Do you know how to feed silage to cattle and sheep? What problems need to be paid attention to!

Silage is a good feed source for livestock with sour smell, soft and juicy, good palatability, rich nutrition and conducive to long-term preservation. The commonly used silage raw materials are corn, ryegrass, awnless brome; legumes are alfalfa, clover, alfalfa; other roots, stems and leaves are sweet potato, pumpkin, amaranth, aquatic plants and so on. So do you know how to feed silage to cattle and sheep? What problems need to be paid attention to!

How to feed the silage to the sheep?

1. The material collection starts from one end of the storage tank, and the daily material intake is limited to the end of the day.

2. The seal must be sealed immediately after each take-up, so as to avoid deterioration caused by Rain Water's intrusion.

3. Clean the trough before each feeding, and the frozen material in winter should be reused, and the deteriorated and moldy material can not be used.

4. The salt added when storing straw should be excluded from the daily salt consumption.

5. Timely check whether the drainage ditch is unblocked and whether there are cracks, damage, air leakage and so on in the uncollected storage tank.

6. In the early stage of pregnancy, ewes have strong digestibility of roughage, so high-quality straw can be used instead of hay, and supplementary feeding of high-quality hay or silage should be considered. The diet may consist of 50% green grass or hay, 40% silage or microsilage, and 10% concentrate. Concentrate formula: corn 84%, soybean meal 15%, multi-dimensional additive 1%, mix well, feed once a day, 150 grams per time. Silage needs to be fed with certain hay and concentrate feed because of its high moisture content and relatively low levels of dry matter, energy and protein. In particular, it is worth noting that the silage has high acidity and light diarrhea, so it is not suitable to be fed as a single feed, especially for ewes in the later stage of pregnancy, so as not to cause miscarriage as far as possible.

7. The proportion of silage feed for sheep is as follows: rams account for 1.5% of body weight, ewes account for 2.5% of body weight, and fattening sheep account for 45% of body weight. Silage contains a lot of organic acids, which has the effect of diarrhea. Excessive feeding can lead to diarrhea in sheep. If diarrhea is found in the feeding process, it should be reduced or stopped immediately. Sheep suffering from gastroenteritis should also be fed less or not to prevent diarrhea and acidosis (those with a slow course of acidosis, the sheep who suffer from the disease at the beginning of the disease will be excited and drop their heads; after depression, loss of appetite, loss of eyes, severe dehydration symptoms, accompanied by diarrhea).

8. Long-term feeding silage alone can lead to the decrease of rumen pH value (pH), which is not conducive to the activity of rumen microorganisms, resulting in protein deficiency and vitamin deficiency. Therefore, in the sheep farm which is mainly fed with silage, the proportion of green hay in the diet should not be less than 1 to 3 in order to maintain the dynamic balance of rumen microorganisms. If silage is given priority to and hay is fed at the same time, hay coarse material can increase the PH value, just add 0.5-0.7%! Such as concentrate > 60%, resulting in a decrease in PH value, strong acidity to add 1.0-2.0% baking soda, baking soda is alkaline, can neutralize acidity. If the whole silage is fed in addition to adding baking soda to neutralize acidity, another method is that it is best to first treat with 1% Mui 2% lime water, rinse and feed, in order to reduce acidity, improve palatability and promote digestion and absorption without adding baking soda.

9. Sheep farmers with conditions had better stir concentrate, silage and hay to make a "fully mixed diet" to feed cattle and sheep, the effect will be better.

How to feed the silage to the cattle?

First, when feeding silage, we should always pay attention to the cleaning of the feed trough, and the remaining silage should be removed from the trough immediately to prevent the silage from being stored for too long.

Second, the winter weather is cold and the silage has a large water content, so livestock can not be fed in large quantities alone. They should be mixed with a certain amount of hay or chopped dried corn stalks, and when feeding silage, they should be taken along with it to prevent silage from frosting or freezing. It is best to feed silage on an empty stomach, then hay and concentrate, so as to shorten the feeding time of silage.

Third, feeding cows with silage should be carried out after milking, and do not store silage in the milking, so as not to damage the smell of milk.

Fourth, because the silage contains a lot of organic acids, it has the effect of light diarrhea, so the female should not be fed more in the later stage of pregnancy, and stop feeding for 15 days before delivery. Inferior silage is harmful to animal health, easy to cause abortion, can not be fed.

Fifth, if diarrhea is found in the livestock during the feeding process, it should be reduced or stopped, and continue to be fed until it returns to normal.