feeding barley

[5PCC]

To those who mix their own feed ration or have it done at the mill...do you barley in your steer's finishing ration? Why or why not? WHAT PERCENT OF THE RATION SHOULD BE BARLEY??

Does anyone feed a small percentage of barley in a heifer ration? I have seen a few breeding rations with barley. What percent of a breeding ration should be barley?..I imagine that it is small.

We have never included barley in a ration before. We aren't now either, just considering it. Thanks for the responses.

 

[cowboy_nyk]

Up here in Canada almost all finisher rations are barley based.  Corn is much less available locally.  Typically a finisher for steers will be 50% barley.  Feed-Rite's "Full Throttle" is a good example.

As for heifers, barley is hardly required, but it really depends how much feed you want to carry.  I pail feed 30+ replacements 5 pails (approx 50lbs each) of a 35% barley pellet.  Each animal gets approx 8lbs once per day.  If I were feeding 4 heifers, I would omit the barley and feed them more volume in oats.  I just don't want to carry 15 pails!

 

[ploughshare]

Top dressing malted barley works great to get a calf started or back on feed.  Other than that I have no idea.

 

[5PCC]

Thanks. I have seen 5% barley in a heifer ration. I just am not sure that I would use it. Just wanted to know what others thought. Does this sound reasonable for a steer ration...
45.5% cracked corn, 10% steam rolled barley, 15% steam rolled oats, along with other things...cottonseed hulls, molasses, etc???

 

[obie105]

Have you looked at AAOK ration on here? I know you have a lot of feed questions. We have fed something very close to it for quite awhile now and it works. You can tweak it to your liking and if you are feeding heifers or steers.

 

[ctroidl]

As stated previously nearly all of the show rations up here in canada are barley based. Barley is a little higher in protein and and fiber than corn subsequently it contains slightly less energy than corn. I am sure you could tweek aaok's ration to make it barley based. The upside of a feed program using a barley based ration is that in the summer it doesn't heat up the cattle near as much as the corn based rations used down south. keeping the hair is a little easier.