Steve
I responded to your PM - check it buddy.
Despite all my scribing I should have waited - Randi put out a good one with her posts - read them.
Especially the bale grazing post - it has a lot of good info and it is from my old stomping grounds.
I will ramble a bit as I have time - hope you do not mind.
As in my PM - it is a behaviour they have to learn - which is why I like to do it with older cows in the mix. If they do not learn you have to pull them out - we cull those - no slow learners allowed. I am not in the mood to support them - good cow or not they go -
they work for us - not the other way around. Sometimes those good cows are the cows that cost you a lot - we sometimes over look this because they are a "good cow" - but they can cost not only in money, but "other things". I do not have loyalty to any cows - BSE taught me that.
As a side note to all - we sold most of our cattle when I crossed the pond to live over here for a couple of years - but wife is still feeding cows on the farm at home.
Those cattle are eating bales I laid out in fields when I went home last November on some R&R. I think I posted on that already. They will eat there until next June when they go to pasture.
I do not lay them on their side as pics show in the bale grazing article - I stand them as they come out of the baler. We take the twines and wrap off of them just before the tractor sets them on the ground. I believe they shed more water if the fall is wet instead of cold and snowy - on their side they tend to soak it up and then freeze hard.
I know Peter Lundgard and Neil Boyd - I started doing this about the same time as them. I got tired of starting tractors and paying to plug them in and paying for water heaters - of which we have enough as it is!
What we do different from the articles is we seldom keep them on snow for more than 8 weeks - our winters are shorter and they do not go on to snow until late December - then all January and into February. We bring them up and get ready for March calving - which - as I was reminded tonight in an email is delayed until April this year - so they may stay on snow longer.
Age is affecting my memory - but wife keeps it on the right track! Seems to enjoy doing it as well.
I got tired of spreading manure and cleaning pens. And I know that it pencils out far better for us than feeding every day despite those who claim there is hay wastage. We never bed them either - seems they will eat their bedding as time goes on.
So we have zero straw cost.
December saw 92 cm or 36 inches of snow at the home place. The cows can come to the house for water - it is a walk of about 1/2 a mile or eat snow. Most only come once or twice a week - sometimes they do not come up for a couple of weeks. Some do not come up at all.
Good thing - because it is a small trough and is for the one old nag left on the place and two small steers that are still on the bottle.
Don't ask!! Wife project - I have no control. I have learned to accept this with a modicum of grace.
They might come in ones and twos - so it is not because the gang is thirsty - I think they just want a change and they come up and reach over the wood divider to take a drink from a trough that they cannot reach very well - it is about 2 gallons before it cannot be reached by them stretching their necks - they stand around in the shelter that is there - sunning themselves mostly and leave. Most days we do not see any come up at all.
Their condition is good and my wife has a seriously reduced work load. She checks them once a day on the snowmobile - takes minutes - probably putting a nice carbon build up on my sled wile I am away.
Unless of course the youngest daughters boyfriend takes it our for a spin - I should start charging rent - on the sled that is!
I am a believer in snow for water and bale grazing - money savers, labour savers, equipment savers and time savers - plus a few more.
It is nice to have a herd of cows that looks good and puts out a pretty calf.
But I will take one that looks average, requires no effort on my part to live through a winter, does not need grain if they have decent hay, drops a live calf on grass or snow in March and licks it off, needs nothing more than being checked on.
Things we watch for when on snow and bale grazing - cows that do not take to the system, cows that appear to be going down on condition. In reality the same things you would do if you were keeping them in a pen at the house. If the feed is straw based - and we have had to do that - we will add some type of protein and some mineral - it helps prevent impaction, helps the cow put out a good calf - similar husbandry things you would do if they were at the house in a pen.
It costs us enough to keep an animal for a year - not many of you out there can do it for under 400 bucks a head - if you are you are doing real good. I suspect most on this board are in the 500 plus buck range if truth were to be told - no squawking - sounds like a lot - but that is only a buck fifty a day to hit the 540 - 550 per year mark - per head! One tractor break down and engine rebuild can put you behind 10 plus thousand - a big hit to the cost of keeping a cow.
And I would not be surprized if many were way higher still.
Unplugging a couple of water heaters that run 24/7 for six months saves a lot of money. Anyone ever price out the cost of using a heater? Not cheap when the average temp stays down below zero. Try unplugging six.
Yeah, that is an all in cost - some of you think you are coming ahead with that tax deduction - but I bet a bunch of you aren't. Hobby or meat? Great - I support it.
However - If you are in it for the money - no excess inputs - no costs - that is the only way to make a buck.
But it works for us in the north. I think we are going to be under 400 bucks a head for the year - it may be close - will not know until March - but I figure we are there right now - so if I get the numbers I will let you know. Fuel costs coming down might be our big saving grace.
And buying in some cheap hay versus making it - we sold our hay as a standing crop and the money difference was noticeable. We did this because fuel was so high I thought it would better to bring in one and two year old hay than it would be to make hay.
Try this system and you too might find it worth your while. Put out some bales - teach them to eat snow and stand back - you will never have an easier winter or more time for that project.
All of the above is strictly my opinion based upon my experience - opinions being like the south end of a north bound cow - everyone has one. So take it or leave it as you see fit folks.
Best to all and regards
Bez+
