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Mixing Feed
Completion requirements
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Vertical Grinder Mixer
The following is a recommended method of adding supplements to a vertical grinder mixer:
- Add half a grain or other concentrate used.
- Add the supplement premixed with grain.
- Add the rest of the grain.
- Add the roughage.
- Mix for five minutes at the feeding site to eliminate separation occurring during travel to the feeding location.
Floor Mixing
Very expensive modern machinery is available to mill and mix feeds. Unless very large quantities of feed must be mixed, hand mixing is quite effective if certain principles are adhered to.
The equipment required must include a scale, shovels or spades and a floor large enough to do the mixing on. Although a well-packed earth floor can serve, a cement or concrete mixing floor is better.
Feed ingredients should be mixed at regular intervals preferably daily to avoid spoilage. In some instances where cattle are fed twice a day, it may be necessary to mix feed more than once per day.
Always remember that the best practice is only to mix enough feed for one feeding. If too much feed is mixed sorting out or separation can occur necessitating the need to remix feed thereby causing a breakdown on particle size.
Feed that is left over is also more likely to spoil and spoiled feed can cause sickness and loss of appetite in cattle thereby severely affecting the profitability of the feedlot enterprise.
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