At this time of year farmers all round start to transition their animals onto the crops our agronomists have checked and tended to since spring!
It is important to get this right for the benefit of your animals’ health and wellbeing as well as your business’ bottom line. The best way to do this is to allocate crop on a dry matter basis, so begin by having your crops yield tested. From there you can work out how much feed is available per row of beet. Therefore, how many metres/rows of beet to allocate.
R2 and Mixed Aged Cattle
Begin by feeding 1 kg DM/day fodder beet at the beginning of transition with 8 kg DM palatable supplement or pasture. Make sure all animals are eating and they are cleaning up their allocation. You may have more than one ‘Day 1’.
Increase crop allowance by 1 kg DM every second day and reduce supplement allocation accordingly. By the end of transition, cattle will have access to 8-12 kg DM of fodder beet and 2-4 kg DM supplement.
R1 Calves
Begin feeding calves on 0.5 kg DM fodder beet and 4.5 kg DM quality supplement or pasture.
Increase allocation of fodder beet by 0.5 kg DM every second or third day, adjust supplement accordingly. By day 21 calves can be fed ad lib fodder beet (4-5 kg DM) with quality supplement at 1 kg DM.
This is an excerpt from our ‘Best Practice Winter Grazing Guide’, click here to download the full guide