Trying to decide what size mixer wagon to buy?
One way to determine mixer size needed is by how many pounds per cubic foot the ration is. And how many pounds will you be feeding per head?
1. One good rule of thumb is:
- Dairy ration with 8-10# dry hay – 18 #/cuft.
- Dairy ration with haylage instead of dry hay – 23 #/cuft.
- If using a 4 auger mixer where the feed is compressed more, add about 5#s more to these figures.
- Beef fat ration without a lot of corn syrup – 22-25 #/cuft.
- Beef fat ration with syrup and wet byproducts – 30-33 #/cuft.
- Take the number of head you want to feed with a load times(x) intake/head/feeding, divided by (#/cuft estimate) = cuft. needed.
This should be close, depending on the size of the cattle and the feed ingredients.
2. Another estimate is:
- Dairy ration without dry hay = 5 cuft/cow/day
- Dairy ration with dry hay = 6 cuft/cow/day
- Beef ration 2-2.5 cuft/head/day
Any comments on this information is very welcome, the more infomation, the more accurate we can be. See our new and used mixer inventory at www.postequip.com.
