Vertical screw TMR

[ALLFARMER]

Was at a neighbors place the other day. He is
feeding silage bales in a bale feeder to calves and
a few skinny cows. The calves are in very good
shape and odviously gaining good weight. He has
sisal twine on them and just cuts accross the
wraps then leaves the twine on. He then puts
them in a regular rectangular bale feeder. He says
he can put them thru his bale shredder but it's
pretty hard going. When he puts them in the bale
feeder the exterior 1/2 inch is very smooth and
stiff but the do get if open.

I am wondering if this would be a good way for me
to switch over to feeding silage. Buy a TMR screw
feed wagon and I am all set up. This would avoid
buying a silage cutter and wagon, silage truck and
packing and wrapping a pit, then in winter trying to
dig it all out again. I already have a silage bale
capable baler and this neighbor custom wraps
bales very cheaply. Add one 20 to 30k used
machine and use my 700' of steel bunk fence for
silage feeding.

[tweaker101]

Holly batman AF that sure sounds like a lot of work to feed your animals?....there must be a easier way to feed them...don't get me wrong I like lots of iron in my yard also. We just swithched over to bale grazing and it seems to be working pretty good. The only thing that I could see being necessary would be tracks for my quad or UTV hopefull! as the snow is getting pretty deep... just my two cents.

[grassfarmer]

Vertical screw loose more like - trying to design the
highest cost, least profitable system to run cows.

[forage]

The scrap metal dealers must just love you AF . The question I have been asking my self is why would you drive thru town with your disc? Maybe you should have just driven to the coffee shop every day and parked it out side so all the old boys would know you bought it. I don't think the lady that asked you if you were discing in moisture for next year was just thinking the same thing as I was .

[ALLFARMER]

Silage would be for feeding calves not cows


John Deere is on main street hence the route of
choice.

[ALLFARMER]

The silage would be for the calves not the cows.

John Deere is on main street hence the route of
choice

[wd40]

Don't let any sales man fool you. Screw machines are only capable of ripping up bales, be it dry or silage. They take alot of power and are extremly slow.

If you want a true TMR ration, they will never do it. You can't train them to do it. If they accomplish it they would take atg least 1/2 hour of mixing.

Let me remind you a TMR is where EVERY pound of feed contains equal amounts of the supplement or grain included in EVERY pound of feed that comes out of the conveyor. They can't do it.

I've taken copious samples of numerous mixers to the lab to test. They never make the grade.

The other problem is that they won't chop each piece of long fiber up equally therefore you WILL get separation and sorting in the feed bunk.

If you don't believe take an icecream pail of blue loose salt after the screw mixer is full and drop it on top on the load and stand and watch how long it takes to disapear.

[ASRG]

ALLFARMER: It seems to me that you sure like to make a lot of work for yourself?
I guess though that is your choice. Get out your pencil and see if it pays to background your calves....how much will you make after ALL the costs?
Personally I have found, on average, you won't make much. A calf coming off mom will be the highest price per pound in his life. With todays feed costs (and all the other escalating costs) it might be better to leave this job up to the feedlots?

[grassfarmer]

Again I'm inclined to disagree with you ASRG (just for
a change lol) Backgrounding is something I always do
and always enjoy. I think the key is not to try and beat
the feedlots at what they are best at. Weaning and
putting on full feed in a farm feedlot situation likely
won't make you a lot because you don't have the
economies of scale on your side.
A calf may be at the highest price in his life coming
off his mother but it's also typically the time of lowest
market prices. Lightly backgrounding calves so they
attract a premium in the spring trade can boost your
margins quite a bit - the feedlot is paying you for the
weight you didn't spend money to put on. We can
background cheaply in a pasture situation feeding
hay/silage and a supplement. This adds back a
valuable component of pasture improvement with no
manure handling required. We typically just let them
bed in snow but if feeding older hay bales like we are
now we can pull the outside inch off and they happily
bed on that. Of course it works better with $30 bales
than $80 ones.

[ASRG]

grassfarmer: I'm not saying it can't work......but not with a $30K gas sucking machine....and 120 calves....or a clear idea of where you are going with that calf?
How does anyone justify a $30K-40K machine (and big fuel costs/wear and tear) for 120 calves?
What I was trying to tell ALLFARMER was make sure you know what you are doing? Know your costs?
The cheapest piece of equipment on the farm is a pencil and a piece of paper?

[grassfarmer]

I don't think pencils have found their way that far
north yet.

[ALLFARMER]

Grassfarmer your to cheap to buy a quad.
Anything that's cost money is automatically out for
you.

[grassfarmer]

Not "to" cheap to buy one - not even "too" cheap to
buy one - it's something I don't want or need. I prefer
to invest capital in things that generate revenue not
depreciate it. That way I've always got money on hand
to buy hay or cattle if prices are opportune rather
than just talk about it.

[forage]

GF I purchased the Rhino and it has saved us a lot of money on fuel and gas.This machine runs forever on a tank of gas were as starting up a diesel truck. It has vertually replaced the truck in every aspect, fencing ,checking cattle, you name it. You should really try one out.

[grassfarmer]

One problem I have with these type things is they are
all extras. My existing 3/4 ton truck can pull my
trailer, move fencing equipment, check cows, go to
town for a skid of salt blocks and go to Calgary to
pick up someone from the airport. I could save fuel
no doubt running around the farm doing some chores
with a Rhino or quad but would have the capital cost
of an additional vehicle. When you own additional
vehicles and use each less you don't reduce the major
costs of ownership or depreciation very much.