The short answer is yes, you can "feed" cattle once a week or two weeks. I do it. Might help to have an overview of my system as its developing. Small herd, one bull. (I'm open to suggestions for improvements)
I have two groups in the winter, at weaning in about a month I will sort off all calves, heifers and steers to one field, cows, yearling heifers and bull to another field. They are on opposite sides of a fence at the single automatic/heated concrete waterer. Both groups have separate wooded areas for their winter shelter.
About Feb 1 the now weaned steers and pregnant cows/heifers trade places so all females are in the sacrifice pasture with good hay only and all males are in the corn stalks but there are still just two groups. After calving in March, most of the steers will go the processor off of the corn, a couple steers will stay with the bull for company and summer beef on separate pasture (from the cows, now yearling heifers and new calves) until 3rd week in June when everyone gets back together again into one group and my bull goes to work.
The calves get 3% of their weight in hay put out once a week in two feeders, one is a cradle type holds two big bales the other is a modified ring type for a third bale. So they could have up to 4800 lbs of hay plus whatever forage is still available in the winter sacrifice pasture which is right along the road and near the corral. I see little hay waste with these big round bale feeders.
The other group, pregnant (will preg check at weaning, any NOT pregnant will get shipped immediately) cows, pregnant yearling heifers and bull, will be grazing a corn stalk area limited by an electric wire and will always have one bale of hay available to them if they get a bit too much corn. From experience last year, I know about how many cow-days of grazing I can get from an acre of standing corn (a lot!) so by estimating the area and when I will be back I use the 4-wheeler to run done some corn and put in a hot wire. The following week or whenever I'm back I repeat the process, exposing more corn. No back wire is necessary.
In any case it is fairly straightforward to calculate how much hay or how much area of corn I need to leave them with depending on when I will be back.
A very good neighbor keeps an eye on them every day as he drives by but that's about it.
Really appears like there are two ways winter beef cattle: you feed them and all they have to do is just eat or you let them feed themselves, as cattle have been doing for centuries. In the second approach you do need to make sure they have enough feed for the time period until you are back. As I gain more experience I am finding that we can calculate how much hay or grass or stalks cattle will need per day or per week just like we can tell how much silage or grain they will eat every day.
An important point however is to make sure that both groups have good mineral, water and salt available to them at all times. The mineralyx tubs I use last fairly well, are not turned over and doesn't matter if they get snowed on...
That's a long answer to your question but yes, it is possible to provide "feed" to cattle once once a week or two unless you are in a grain or silage finishing program. jmho and (limited) experience.
I'm fairly new to cattle (have been in row cops for many years). It does surprise me a bit to find that letting cattle feed themselves year around seems like a novel idea to many folks. I'm not saying one way is better or worse than the other. One of the interesting things about raising cattle is that there are so many different ways to do it! Geography and climate have a lot to do with the wide range of systems also.
Jim
edit: by the way I should add "thank you"'s to several regular posters here who have provided some key information to help me get started in this system. Thank you!
MSS, I don't see why putting out several days or a week's hay would increase "waste" as long as you are feeding it in feeders. If laid out on the ground, yes I can see waste. As someone posted here some time ago, without bale feeders, Day 1 the bale = dining room, Day 2 the bale = bedroom, Day 3 the bale = bathroom...
As Iluv points out you also need to know more about the nutrient content of the hay you are feeding. You can put out 3% of their wt a day in very poor CRP hay and they can still starve too! To try to get a better idea of this I just sent in a hay sample for analysis to see what I bought and make sure they are getting enough feed value out of it.
