Finishing cattle feeding guide

As is a common occurrence each winter, in the last few weeksthere have been a lot of finishing cattle in sheds with either very loose dungs and/or with a lot of grain passing through in the dung.

The reason for these issue is hardly ever because the grain is not rolled; it is more likely to be because the diet is not balanced correctly. Another reason for this is that all animals cannot eat at the one time if meal is being put on top of silage. In TMR (total mixed ration) diets if the mix is very dry individual animals will attempt to sort out the meal from the forages.

This will lead to animals having variable dung consistency when it is assumed that they are on the same diet. Some cattle will have runnier dungs than others- these are usually the ones eating too much concentrates and less forage. Cattle with firmer dungs are mostly the ones forced to eat a much higher proportion of forage.