Total Mixed Ration

Total mixed ration (TMR) is a power food for cows. This substance can be produced by mixing Hay and Silage in a Mixer Wagon (with optional Straw as filler). The mixture is fed to Cows at the Cow Pasture in order to increase their productivity by a very wide margin.

Production

TMR is made by using a mixer wagon.

To make "pure" TMR, load the Mixer Wagon with both Hay and Silage, according to the proper mixture ratio (at least 25% of each, no more than 75% of each). If these proportions are not met, the Mixer Wagon will instead contain Forage.

Hay bales or loose hay can be used, same with silage and with straw too. Be aware that if the mixer is almost full and cant take more than a full bale (4000 litres) the rest of the bale will be destroyed.

There are self propelled mixer wagons which can "suck" up the silage at the front of the the mixer wagon. This is very useful if you have the silage in a bunker and can help getting the perfect ratio.

A very simple yet effective way to make TMR is by just going 50/50 with silage and hay as its very simple to do if you have a large mixer wagon but if you don't and can't fit more than 16000, you can just put in one bale of silage and one bale of hay if your mixer wagon can hold more than 8000 litres. If you don't have silage bales and instead made it in a bunk its recommended to put in the hay bale first and then fill up the mixer wagon.

Adding straw

Straw can be added to TMR as a filler: straw is very cheap compared to silage or hay, and is an effective way of 'bulking out' the mixture, depending on how valued Straw is for other applications, particularly as bedding in Animal Pens, and how much is spare. Straw can constitute from 0% up to 25% of the total volume of the mixture, - and again, if more than 25% of the final mixture is Straw, the Mixer Wagon will contain Forage rather than TMR.

The easiest way to make TMR with straw is by mixing two bales of hay, one bale of silage and one bale of straw, if you are using the knight you will lose a tiny bit of the last bale you put in but its less than 1000 litres so its negligible.

Feeding cows

Once TMR has been created, you can feed it to your cows by driving your Mixer Wagon up to one of the feeding troughs and unloading it.

As long as the cows are eating the TMR, their productivity is increased to 80%. If the Cow Shed is also properly supplied with Straw Bedding, the productivity will be 90%. If they are kept fully clean this goes up to 100%. This affects the rate of Milk production, Manure production, and Slurry production. If the TMR runs out, the productivity will drop to whatever level is appropriate based on what else the cows have left to eat.