Feeding hay

[Dave]

I fed a lot of rounds when over on the coast. Here probably 90% of the hay is in big squares. There are lots of hay raisers who do nothing but raise hay for sale. All of their hay is in square bales. The little bit of round bales are put up by ranchers who feed it themselves.

 

[wbvs58]

Dave do you have something like "Haycaps" there for storing those big squares out in the open. They work well.

Hay Cap Covers - Cover your hay the safe way. The safest and best hay cover system in the world - Home

Hay Cap Covers - Cover your hay the safe way. The safest and best hay cover system in the world.

www.haycap.com.au

Ken

 

[sstterry]

I fed a lot of rounds when over on the coast. Here probably 90% of the hay is in big squares. There are lots of hay raisers who do nothing but raise hay for sale. All of their hay is in square bales. The little bit of round bales are put up by ranchers who feed it themselves.

I can see that for sale and transport, the square would be the way to go. I have a friend that makes the big squares of straw for commercial sale.

 

[Dave]

Dave do you have something like "Haycaps" there for storing those big squares out in the open. They work well.

Hay Cap Covers - Cover your hay the safe way. The safest and best hay cover system in the world - Home

Hay Cap Covers - Cover your hay the safe way. The safest and best hay cover system in the world.

www.haycap.com.au

Ken

Most of the hay for sale guys tarp the top of the stack. Maybe half the ranchers at the most do some form of tarping. With only a 10 inch total annual rain fall there isn't much damage to the top bale. November through March most any falling moisture is in the form of snow.

 

[Dave]

One of the advantages to feeding big squares this way. You can feed a half a bale, quarter of a bale, whatever you figure the cows need. Just tie a couple of the strings back together and go park.

 

[sstterry]

What do you call the sections of hay in a bale? We always called then "fleets". But, people in different areas call them different things.

 

[southernultrablack]

What do you call the sections of hay in a bale? We always called then "fleets". But, people in different areas call them different things.

Flakes.

 

[sstterry]

Flakes.

I have also heard them called cubes. It reminds me of grease "zirks". We called them 'alimites'.

 

[Ky hills]

We always refer to them as fleeks

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Fleeks? Flakes?
Thems beats, you hillbillys.

 

[Bigfoot]

This is how hay is fed to the majority of cows around here. Set a big square bale on edge on a flatbed pick up. Put the truck in low range low gear, hop on back, cut the twine, and as the truck creeps across the you kick off the flakes one at a time. People younger and more nimble than me do it by them self crawling up on the back of a moving pickup. Note the ladder on back I use that to get on the bed. The wife drives for me. We are only feeding one bale per day now. In the next few weeks more cows will be added and we will go to two bales a day. I have seen rigs going down the road here with two bales like this and another crass ways on top.

Dave, you ever calculate how many pounds of hay each gets? I only fed I think 17 pounds per cow last year. Went well, and cows looked good in the spring. Not even sure why I'm doing it, but I'm putting out a little more this year.

 

[GoWyo]

My cows are on stockpiled native range for the winter just into third trimester. Bare ground they get 23% protein cake and with snow on the ground get 7-8# alfalfa every other day just to make sure they get enough protein to run their rumens. 3x4 square bales on a utility trailer is my redneck feed wagon -- truck in low range goes driverless til get stuck on a gopher mound or done feeding. Medium squares way easier to feed than 4x4, but feed whatever I can get. Can feed partial bales and tie the strings for next trip. Round bales park on a hill and let gravity roll them out. Sometimes the kids like to play on the trailer.

 

[wbvs58]

What do you call the sections of hay in a bale? We always called then "fleets". But, people in different areas call them different things.

Biscuits.

Ken

 

[sstterry]

Dave, you ever calculate how many pounds of hay each gets? I only fed I think 17 pounds per cow last year. Went well, and cows looked good in the spring. Not even sure why I'm doing it, but I'm putting out a little more this year.

What is the average weight of your cows?

 

[Dave]

We call them flakes.

Dave, you ever calculate how many pounds of hay each gets? I only fed I think 17 pounds per cow last year. Went well, and cows looked good in the spring. Not even sure why I'm doing it, but I'm putting out a little more this year.

Yep, we feed 25 pounds a day. Not doing that right now as there is still a lot of feed for them to graze on. They are getting 20 pounds per head right now. But there are three days a week when the wife works in the morning. They don't get fed until 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon. They have been grazing all morning and are full. Those days I cut them back to 10 pounds. They won't clean up 20 pounds when they have full bellies.

What is the average weight of your cows?

They average about 1,200-1,250. A few at 1,400 and only 1 or 2 that are under 1,100. Buying these older cows I shoot for frame without too many extra pounds. Part of what makes money on this deal is putting pounds on the cow when they go to grass. Around here there is a lot of real rough range land. Older cows can come off that a little thin. Feed them through the winter and go to flat easy pasture for the summer these kind of cows will put on a couple hundred pounds.

 

[1982vett]

Biscuits.

Ken

Block....you flake a block off a bale when feeding.

 

[Little Joe]

My grandpa always called the flakes bats of hay,so I do too.

 

[4hfarms]

My grandpa always called the flakes bats of hay,so I do too.

My father called them fleeks. He had a farm back in the 80s in upstate Wisconsin. Now hes retired in Florida, probably hasn't seen hay in years..... LOL!

 

[Warren Allison]

That's cool. Does anyone in your area still use horses and a sled? I have read on Successful Farming ideas page; guys take the beater out of an apron type manure spreader drive along and the big square flakes just fall out.

When it gets single digit highs we spread rnd bales out on the ground so the cows can all eat at once and huddle close for body heat. Other wise we feed in bale rings.

I have a client that does, He has a quail plantation and has 3 teams that pulls the hunt wagons. He also uses them to pull a flatbed wagon to feed hay to his cows on his farm across the road from the preserve. No motorized vehicles allowed on either place, other than tractors in the hay fields. His help handles al the cattle on horseback, rides fence on horse back, and uses a smaller wagon with a single hitch to carry fencing supplies if it needs repair. No sled though, this is in southern Ga.

 

[Dave]

I know half a dozen guys who have some homemade or purchase version of a flaker feeder. This is a unit mounted on a truck or trailer where a hydraulic drive ram slowly pushes the hay off as the person drives along. They are pretty slick. I need one but it is not in the budget this week. I tried to bring a video over here for you to watch but couldn't get it to work. Google Robbins Equipment flaker Feeder to watch the video.