As a dairy farmer the more you increase numbers and stocking rates the more mud and waste become a bigger problems. The answer is often to look at a feed pad. Trouble is sometimes the thinking starts looking fuzzy.
Sort out the priorities:-
What do you want? Are you looking to -
- Cut down on waste?
- Solve the mud problem
- Feed the whole herd of milkers each day?
- Feed just the dry cows?
- Feed only the springers and calving cows?
- Store and/or feed the springers?
- A stand-off area to store (and/or feed) cows maybe after a few hours of pasture or on wet, cold nights?
Notice how feeding cows and storing cows are often bundled together in the same thought?
"I WANT IT ALL!"
Fair enough. You want a system to do all of these things. However it makes it much easier if you think of feeding cows and storing them as separate functions.
Of course some systems do lump the tasks together - a sawdust pad to store springers may also feed them; a loafing barn may also be where hay and silage are fed.
So lets look at what happens when we divide the functions into:-
- Feeding and
- Storage of cows.
Now we can have a multi-purpose feed pad of limited size and a storage area for each group of stock.
Taking each task separately:
The Milking Herd:- They come to the shed twice each day. Why not feed them there? They have nothing else to do until they go back to the paddock!
The Springers:- Store them on a suitable paddock or pad. Lock them there during milking, but allow them ad lib access to hay either all day or all night or both. The feeding pad can be some distance away (via the lane) from the storage area - the cows have nothing else to do!
The Drys:- The hardest to cater for especially if you are trying to ration hay to them.
The Stand-off Area:- If it is attractive enough for the cows to prefer to move from the Feeder after they have a belly full to the storage area this frees up feeding spaces for the shy cows to have their share at the "second" sitting". You don't want the cows storing themselves at the feeder,- it is best if they choose to move away to a (more comfortable) storage area.
Our solution is to feed ad lib, lower quality hay in a "Waste-Not" Stockfeeder or (if it is close enough) the feedpad.
The two areas can be some distance apart, but joined by laneways to provide access. Once the feeding operation is removed from the pasture we often find that the best place to store the milkers is in fact on the pasture. Even if it is quite wet the problem is solved if you no longer drive a heavy tractor and feedout machine over the pasture and the cows are "full" when the arrive back in the paddock.
A feeding space for each cow is like having a set of teat-cups for each cow!
It is just not necessary.
More than that, the way “Waste-Not" Feedpads are usually set up means that:-
- You can use whole rolls or big squares or Frontend loader fulls and fill the Feeder each 2-3 days with these bulk feeds.
No need for:
- one feeding space for each cow
- AND one meal behind each feeding space.
- AND thus needing the means (a feedout cart, etc) to put that one meal there
- AND needing to do it again tomorrow (or tonight if feeding twice daily.)
- AND needing a piece of concrete or gravel for every cow to stand on.
The "Waste-Not" system efficiently uses each of the feeding spaces and the concrete apron and your time and labour. If it can also reduce the need for a feedout cart, this is indeed a major saving.
These benefits are in addition to the proven savings in wastage and hay used and the confirmed benefits in production, which come from better allocation of feed between animals. The design of the "Waste-Not" system means that the shy heifers have as much access to feed as the bossy ones. Result - increases in production of at least 2 litres per cow per day just by removing the "tail" out of the herd.
You will also find improvements in pasture utilization and management.
For more information on using a “Waste-Not" Feedpad click here
