In the last few weeks I've had quite a few people asking me about using White Cottonseed in their supplementary feeding programs.
White Cottonseed is a great feed, and I reckon is one of the more versatile options for graziers undertaking a feeding program. White Cottonseed is rumen friendly, which means it doesn't require introductory feeding or building up an amount each day. White Cottonseed has good energy levels, around 13 MJ/ME and good protein levels, generally around 20% CP.
This means White Cottonseed can help your cattle utilise poor quality pasture more efficiently, and it adds some extra energy into their daily intake.
White Cottonseed
Because White Cottonseed is fluffy, the grains cling to each other. The practical upshot of this, is you can't store it in a silo or feed it through a self feeder.
You can feed it in dumps straight onto the ground, or in troughs. Ideally you would feed it every second day.
The daily rate for feeding White Cottonseed shouldn't exceed more than 30% of the animals daily intake.
Its also important to know White Cottonseed needs a functioning rumen to be properly digested. This means DON'T feed it to calves under 150kg live weight; to horses or to pigs.
The NSW DPI has really useful fact sheet on feeding White Cottonseed to cattle, It has the recommendations and amounts for all classes of stock.
Don't forget if you do want some advice on White Cottonseed or supplementary feeding I'd be happy to have a chat with you.