Hot Mix Questions

[vger]

Can someone tell me what is 'hot mix' cattle feed? How much do you feed per 500 lbs? How do you use it to make cattle cleanup pasture?

[haypoint]

It is a general term for mineral salt and a protein feed.

I guess if you sprinkled salt and corn meal on rank pasture, the cows would eat it.

I guess I don't understand the question.

[francismilker]

Around these parts the farmers refer to hotmix as 50/50 salt and soybean meal. The cows are limited on the amount of soybean meal they will consume due to the heavy salt added in. However, they'll get their guts full enough to make them crave roughage and they'll eat most anything.

We had a drought two years ago and we were feeding anykind of hay we could get our hands on. Lots of us were having to feed hotmix to get our cows to eat the substandard hay for their roughage needs to be met.
The problem with getting cows to "clean-up" substandard roughage is the damage to their mouths. After a winter of eating junk hay and forage some cows will be way overaged by a vet at the salebarn simply based upon the condition and length of their teeth.

BTW, we were feeding the hotmix freechoice.

[vger]

Thank you Francis