Good quality hay is like bread. Dairy cows love it for its balance of fibre, energy and protein. This winter, you cannot buy good quality hay for less than a king’s ransom, if you can buy it at all. So, with none to be had, we’ve been forced to get creative, introducing three different delicacies for the cows.
Almond hulls
At first, I wondered if the cows would ever eat this stuff. The smell is nice but almond hulls look like a mix of sawdust and fine wood chips.
Delicacy of the day: almond hulls
Each cow gets an average of 5kg of the hulls each day but, judging by the way they wolf it down, I reckon they want more!
The 3 o’clock swill
Trying to push the cows past a heap of almond hulls is like trying to push back the tide. Run one side of the ring and they’re already attacking the side you just left. Not because they’re starving, either. The cows are getting lashings and lashings of energy and nutrient-rich food – they just love the stuff!
Mmmmm, delicious
Straw for scratch fibre
Although the almond hulls are fibrous, the cows need long fibre to wake-up their complex digestive systems, so they’re getting a couple of bales of straw as well (though they like to use it as a luxurious mattress, it seems).
Goo for the good bugs
Also new to our cows is a special brew delivered in fancy red tubs. A mixture of molasses, non-animal protein and minerals, the goo is not really for the cows. It’s for the bugs that digest their food in one of those four stomach chambers called the rumen. The idea is that the “goo for good bugs” turns them into super-bugs that can release the maximum value from everything the cow eats.
It’s a sweet-and-sour mix designed to stop the cows gorging themselves on the goo but they still seem to enjoy a generous swig on the way in and out of the dairy!
Grain for breakfast and dinner
The cows continue to enjoy two sittings of corn, barley, wheat and minerals each day during milking.
Most important of all – juicy, juicy grass
Despite all the other stuff on the menu this winter, nothing is more important to our cows than grass.
Are they missing their hay? I think not.
The Milk Maid Marian 
In the third picture down I had to look twice, it looked like a blue and white cow was in the picture, it was funny at a glance, I had to laugh at myself.
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I wonder what that was, E! At first I thought perhaps it was Zoe in her blue jacket but she was at school.
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Always interesting to see the additives you can put into the ration for dairy cows. I was working with a group that used to get bakery material in. Bread and cakes were regular. I have heard that some other companies have access to other additives such as Tim Tams for the rations. Spoilt cows!
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Hi Marian,
If you are going to get a huge downpour of rain, cover the Goo tubs with some plywood to keep the rain out. One of my clients was using the springer version and found that the cows don’t get the right dose (or didn’t eat it) if it gets too diluted. Happy ration balancing 🙂
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Thanks for the tip, Julie. We have indeed had to siphon water off the top of some of them, which surprised me, as I thought the cows would appreciate some water coming straight out of the dairy.
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