Are we feeding our miniatures right?

[started*with*chickens]

I don't have weights on our 4 minis but if I had to guess I would say the 9 month old heifer is 250lbs and the other 3 (5 year old cow, 12-18 months bull and heifer) are about 400lbs. The people we bought them from had no grass for grazing and we were told they fed them hay that was cracked wheat (I believe is what she said) so they didn't have to give them grains. Oh, and they had grass clippings available the first time we went over but we didn't see anything the second time. I also do not believe the hay was available at all times. They seem healthy enough but I don't think it was ideal. We got an amazing deal on the 4 so we couldn't pass it up.

We only have a half acre (I know, it's not ideal!) and don't mind the cost of feeding them whatever they need. We do not plan to keep them all (did I mention there are also 2 goats?) forever but we want to get everyone happy and healthy before we sell any. The game plan is to keep the younger two heifers, breed them and sell the calves, repeat. We are hoping to break even in the end.

We've only had all of them since Tuesday night (we brought the younger heifer home a couple of weeks ago before deciding to get the other 3) and they went crazy over our grass. We've been feeding NutreBeef, textured twice a day. It probably comes out to a quart each a feeding. I don't have a clue how much they would break down to in weight. They have hay available at all times, a nice green costal hay. Well, I say nice, it was $11.50 for a small bale of the 'greener stuff', is that better? We also mix in a small amount of alfalpha pellets and timothy pellets when we give them the NutreBeef.

Are we feeding them right? I know it's a lot better than what they had and they spent ALL night the first night grazing, then eating pretty much ALL day yesterday. We were going to take the hay away for fear they might over eat but they finally calmed down late afternoon. I noticed this morning after feeding them they were laying around and relaxing and not acting like they weren't sure if they were going to get another meal. We will also be worming them today since they haven't had anything done from the previous owners since being purchased from the breeders in August. The older female has really loose stool today but I'm thinking it's from such a drastic change in their feeding (maybe to much grass?) and will firm back up in a couple of days. There was A TON of pooper scooping this morning, it's going to be a full time job keeping up with the poo!

Any suggestions are welcomed!

ETA: Here's a picture of them. The 3 older ones seem to have very large bellies which has us concerned with worms or poor feeding (from what I've read on here) because their coats aren't as nice as the younger heifer and they just don't seem as healthy as they should if they had fat bellies from good feed. The younger heifer was still nursing when we got her at a little over 8 months old.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

Are you feeding them loose mineral as well? You can go all out on good hay and supplements, but you still won't have as healthy animals as you want if you don't provide loose mineral and salt.

I think you were told that they were fed hay with cracked wheat, not hay that was cracked wheat (not possible to get that unless it was deliberately mixed as a ration), so they might have been BSing you. It's also possible they were fed "wheat hay" which is very poor quality hay that is equal to straw. But I'm just thinking out loud and analyzing the possibilities of what they could have been saying.

Otherwise, I think you're doing alright. Just questions need to be answered on the salt/mineral supp.

 

[started*with*chickens]

We do have a mineral block (I don't recall seeing one where they were at before) but I'm not sure the brand/minerals/percentages that it has. I foolishly thought all mineral blocks were created equal until reading forums. Would it be ok to add minerals to their feed and let them still have access to the mineral block? My guess would be they will only use the mineral block if they need it? The older 3 were all about the mineral block their first day (and hay) but have backed off some now. The younger heifer licked the block just a couple of times when we first got her but hasn't been back, that I know of, since. She probably said hay with cracked wheat (she was feeding the same thing to her horses and they looked healthy). What hay is the best choice? I can tell you one thing, they may eat less, take up less space, be easier to handle but poop as much (and big!) and a standard size cow!

 

[WildRoseBeef]

That mineral block most likely would be 95% or 98% salt and the rest mineral. You probably could keep feeding them that along with some loose mineral, since it is mostly salt, and that's what mostly they'll go to it for.

In my opinion, the best hay is hay that not only looks green but is tested to be nutritive as well. This being grass-legume hay or hay that is at least 70% legume and has a good protein content (around 7 to 8%, let's say...). Legume could be anything that's legume, like clover, alfalfa, sanfoin, laspadenza, milkvetch, etc. Good grass also makes the hay mixture worthwhile, but what grass hay you have available depends on your area. For me, where I am, grass that's good hay is timothy, orchard grass mixed with a little brome and fescue.

 

[started*with*chickens]

Thank you for all of your help! We will go to the feed store and see what they have available for loose minerals and double check what type of hay we are using. The bull seems a little 'off' to us but there's nothing we can really pinpoint that is wrong with him. He stays away from the 3 girls (could that just be normal?) and doesn't seem as spunky as the others. It could be he's just more layed back and/or that the older cow is more dominant? I'm hoping once we have them on a good diet that he might perk up some.

 

[started*with*chickens]

They were feeding beardless wheat. Is that what we should be using?

 

[jhm47]

If wheat plants are cut and baled early enough (in the flag leaf or just before heading), it is OK as feed. If it is allowed to mature, it is little more than straw. Straw is very low in protein and energy, and is not suitable for feeding to cattle. It is commonly used as bedding. Is your "beardless wheat" green? If so, it's possibly fairly good feed. I would have it tested to see what the protein and energy content is.

 

[started*with*chickens]

We are using a very green hay that we bought from a local feed store. I don't know anything about it other than we paid a few extra dollars to get the 'greener' hay. I will ask the feed store when we go in to get minerals if they know anything about it. I'm not even sure if it's local or if it's been trucked in. The previous owners were using the beardless wheat so I'm not sure if it was green or not. They had a lot of animals to feed (from pigs to horses) so she said they didn't grain feed because of the different types of animals. We are feeding the goats and cows the same feed, so I hope we aren't doing something wrong. I'd rather spend the extra money on feed/hay/grass and have healthy animals than pay for it later with vet bills.

 

[boxofpens]

We received the following from one of our vets at Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine Large Animal Hospital:
"General guidelines are below.
A pelleted or textured feed with 12-15% crude protein is recommended. No more than 2-4 lbs of grain should be fed to each cow daily (1-2lbs per feeding). Free access to hay (coastal and alfalfa hay is recommended) and grass is essential for adequate forage intake. Each animal should be fed at least 1.5% of their body weight in forage per day. For example, a heifer weighing 250 pounds should receive at least 3 pounds of forage (mix of coastal and alfalfa hay) each day. A loose mineral should be provided at all times. During lactation this should be a lactation specific mineral.
As the cows are still growing at this time, it is important to provide a slight excess of forage in order to allow for increases needed with growth. If the animals leave approximately 1% of the feed provided as waste at each feeding this means that they are being fed an ample quantity to fill them up. As the animals are bred, have their calves and begin producing milk it will be of utmost importance to provide ample feed to make up for the extra caloric requirements."

We have 3 miniature Jerseys. We feed them a 12% pelleted feed 2x per day, each feeding is followed by a flat of alfalfa (about as much as would loosely fit in a 5 gal bucket) between the 3 of them. They have access to hay 24/7 (we use coastal, timothy, or fescue -we're in Texas) and pasture 24/7 (a winter [now dying out] mix of oats, wheat, and rye grass). The more quality hay (forage) they eat, the better (as long as they get a sufficient amount of protein). They normally will not over eat on hay (unless it's poor quality and they're not being fed properly). They can and will over eat grains and higher protein hay like alfalfa. We do NOT give them high protein hay as free feed. We do give them high quality (ie, horse quality) hay as free feed. Apparently many people feed cows the lower quality hay (with small twigs and things) because they can tolerate it and it is cheaper. We don't do this. Our high quality hay runs about $7/bale. Our alfalfa runs about $14/ compressed bale, but they only get a little alfalfa after each feeding. Too much of this will cause severe bloating. Bloating is caused by bubbles that form. These bubbles can make it difficult for a cow to cough/burp up it's cud. This could get really ugly really fast.

Underfeeding can also be very bad. When we got our calves the woman we bought them from cupped her hands together and said "this much" when we asked how much we should feed them :/ ) Well, we ended up at the large animal hospital with our oldest (1yr old at the time) about 1 week later. She had to have what's called 'transfaunation'. It's basically a rumen transfusion. She was being underfed (apparently "this much" wasn't enough ) and her rumen became so acidic that all the good 'bugs' in it were dead.

We have a salt block and a mineral block for them, and also give them unchelated kelp powder to lick about 1-2x per week (I just dump about a cup in a pile on top of each mineral block). Our cows also went cuckoo for the pasture when we first brought them home (they had never been on pasture before). Our vets (we have about 4 of them... I could write a book- that's a whole other story) said that most non-cultivated grasses have little nutritional value, so it won't hurt them to eat all they want. They really need to eat hay though. You can spray apple cider vinegar on it if they don't seem interested in it. I know this is long and kind of all over the place, but we got a lot of bad and vague information when we first started, and I wanted to be sure to include the most important things we learned.

 

[started*with*chickens]

boxofpens: Thank you! I feel like we are on the right track after reading your info from Texas A&M. We live in Odessa and the last 2 times we've bought hay it's been 10.50 and 11.50 a bale. I wish I would have checked this before we left for the feedstore and I would have bought a bale of alfalfa to mix with their hay. We do have alfalfa and timothy pellets we've been mixing in with their feed so I'm hoping that has been sufficient. The older heifer is really loosing her bloated belly and even though she still looks a little thin to me she's looking really good. The younger heifer has always been in pretty good shape. The cow is starting to looking healthier, her eye isn't gunky anymore and she seems spunkier but she still looks bloated to me. The bull still looks like he should delivery any day now. :/ I'm not sure if it was the worming or diet changed that has helped the other 2 but he still seems swollen to me. My husband said he looks better to him. I guess because the change in the older heifer was so drastic I was looking for him to change quickly too. I need to research what I can add to their water (and the chickens) to help keep green stuff from growing.