122
— Lancaster Farming, Saturday , May 19,1979
Grinding roughage cuts waste,
NEW HOLLAND - The
reasons for grinding
roughages aren’t .the same
for all operators because
individual operations vary
widely. But the objective is
always the same it’s
maximum earnings, ac
cording to Dennis Raaen of
Sperry New Holland. To see
how grinding fits in, he says
you have to look at feeding
from the animals’ viewpoint
In addition, management
problems can be solved by
grinding roughage.
“When forages are tender
and lush you don’t have to
grind to improve nutrition.
Cows get the job done on
their own,” the product
manager says. -
“Things change as forages
mature. That’s one reason
we fine-chop for silage. At
the time the crop yields the
maximum milk per acre, it’s
too mature and tough to be
fed unprocessed.
You’d have a lot of waste
in material the cow doesn’t
eat and in the waste of poor
and slow digestion.
Production and earnings
suffer,” he says.
This waste at both ends
of the cow—is an important
reason for grinding dry,
higb-fiber roughages.
Ordinarily, except for
mechanical feeding, there’s
no reason to grind real good
quality hay. Alfalfa hay cut
in the pre-bud stage is,
almost too digestible without
chopping or grinding. Cows
dean it up with very little
waste. But over-mature bay
and low quality crop refuse
will benefit from grinding.
Cows, unlike horses, don’t
have “uppers.” They need
lots more time to process
stringy roughage.
Grinding roughage is
almost like changing water
into wine. Poor quality
roughages, even straw, gain
in effective digestibility
when you grind providing
you grind fine enough. In the
case of straw that’s getting it
through a %-inch ham
mermill screen according to
Melfort, f Saskatchewan
research.
Ground that fine; the straw
can be used for a larger part
of a beef animal’s ration.
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Unground, it wouldn’t keep
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But, there are limits. You
only use the poor quality
roughage for part of the
ration, even when you grind
it fine enough. The finely
ground material gains in
“effective” feed value but it
needs balancing out for
protein, vitamins, minerals,
and energy. You can use it to
substitute for some better
' material. The substitution is
a way to stretch out a limited
amount of good bay through
the Winter feeding season.
Grinding better quality
hay hot-rods it through the
cow’s insides. As a result,
ground hay can substitute
for some of the grain.
“Less equals more”-when
you grind hay real fine.
Good-quality ground hay
actually loses a little in
digestibility percentage
because it moves through
the animal faster.. Ap
parently, it’s through the
digestive system and-gone
before digestion is com
pletely finished. But that
faster trip through is also the
reason the cow can process a
larger total volume of
ground material. That in
creased intake, even at a
slightly lower percentage of
digestibility, gives the cow
the benefit of more total
digested nutrients. Result:
Beef gains from hay that are
more like you’d expect from
grain.
WHATS NEW
GAUGE WHEELS
Seedbed preparation and
pulverizing action on
terraced land are possible
using the new wing-mounted
gauge wheels available on
Bush Hog 1445 tandem
harrows.
The new gauge wheels
allow disc wings to ride
smoothly over terraced land.
Wings flex 9 degrees up or
down to match ground
contours and work the soil
uniformly, claims the
manufacturer.
Bush Hog’s Model 1445 is
available in working widths
from 17’8” to 23’5”. It
features 4” x 6” high carbon
steel gang bars.
With beef cattle, we hear
gams over three pounds a
day have been chalked up
with 80 per cent ground bay
and 20% grain,” says Raaen.
Grinding the whole ration
too fine for the whole year
may land you in trouble with
dairy cows. It’s okay for a
while. But, on the long haul
you can expect health and
reproductive problems if the
feed doesn’t-contain enough
iong hay. It’s something
that’s related to digestion in
the rumen. Also, there’s
often a problem of very low
butterfattest.
Dairy cows have to Uve a
long time to be profitable.
But beef animals should get
to market as soon after 18
months as feasible, so the
difference between dairy
cows and slaughter cattle is
a matter of about 18 months
versus 10 years. This means
the beef animal is off to
market before the penalty of
too-fine grinding catches up
with you.
Convenience is a major
reason -many livestock
producers grind forage. If
hay goes through a tub
grinder it’s easy to add
silage and grain for an all-in*
one ration you can handle
with a mixer-feeder wagon.
That’s fine for a feedlot or
large dairy.
There’s an additional
advantage of waste control.
Cattle eat the hay, steins and
all, if it’s ground and mixed
with the silage and grain.
Hay crops grass or
legumes or even straw
should be ground fine enough
to have the particles as short -
as you’d be expecting from a
. x Vi-inch length of cut to avoid
hydraidically-controlled di- unloading problems.
depth and wind con- - Coarser grindingjs OK for
“Sr . , trench or bunker silos
„ Providing enough moisture
contact Bush Hog, Dept. NR, is added and the compaction
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acorn
EQUIPMENT
CONSULTING
Grinding for this purpose
is more likely to be done with
a large-hole screen; four
inches and sometimes
larger.
Coarse grinding probably
doesn’t do the digestibility
trick you’d get with a half
inch screen but you get far
more capacity for the same
horsepower. The coarse
grind gives you the waste
control advantage plus the
convenience of mechanized
handling. Together, these
advantages justify grinding
in many operations.
Another grinding task is a
near perfect fit for custom
operators: Reconstituted
haylage.
One of the real advantages
of the sealed type silo is the
possibility of continuous use:
Refilling", at the top and
unloading" at the bottom. To
make the most of their silo
investment, owners like to
fill them in the off-season. A
tub grinder works the trick
by reducing big round bales
and loose hay stacks into
particles small enough to get
them out of the silo, with a
bottom unloader.
It’s workable. Com or
sorghum stalks for recon
stitution into silage should be
ground fine enough to have
the length of the particles
about equal the results of a
forage harvester cutterhead
at a nominal %-mch length
ofcut.
WHY
WITH AN EARTHEN BANK
HYDRAULIC RAM SYSTEM!
MATERIAL HANDLING EQUIPMENT
fVoduds of.
Grinding fine enough to
get the feed through a bot
tom unloader in a sealed silo
soaks up power. Unless The
material is very dry, it’s
advisable to try to do it in the
Winter when the hay and
stalks are in nature’s deep
freeze.
Hay or stalks that will go
through a fairly fine screen
at a good clip in February
might only go a fourth as last
after they thaw out if there’s
much moisture.
Very fine grinding is often
easier- in a grinder-mixer
than in a tub grinder. The
fan on the grinder-mixer
hammermill makes the
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PHONE
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TRUE ALTERNATORS
MODERNIZING
difference, according to the
Sperry New Holland
manager. He points out the
fan tends to pull the ground
material through the screen.
In a tub grinder you
depend on'centrifugal force
and gravity to pass the
ground hay through the
screen.
For coarse grinding, that’s
all you really need. And,
very fine processing is easy
with the grinder-mirer.
Either way, forage grinding
lets you pocket the profits of
“grain-on-grass” beef
production all year-round.
You stretch forage supply
and beat waste, to boot.