How to feed cattle to save the most grass? Practical ways to lower feed costs

1. Feed long grass cut short: chopping forage short before feeding it to cattle saves about 20% compared with feeding it whole. Generally, chop the stalks into 3-5 cm pieces before feeding.

2. Feed coarse grass finely: if straw can be treated by salting, alkalization, or ammoniation, or crushed and mixed with concentrate before feeding, it can improve the utilization rate of the forage and increase palatability, thereby saving forage.

3. Feed less and add more often: if forage is given to cattle all at once, the cattle easily develop the bad habit of picking out only the palatable forage, which wastes forage. Feeding less at a time and adding more often can save forage.

4. Feed in a trough: change the bad habit of throwing forage directly into the cattle pen. Putting the forage in a trough to feed means the forage will not be contaminated by cattle dung, and it can also save a large amount of forage.

5. Coarse first, fine later: feed coarse feed first, and the cattle will be too hungry to be picky and will eat more coarse feed. After that, feed concentrate or high-quality pasture according to their nutritional needs. This can give full play to the role of coarse feed and save forage.

6. Modify the feeding trough: if the trough is too shallow, the cattle will push the forage outside while eating and cause waste. Make the trough deeper. This can avoid waste. Generally, a cattle trough depth of about 40 cm is best.

7. Process leftover grass: in the past, the coarse, hard stalks left uneaten by cattle were often burned as fuel. If they are dried and collected, crushed into grass meal with a crusher, and then used to feed cattle, the stalks can be effectively utilized.

8. Save on bedding straw: keep the pen clean and hygienic, and use discarded weeds as cattle bedding as much as possible to reduce forage waste.

9. Watch the cattle eat: many cattle raisers just put the forage into the trough and walk away. This way, the cattle push the forage outside the trough while eating, and once the fallen grass is stepped on by the cattle, it can no longer be fed. Therefore, the keeper should stay and watch until the cattle finish the forage before leaving. If forage is found on the ground, pick it up promptly and feed it to the cattle. This can save quite a lot of forage.