How to Feed Oat Seed to Cattle

Oats do not contain as much energy per bushel as most other grains due to the fact that oats are harvested with their hulls intact. Hulls contain little food value for cattle. For this reason, oats are never fed to grown cattle as an exclusive diet, but are instead mixed with other grains. Due to the fact that adult cattle do not chew their food thoroughly, oats need to be "rolled" or ground so that the cattle may get the maximum calorie value from the oats they do eat.

Things You'll Need

  • Non-oat feed grains
  • Oat roller
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Instructions

    • 1

      Feed recently-weaned calves a mix of 50% to 70% unprocessed oats with other non-oat grains, such as corn, barley and wheat as a feed. Calves chew their food more thoroughly than adult cattle and so they get more food value out of the oats. The high fiber value, due to the presence of hulls, is considered good for very young cattle.

    • 2

      Feed adult cattle a higher percentages of oats. Adult cattle should receive up to 33% of the feed mix only if the weight per bushel is 35 pounds or higher. Lower weights per bushel indicate oats with lower protein content and these oats should be mixed at a lower rate, as low as 20% of the grain mix.

    • 3

      Roll the oats with the oat roller to ensure more food value is absorbed into the cattle when the oats are consumed. Oats should be mixed with other feed grains such as corn, barley, sorghum or wheat.