I have a 20 acre field that I have not been running any cattle on. I was wondering if it is more benificial to plant a winter grass or to feed hay. I have plenty of hay but I wondered if there was an advntage to a winter wheat or a rye grass. thanks
we do both. we plant oats/rye & graze the cows for a couple of hours/day in the afternoon (that's really all they need.....any more than that & they'll just trample it down & lay around in it). they usually head to the hay right after coming out of the oats/rye & will spend the night near the hay bales. sometime late-morning they'll head up & stand in front of the gap waiting to go back into the oats/rye patch. having oats/rye will cut down on the number of bales you feed. we always have enough that we could do without the oats/rye but i really like seeing the cows eating green grass in the wintertime.
txshowmom":139a02xd said:we do both. we plant oats/rye & graze the cows for a couple of hours/day in the afternoon (that's really all they need.....any more than that & they'll just trample it down & lay around in it). they usually head to the hay right after coming out of the oats/rye & will spend the night near the hay bales. sometime late-morning they'll head up & stand in front of the gap waiting to go back into the oats/rye patch. having oats/rye will cut down on the number of bales you feed. we always have enough that we could do without the oats/rye but i really like seeing the cows eating green grass in the wintertime.
I agree with txag on this one. Plus if you leave them out there all day they will get the scours and then it really dosen't matter what you feed them because they are not getting anything out of it anyway.
Tod Dague":1zyhyh78 said:I leave my cattle on ryegrass all winter and spring. I know not to stand behind them ;-) . I've never had one scour or not get very fat.
txag":1ygzx9b9 said:Tod Dague":1ygzx9b9 said:I leave my cattle on ryegrass all winter and spring. I know not to stand behind them ;-) . I've never had one scour or not get very fat.
i think we're talking about two different things. our rye/oats is not overseeded but is planted on land that is specifically set aside for this purpose. it is disked up in the spring after the rye is done & then left plowed up all summer with no cows on it. it's plowed, fertilized & replanted in the fall.
Tod Dague":1h74t5gq said:Just didn't want anyone to confuse extreamly runny poop and sours.
txag":21duwtb5 said:Tod Dague":21duwtb5 said:Just didn't want anyone to confuse extreamly runny poop and sours.
even w/just a couple of hours/day grazing, it's still pretty messy trying to a.i. them :shock: :shock:
txag":258vzf3o said:Tod Dague":258vzf3o said:Just didn't want anyone to confuse extreamly runny poop and sours.
even w/just a couple of hours/day grazing, it's still pretty messy trying to a.i. them :shock: :shock: