How much silage do cows eat?

Question

How much silage do cows eat?

Answer 1

Cow do not eat Silage - Silage is waste material used to fertilize plants (bet your next question is "how much milk do cows drink?")

Answer 2

none, they create it duh!

Answer 3

I think some people don't know the difference between silage and slurry.

It depends a lot on the cows and the quality of the silage. Milk cows tend to be fed silage more or less on demand and supplemented with concentrates depending on milk yield.

Answer 4

Firstly, yeah - slurry and silage, two different things.

How much a cow eats is hugely dependant on a lot of things.  An adult cow takes in about 2% of it's body weight (or can do) in *dry* matter every day (bearing in mind that all food has a certain amount of water content).

Cows can vary hugely in weight from tiny Jerseys to huge continental breeds like Limousins.  They also vary their intake according to lactation (lactating cows can take in up to 30% more than a dry cow).  For silage specifically, it can depend on what other food they're getting (whether they're out at grass as well and if so for how long, what concentrates etc.)

It also depends what kind of silage - maize, barley, wheat, grass etc.  And the quality of it (a lot of farmers make their own).

There are, if you look, hugely complicated formulae that take into account all of this.  But the simple answer is; it depends on the cows, and it depends what you're doing with them.