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<blockquote data-quote="Lucky_P" data-source="post: 1705492" data-attributes="member: 12607"><p>"Crap hay can reduce both your feed cost and feed intake. Issue is how long can your cows maintain acceptable condition ?"</p><p></p><p>Yeah... that'd depend on what BCS they were in when they went into the winter. </p><p>And... depending on supply & demand, you may end up paying just as much, up front, for crap hay as you might have for decent stuff in other years. </p><p></p><p>I remember winter of 2013-14... cows dying left and right, with a rumen full of low-quality, virtually indigestible 'hay'... 30-50% calf mortality when they started calving in late Jan/early Feb. Rumors were circulating about 'a pathogen in the hay'... it wasn't a 'pathogen'... it was just insufficient nutrition. </p><p>Free-choice indigestible hay... depleted body fat stores... BCS 2s common - but a big distended rumen, so producers who weren't really LOOKING at their cattle thought... "They look OK."... calves born to protein deficient dams were unable to generate body condition and get on their feet... died of 'exposure' before they could get up and nurse... and colostral quality and volumes were likely diminished as well, so those that actually made it onto a teat probably got less than ideal antibody levels.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lucky_P, post: 1705492, member: 12607"] "Crap hay can reduce both your feed cost and feed intake. Issue is how long can your cows maintain acceptable condition ?" Yeah... that'd depend on what BCS they were in when they went into the winter. And... depending on supply & demand, you may end up paying just as much, up front, for crap hay as you might have for decent stuff in other years. I remember winter of 2013-14... cows dying left and right, with a rumen full of low-quality, virtually indigestible 'hay'... 30-50% calf mortality when they started calving in late Jan/early Feb. Rumors were circulating about 'a pathogen in the hay'... it wasn't a 'pathogen'... it was just insufficient nutrition. Free-choice indigestible hay... depleted body fat stores... BCS 2s common - but a big distended rumen, so producers who weren't really LOOKING at their cattle thought... "They look OK."... calves born to protein deficient dams were unable to generate body condition and get on their feet... died of 'exposure' before they could get up and nurse... and colostral quality and volumes were likely diminished as well, so those that actually made it onto a teat probably got less than ideal antibody levels. [/QUOTE]
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