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Cattle Boards
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feeding hay
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<blockquote data-quote="novatech" data-source="post: 616780" data-attributes="member: 5494"><p>Although these are straight forward questions and seem like they would be easy to answer they are in fact next to impossible for me to answer. So instead I will just tell you how I feed hay, and calculate for number of bales needed.</p><p>Last year I fed out about 600 lbs. per cow. I had plenty of stockpiled forage and the wild rye and clover came in early.</p><p>This year I am feeding quite a bit and feel that I will use up about 1/3 of my supply. My supply consists of some really poor hay, and some fairly high quality hay. I have been feeding the low quality hay thus far. The reason for this is that the cattle have not been declining in body condition and the poop pile are hitting the ground leaving the desirable height for maintenance. If it looks a though the rye and clover is growing fast enough then I will allow the to go down a little in body condition. They will make it up fast when they get on the clover. I reserve the higher quality just in case. If I do not have to feed it then that will cut my fertilizer bill the next time I need to make hay.</p><p>Now we come to the hay field. If my barn is relatively full I do not make hay. The field is used as pasture leaving enough time for it to grow some stock piled forage. If my hay reserves are low, the field will be hayed until the barn is full. This still leaves enough for the field to grow and leave stock piled forage.</p><p>Then we have extra forage in the pastures and have to decide how to use it best. Some can be sold on the ground for hay while I could also buy stockers to eat up the extra. Managing my grass this way has kept me from selling off some darn good stock because of drought. </p><p>I have only seen the back of my barn once since I filled it the first time.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="novatech, post: 616780, member: 5494"] Although these are straight forward questions and seem like they would be easy to answer they are in fact next to impossible for me to answer. So instead I will just tell you how I feed hay, and calculate for number of bales needed. Last year I fed out about 600 lbs. per cow. I had plenty of stockpiled forage and the wild rye and clover came in early. This year I am feeding quite a bit and feel that I will use up about 1/3 of my supply. My supply consists of some really poor hay, and some fairly high quality hay. I have been feeding the low quality hay thus far. The reason for this is that the cattle have not been declining in body condition and the poop pile are hitting the ground leaving the desirable height for maintenance. If it looks a though the rye and clover is growing fast enough then I will allow the to go down a little in body condition. They will make it up fast when they get on the clover. I reserve the higher quality just in case. If I do not have to feed it then that will cut my fertilizer bill the next time I need to make hay. Now we come to the hay field. If my barn is relatively full I do not make hay. The field is used as pasture leaving enough time for it to grow some stock piled forage. If my hay reserves are low, the field will be hayed until the barn is full. This still leaves enough for the field to grow and leave stock piled forage. Then we have extra forage in the pastures and have to decide how to use it best. Some can be sold on the ground for hay while I could also buy stockers to eat up the extra. Managing my grass this way has kept me from selling off some darn good stock because of drought. I have only seen the back of my barn once since I filled it the first time. [/QUOTE]
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