Another hay unrolling thread
- Thread starter Bigfoot
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Ky hills
Well-known member
Right or wrong, I'm unrolling one roll per day to a field of 23 head, and 1 every other day to 10, and supplementing them with around 3 pounds per day of a feed ration of cracked corn, corn gluten, soy hulls, and ddg. They seem to be holding their condition well. On a side note, I just push the hay over the hill and let gravity unroll it, If I had more level ground I could use an unroller and measure off about half of a roll more, as they do seem to finish that off before the next feeding.
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
I know corn can do a great job "replacing" hay. Just don't know the numbers.
see if this helps:
http://igrow.org/livestock/beef/replaci ... cow-diets/
see if this helps:
http://igrow.org/livestock/beef/replaci ... cow-diets/
Rafter S
Well-known member
Bigfoot":2nydjrfx said:
I just sold 30 rolls of 4 x 5 Saturday for $50, but that was delivered.
bird dog
Well-known member
I would try two unrolled rolls a day, one morning and one evening and see how it goes. I bet you won't notice much difference. When I unroll mine in the morning, the cows eat their fill of the easy stuff for about 1 1/2 hours then go milling around grazing a little, lick on the tub some and then take a nap. After that they pick around and clean up the balance. My hay is from under a shed so probably less than 5% waste. Poundage wise, I under feed mine, but the tubs seem to keep them in good shape.
With hay in rings, some cows never move and get more than their share while others get very little and the calves even less. Unrolled, everyone gets their share at the same time, the calves don't get stepped on and the pasture benefits. No cleanup at the end of the year and no piles of wet moldy hay for flys to breed.
The key seems to be to only unroll what they will eat in the first couple hours. After that it gets nasty.
With hay in rings, some cows never move and get more than their share while others get very little and the calves even less. Unrolled, everyone gets their share at the same time, the calves don't get stepped on and the pasture benefits. No cleanup at the end of the year and no piles of wet moldy hay for flys to breed.
The key seems to be to only unroll what they will eat in the first couple hours. After that it gets nasty.
Lucky_P
Well-known member
BF,
I'm jumping in here without having read any of the prior responses.
Like you, I'd not liked unrolling... but, in the past, I just didn't have enough cows to eat it all, when fed, and they wasted A LOT. Current herd size... split into Fall/Spring calvers... they'll eat it a full roll in a couple of hours... and it supplies the 25-27#/hd that we've calculated (using a ration calculator) that they need... with almost no waste - and certainly a whole lot less waste than when we're feeding in rings on the concrete pad. Anymore, I only feed on the pad if it's muddy (like yesterday!)... much 'faster' to unroll, and, in addition to what I perceive as less wastage, I get the benefit of adding seed(Johnsongrass, dallisgrass, cheat) to bare spots in these sacrifice paddocks where we feed.
25-27# hay and 5-6# DDG should pretty well provide everything they need... they may not be 'happy' about being fed everything all at one time, but they'll get over it. When we first started limit feeding, we got some protestation, but they eventually settle into the routine.
I'm jumping in here without having read any of the prior responses.
Like you, I'd not liked unrolling... but, in the past, I just didn't have enough cows to eat it all, when fed, and they wasted A LOT. Current herd size... split into Fall/Spring calvers... they'll eat it a full roll in a couple of hours... and it supplies the 25-27#/hd that we've calculated (using a ration calculator) that they need... with almost no waste - and certainly a whole lot less waste than when we're feeding in rings on the concrete pad. Anymore, I only feed on the pad if it's muddy (like yesterday!)... much 'faster' to unroll, and, in addition to what I perceive as less wastage, I get the benefit of adding seed(Johnsongrass, dallisgrass, cheat) to bare spots in these sacrifice paddocks where we feed.
25-27# hay and 5-6# DDG should pretty well provide everything they need... they may not be 'happy' about being fed everything all at one time, but they'll get over it. When we first started limit feeding, we got some protestation, but they eventually settle into the routine.
TexasBred
Well-known member
It works from a cost standpoint in this example but corn never truly replaces hay. It's simply a low protein, high energy supplement to hay. Personally if I were trying to stretch hay I'd use a by-product like soyhulls. Still roughage, highly digestible and almost as much energy as corn.Jeanne - Simme Valley":euzb2xuz said:
Ky hills
Well-known member
ddd75":201567ct said:
They are average sized Hereford, Angus type cows, probably most average between 1250-1450 lbs, based on weight of other cows culled from the group. I had our hay tested for the first time this year, as I suspected it wasn't anything to brag about. Most of it looks good as far as that goes, it has been stored inside, but mainly late cut fescue, and just 4x5 rolls. I have almost always supplemented with a little grain just to keep them coming up and give them a little extra energy.
Lucky_P
Well-known member
BF,
Back in 2007, when there was virtually no hay available - I knew of folks around here who were paying upwards of $90/roll for cornstalks and CRP residue, cut in October, with 1.5" diameter honeylocust trees throughout it - we started limit feeding.
Trials done at tOSU showed that you could feed as little as 5# hay (actually, they went as low as 2.5#) per head/per day, and the cows would do OK, so long as you met their nutritional needs with other feeds.
We bought in some high-priced hay from out west and fed... 10#/hd + 12-13# modified distillers' grain product. Cows came through the winter in better shape than in any previous year when we just fed free-choice crappy local hay (no test, but probably low CP and low TDN... I should have, but didn't know (or care) any better).
We've pretty much continued that 'limit-feeding' deal til this year... have been unrolling (as you know, it's been dry/solid til now)... 1 roll for the Spring-bred cows, 1.5 rolls for the Fall calvers and their calves. They have been cleaning it up, with virtually NO waste.
But today(and yesterday) they're on the concrete feeding pad.
Back in 2007, when there was virtually no hay available - I knew of folks around here who were paying upwards of $90/roll for cornstalks and CRP residue, cut in October, with 1.5" diameter honeylocust trees throughout it - we started limit feeding.
Trials done at tOSU showed that you could feed as little as 5# hay (actually, they went as low as 2.5#) per head/per day, and the cows would do OK, so long as you met their nutritional needs with other feeds.
We bought in some high-priced hay from out west and fed... 10#/hd + 12-13# modified distillers' grain product. Cows came through the winter in better shape than in any previous year when we just fed free-choice crappy local hay (no test, but probably low CP and low TDN... I should have, but didn't know (or care) any better).
We've pretty much continued that 'limit-feeding' deal til this year... have been unrolling (as you know, it's been dry/solid til now)... 1 roll for the Spring-bred cows, 1.5 rolls for the Fall calvers and their calves. They have been cleaning it up, with virtually NO waste.
But today(and yesterday) they're on the concrete feeding pad.
bird dog
Well-known member
So Mr. Lucky do you feed on the pad so the tractor won't rut up the pasture or is there another reason?
I would think that since you already have a sacrifice area, why not have a sacrifice area to unroll when its muddy? It seems to me a long strip would be not to tough to fix with a disc and it would be loaded with nutrients and seed.
I would think that since you already have a sacrifice area, why not have a sacrifice area to unroll when its muddy? It seems to me a long strip would be not to tough to fix with a disc and it would be loaded with nutrients and seed.
sounds like lucky and I have teh same setup.bird dog":1j4kqrsg said:
last year I didn't have a nice feeding barn to feed in.. In 1 winter I was pushing dirt with my front axle 100's of feet. to feed them. It stays wet here for a long time and with a lot of top soil it doesn't take much to really start getting deep. It took a lot of dirt to fill in my 3 paths I had to make to even get out to the cows.
Lucky_P
Well-known member
Yep. Before we poured the pad... even with several truckloads of crushed rock spread, it was getting to the point that I wasn't sure I was gonna get back out of the hay-feeding lot some days... with my 4WD Kubota... and all the rock was just going to China as fast as I could buy it and put it out. And, my wife hated it when the knee-deep mud sucked her boots off.
We don't unroll when it's really soft/muddy (like the past two days), 'cause I think they waste/trample in more than they waste when they're eating on the pad. And, I'd rather not rut the pasture up any worse than I have to. At least on the pad, when they've eaten all the hay in the 5 rings, I can let a group in, or leave them in longer than their normal time and they'll clean up a lot of the stuff they pulled out and dropped... not all, by any stretch, but a lot.
We don't unroll when it's really soft/muddy (like the past two days), 'cause I think they waste/trample in more than they waste when they're eating on the pad. And, I'd rather not rut the pasture up any worse than I have to. At least on the pad, when they've eaten all the hay in the 5 rings, I can let a group in, or leave them in longer than their normal time and they'll clean up a lot of the stuff they pulled out and dropped... not all, by any stretch, but a lot.
pricefarm
Well-known member
What size pad would you need to feed around 20 cows?
OP
OP
Bigfoot
Well-known member
I tried the unroll one yesterday. They made the hottest mess I've seen in a while. If did that twice a day, for 6 months, I won't have any land left by spring. I'm certain, it'd be more successful, if the ground was froze or dry. "If" it were to dry up some, I plan to try it again.
pricefarm
Well-known member
Bigfoot":14wsxn0s said:
I have tried to unroll hay also. It doesn't work here. The ground during the winter here stays soft. If the ground does freeze for a few days I will unroll some hay.
Bright Raven
Well-known member
Bigfoot":m4j9pwb4 said:
I would not even consider unrolling here. My ground stays wet in winter. The clay becomes a pig pen in high traffic. In fact, the benefit to having a designated feed area is to keep them off pasture.
