Feeding hay?

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kickinbull

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Of the 2 choices of hay rings or using an unroller feeding on the ground, which one do you like the best?
 
i like the hay rings.an heres why even if you unroll what the cows will eat.they will still walk on it pee an mess on the hay.an some will even lay down on it before everyone has had their fill.the rings keep all the hay clean an in 1 place.unless the cows dropp hay outside the ring.plus if you have enough hay rings.you can put out a weeks hay at once.an wont have to unroll hay everyday.
 
Hay rings for us too. The only way unrolling would work for me is if the cows were hungry enough to eat it quickly. Otherwise, they just make a mess........
 
The down side to rings is there will be some waste and the ground gets torn up and muddy ot crappy (not the fish), the up side is you don;t have to put hay out every day.
The down side to unrolling is you have to do it everyday unless you unroll and control access with a temp hotwire, the up side is the feeding area is spread out more, unless you use a hotwire for controlling access.
That's what I came up with when I looked at unrolling a few years ago.
 
I always thought rings would waste more hay than unrolling. After watching a neighbor, I'm not so convinced. I think his cows trample and soil more hay than they eat. I do occassionally let one go over the hill to give the animals a little bedding.
 
RIngs, unless like they said above they will eat it right away. I move my rings almost everytime so the calves find the old spot quickly and nest there as well as next to the ring when the cows move off. I see to have little loss compared to the two times I unrolled a bale.
 
I unroll mine, I put out what they will eat in one day, I use this time to check the cows up close.
What hay is not eaten reseeds and fertilizes as well, I always feed in a new spot every day.
Since I buy all my hay the added fertilizer is a big plus.
 
We unroll in the flat pastures. Take to the top of the hills and turn it loose. Cattle will not sleep on it on hillsides there is where we put out the extra for hold over. In pens we have rings and bunks.
 
I use hay rings cause they are quick. There may be some more waste but I don't know. My main goal at dark thirty is to get them all fed and move on to something else.
 
TNMasterBeefProducer":181bqpzg said:
I prefer to unroll it with an unroller. For two reasons. 1. It gives a calves a warm dry place to lay when the ground is wet and muddy. Two it reseeds the pasture with grass as the cows trample the seeds from the hay into the ground. I then just come back on it and hit it with fertilizer and first rain it takes off like a rocket. That way I do not have to reseed every year.

Gona pick on you a little bit. Just why does your hay have have viable seed in it. :oops: If it is ryegrass, nevermind, I'm guilty of that too.

Mostly use hay rings. Usually always have some really poor quality hay that I will unroll for bedding if the weather conditions really get bad, but that doesn't happen very often around here.
 
I unroll mine on a slight incline with the front end loader. Gonna check the cows each day anyway so putting out hay accomplishes that in one trip. If I have any Crimson Clover seed in the hay, it helps to spread that. I can change the location of hay feeding in two minutes if needed ( and location of cows).
I have tried the hay rings deal before but our acidic soil eats them up pretty quick. Also had calves with broken legs from catching in the rings. Fighting cows to get hay in the ring wasn't fun either. Takes me longer to pull the strings then to feed and check cows. I feed only 1 days worth of hay at a time and have very little waste.
 
I have used both. For my main herd, I roll out a bale every day, and that allows me to check each and every one of them, as well as all of them having access to something to eat. I have an old tire mounted on a heavy duty angle iron that I bolt on the front of my hay spear. That way I can spear the bale, set it where I want, and then roll it out using the old tire (which is off to the side of the bale spear) I use the a ring when I put back some replacements. It is all a matter of what someone prefers. My neighbor has always used rings, and he piles up about 2 or 3 bales in several rings he has. But he also has about 125 head to feed each day, so I dont blame him for not wanting to roll out every bale.
 
I have an old tire mounted on a heavy duty angle iron that I bolt on the front of my hay spear. That way I can spear the bale, set it where I want, and then roll it out using the old tire (which is off to the side of the bale spear)

Limomike:

I like the sound of that. But I can't get a mental picture of it. Mental Imaging Challanged? Can you post a pic of that rig? Thanks! I'm looking at unrollers that are high $$$

BB :D
 
When unrolling you learn what they will clean up and not lay on and dont put out anymore than that. It is like anything else too your cows learn to clean it up after a little while and dont lay around on it. You also scatter your manure better unrolling. I do feed some in rings too.
 
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