Investing money in machinery that could be be better invested elsewhere is all to common.

Silage Wagons are just one pience of equipment that is excess and unnecessary in nearly every case

If you have a "Waste-Not" FAIR GO Dairy Feed Pad ... the usual answer is yes!.

Some farmers estimate that it costs them about as much to feed out silage as it did to ensile it. Often much of this cost is involved in the capital cost, labour, fuel, repairs and maintenance of the feedout cart. (Not to mention "a new clutch for the frontend loader every second year!").

---

---

While the "Waste-Not" FAIR GO  system can be used with a feedout cart,  it is often easier to fill the Feeder directly with whole rolls or big squares or FEL's full

Look at the benefits:

• Bulk feeds, such as big square rolls, frontend loader fulls or even tipper loads of silage, or brewers grains can be put directly into the Feeder.
• Usually 2 or 3 days supply is put out at once - a major time saver. However this depends on the feed somewhat.
• There is less "fluffing up" or aeration of silage so it stays ensiled as it is eaten from the top down and from the outside in.
• Much better allocation of feed between animals with the "Waste-Not" FAIR GO system.
• The bossy cows are separated from the shy cows by the arches.
• If there is time (eg overnight) for the animals to come  and go the bossy cows eventually wander off and the shy cows come to the Feeder for clean fresh hay and use the same space. The quality and quantity of hay that the shy cow receives is not reduced.

This show up particularly in:-

• Better production from the "tail" of the herd. (In fact the tail   usually disappears!)
• Increased condition and conception rates.
• Improved retention rates. You have spent $1000 getting a heifer   to the end of her first lactation and she is too valuable to sell   as a $250 cull (or worse - the knackery!).

To make the point a different way. I suggest that you do the "First-Cow-To-Leave-The-Line" test .

• Feed out a line of hay or silage however you like as evenly as possible. Note how long it takes until the first cow leaves the line, and which cow it is. Usually it only takes about 10 minutes until a heifer wanders off!
• Did she leave because she is full?     No!
• Did she leave because there is no feed left?     No!     There is still plenty on the ground.
• She left because there is no longer a feeding space for her. There is a cow or two at each remaining piece of the line and they won't let her in. "This is ours, so make your own arrangements!" It happened to the same cow yesterday and every day before that and it will happen tomorrow too.
• Result is probably that she will be culled this year for low production or as an empty!

The "Waste-Not" system solves her (and your) problem by allowing her as much as she can eat in the allotted time, without competition. Better still, if she comes in the last 2 batches onto the Feed Pad or  the last 2/5 of the herd, she gets preferential treatment.

"There will always be a cow at the bottom of the pecking order" you say. True.

But imagine how you would feel if she still produced 25 litres each day and stayed in the herd until her teeth got too long!

It is usually less expensive to install the "Waste-Not" feeding pad system, than to cull even 2% of your cows merely because they are shy feeders.

---