Cattle sorting ground feed

AdamOH

Member
We grind our feed for our steers it"s mostly shelled corn and protein pellet, lately we have been having problems with the pellets breaking up and getting dusty in the mixer. I was thinking about adding a few gallons of liquid molasses to each batch to bind some of the dust together so the cattle don"t sort the feed. Would this work without becoming a really sticky mess in the feed grinder tub? Thanks
 
Just a regular old mixer grinder? I wouldn't be pouring that in there. Oooo, that would be a mess.

I'm assuming that you are loading them in through the back hopper not in though the hammer mill. Sounds to me it is a product of the extremely dry winter air. There isn't enough moisture to keep the pellets together. The molasses may help but I think the mess you would cause may have you taking a mixer apart and finding someone small enough to crawl through the hopper door on top.

When are you adding it in? When I add powdered molasses in mine I put it in very last with the tractor idling. I then run it just until I get to the bins or feeders and unload. They say it needs 15 minutes of mixing but I have never done that and have always had an even mix.

Try adding it last at low speed, mix just until you get to the bins (maybe 3 minutes), and then unload idled down a bit. There's no hurry.
 
I have a couple of friends that have Kuhn tub grinders and I know they both add water while they are grinding.
 
It's a old artsway grinder mixer and we add the pellets last through the supplement hopper. They only mix for maybe 5 mins just long enough to load them and drive to the hopper tank to start unloading. I was afraid that the liquid would stick to the sides of the mixer tub and may not flow thorough the unloading augur. I can't add water because we grind enough for about a months time and feed from the hopper tank. Would a liquid protein supplement be any better than the molasses?
 
After what I've been going through for the last two and a half months,I wouldn't risk putting anything liquid in it. I had to start grinding new wet corn,then after I got done I had 10 loads of ear corn dumped on the ground. It's full of snow and ice. I finally ground the last of it today,but I've been having to poke and prod every load out with a fork handle. Darned lucky I haven't lost an arm. I did drop the handle in there one time,got it wedged in and sheared a pin.
I'd just let them clean up the pellet dust when they're done with the rest,or go to a meal type feed instead of pellets.
Another thing,when I was milking cows and mixing in concentrates,I always put them in first so they mixed thoroughly instead of just getting mixed a little.
 
I have heard of adding liquid molasses in a tub unit but that's not enclosed. I think it would end up bridging the hopper and wouldn't unload. Never mind the rust mess in the grinder. There's no real good way to add it and get it to mix right and not run to the bottom of something and plug it.

When I grind hog feed the concentrate 40 is about the consistency of layer crumbles or finer. It makes your feed a little dusty but they clean up the trough every time.

Add a 50 pound bag of molasses and they will pick the bunk clean every time. I always throw in half a bale of alfalfa when I grind. That also helps hold the fines together. Throw in part of a bale of brome or something to help bind it. It will add roughage but not upset you protein ratio. They like it, too.
 
Thanks I'll try to grind in a bale of hay to see if it helps hold the mix together. Have you ever had the hay bridge in the mixer?
 
We grind our own show feed per show rites recommendations anyway we use cle which is concentrated liquid energy it's almost a sweet vegetable oil every 15to. Or so I have to crawl down in our arts way pm20 and take a putty knife to the right hand wall but it's honestly not sticky or messy we add it in the top right down on to the vertical auger with it running at an idle works great for us
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How many gallons of the cle are you adding to a ton of feed in the mixer? Does the liquid supplement make the feed more difficult to unload or bridge in the mixer?
 
It calls for 5 gallon/60lbs as I recall never had it bridge in the mixer or the bin it's a Hubbard/show rite product
 

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