I am unrolling half a bale a day (4x5) to 11 cows and a bull now. I did have a few calves and another cow for a couple months at the start but sold them in January. They are in pretty good condition. I have been feeding first cutting, over mature hay for most of the winter with just switching to better second cutting the other day.
They waste just as much as they would in the ring with the first cutting stuff. When I switched to the second cutting with some nice johnsongrass, clover, fescue, they lick it up clean and you can barely tell where it was. Outside of the amount given, quality has definitely been a factor in clean up but it is the same in the rings or me.
This is first year for me and I like it enough that I won't be going back to the rings unless I need to hold them in the barn lot for some reason for a little bit.
What I don't like is I start my tractor everyday and drive it all over just to unroll a half a bale. We have a lot of hills and with this mud I cannot access everywhere I need to and there are some areas I just won't go into for fear of rutting things up.
I am working on a strategy for next year to try bale grazing so I can put bales in place when I am able to due to conditions and I can just go move polybraid to feed them. My bale usage will definitely go up but it might be the balance I need in all of this.
