,,or you will be estremely sorry. And while we are on gate issues,,,any idiot proof latch for colored is 1/3 enough for steins. Triple lock it,,,chain and padlock and they will still get out,,,they will play all day on the latch till they figure it out. A single chain on a gate,,,an exciting all night chase in the waiting!!!! And half or 'close' to finished fat cattle are the stupidiest chasing animals you will ever find!!!!Brain dead. Besides steins chase like chasin chickens. One step forward, two back.
I LIKED feeding steins,,,but no GOOD markets here within decent trucking. when IBP was around they LOVED to steal them from you. I understand they truck them in from way back east. The last ones they got from me they discounted real hard and sold them retail to Packerland,,,they got NO more of them and Packerland was too far of truck or I still would feed them. Other big problem with them is their thin hide for the BIG winter blows we have here, dont have the right facilities OR the right location. | |
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Ration balancer for Holstein steers
