Anyone fed barley straw before?

[Mueller Show Cattle]

I have been looking around for hay and it is about a $225 a ton average around here and I seeing it going up come winter with the lack of hay being produced cause of our heat. Then I came across an add for barley hay for sale but after talking with the guy I found out that it has been combined, so it is straw not hay, correct? I'm sure he used a combine to collect the barley for grain or what other reason. I have read that barley straw is only running about 4.5% crude protein level. The other issue is it says it can impact the animals in the winter as they load up on it to stay warm and if severe can die from it, well I don't need that. Wanting to see if anyone has fed barley straw before as a feed and what your results were? When feeding it, protein and vitamin supplements and what to do to keep them from getting impacted? I am asking because it is a third of the average hay cost around here and trying to find affordable feed sources for my herd this winter.

 

[HAB]

Brad,

We have fed Barley straw.  Sometimes with hay, sometimes by itself.  You will need an extra energy / protein supplement.  Wheat mids or something like that.  Lick tubs or liquid will work too, but they may consume alot of both.

Never had a problem with bloat, but had heard the same concerns.
Harley

 

[GoWyo]

My vet claims you can winter cows on wheat straw and cake.  What is the nutritional difference between barley straw and standing dormant native grass?  Once dormant and yellow colored it probably isn't a whole lot better.  Will be interesting to hear from some nutritionists as this will be a good year to try using bedding materials for feed.

 

[hamburgman]

You can add anydrous to the bales and make high quality forage, there are other options as well. 

 

[Mueller Show Cattle]

Thanks for your input Harley and GoWyo. From the reading I have done they say barley straw is higher in crude protein than wheat straw is. I was thinking along the line of cake and some alfalfa along with it, but don't know for sure.

You can add anydrous to the bales and make high quality forage, there are other options as well. 

Hamburgman, you have my attention! Could you please explain any options that you know about of what I could do with this barley straw? I am guessing that you are talking about anhydrous ammonia? Is this stuff you can buy and how would you add it to the bales, just pour it on them and then wrap it up like silage bales? I know farmers have it is Missouri and seen it in  big tanks but you don't see it around here. If you could let me know it would be appreciated, if you feel more comfortable you can PM me, I am really interested in learning how to turn this into good forage.

 

[cpubarn]

I had not heard of that before, so I googled it.  A number of research papers came up, it appears to be something that researchers have tried.  Interesting.


HOWEVER, as an Iowa farmer who applies anhydrous every year, I feel the need to warn you NH3 is DANGEROUS, NASTY,STUFF.  The directions I read from the university experiments were scarey to me.  Sheets of plastic  60# ton, there is NO way an inexperienced person should try this.  Hay would be cheap compared to the damage to YOU NH3 can cause with just a minor error.

Unless there is a safe way, forget it.

I apologize for sounding like your mother....

Mark

 

[Clark Club Calves]

I use to work for a screening pelleting plant and they would promote feeding straw and pellets to cows during their first and second trimester. Save your hay for third trimester and after calving when they need some hay.  They have a cow pellet that is to be fed at 5 to 6 lbs per day with monesin and vitamin/mineral pack.  The biggest thing with feeding straw is to have the energy there to digest it.  I think they make big pellets in the summer for producers that want to feed range cubes.  Here is their web site http://westcentralpelleting.com/.  Here is a competitor of theirs from Weyburn Sask they are closer to the states http://www.wit.ca/index.php/Services-Solutions/pro-pellets.html.
Attached is some info from our Ministry of Agriculture

 

[hamburgman]

You can inject it into the bales then put in in the plastic tubes like you would silage, but as mentioned earlier it has its dangers but people do it a lot or used to a lot.  You could also pour liquid nitrogen on them and that would result in the same thing.  Remember the economics of course if the nitrogen is to expensive you might be better off buying hay, but if you cant find hay then the economics are a little different.

 

[Mueller Show Cattle]

My uncle has a good size farm in Missouri and uses Anhydrous Ammonia. But reading up on it myself with the reports it says it can double or even triple the protein value and digestibility of straw. Liquid Nitrogen is way too expensive for me to use that. But I did find the one big fertilizer supply store does carry Anhydrous Ammonia and rents out that transportable tanks for the ranchers to use. Definitely know the dangers by looking the stuff up and use to be a haz-mat hauler when I was a truck driver. But if it is cheap enough, I could see it definitely could be worth using it. I will read into it more and look to use it if our hay production does not improve next year. I think I will use the barley straw this year as a filer and add it to the hay along with cake to supplement the protein. Thanks for the information guys.

 

[vcsf]

I have fed a fair bit of barley straw to cows over the years mainly as a filler.  There can be quite a bit of difference in it depending on the year and the combine used at times I have had cows actually prefer the barley straw to medium quality hay which is not necessarily a good thing.  You definitely need to provide a source of energy and protein along with the barley straw.  Additionally you need to ensure there is an adequate supply of water readily available.  One year when my cows were consuming a fair bit of straw, a lot of which was supposed to just be out for bedding, i was chopping ice for water just under half a mile from where the cows were being fed and bedded.  We had done this for many years without any issues this particular winter there were a couple of cows that seldom went to drink water and instead were just eating snow which is all a lot cows in this area have for water many years.  That year I did run into issues with impaction in the couple of cows that were not going to drink and in fact lost one before I realized what was happening.  Of coarse the cow I lost was the most expensive one on the place.

 

[justintime]

Back in the 80s we referred to barley straw as Golden Alfalfa. We cut our hay twice in 11 years and one of those times, it really made no economic sense to cut and bale it as there wasn't much there. I decided that I would try to get a few bales to feed at calving time if possible. During this drought we fed a lot of different feeds, including barley straw. I remember one winter we fed barley straw and a few pounds of rolled barley in troughs and the cows did amazingly well.

I also remember one year when I baled over 2500 bales of straw from my home to over 100 miles north of here. I also heard that a grain cleaning business about 50 miles from here, was dumping cull sunflower seeds in a slough as they had no use for them. I went down and talked with the owner, and he said he would welcome us taking as many as we wanted. My dad hauled sunflower seeds for many days that fall. I sent a sample of them to a feed test lab and they came back at 42% protein.
We tub ground barley straw and augered sunflower seeds into it and then wet it with stillage from a local distillery. It fermented and smelt like the best alfalfa silage. It tested higher protein aqnd TDN than our grass/ alfalfa had tested. We filled two 2590 Harvestores and two pit silos with this feed and it got us through very tough year. In the pit silos we just dumped the straw in and leveled it out , then we would dump a truck load of sunflower seeds on it and level that out. We then wet it with stillage as well as water. I could not believe how well it heated and fermented, and it was great feed.

I would not hesitate to gather up barley straw if you are short of feed. I would not feed it alone but it certainly will help stretch out you feed supplies. .. and it certainly beats feeding snow balls!

 

[CAB]

Just curious to know whether or not the beards or whiskers from the barley heads seem to bother the cattle or cause any coughing?