Feeding Hay

[TexasBred]

Boogie....if you get a chance shoot a pic. of those cradles and post it for us.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Never seen a winter to start out like this winter pasture has gone nuts with these temps and I haven't had to put out the first bale yet. I was thinking yesterday on pulling the cradles down to the pasture.

 

[1982vett]

I haven't started either but since I had to feed hay in June and July I'm just breaking even. Feels real strange running them off of oats and not taking a bale of hay to them.

 

[kerley]

Never seen a winter to start out like this winter pasture has gone nuts with these temps and I haven't had to put out the first bale yet. I was thinking yesterday on pulling the cradles down to the pasture.

Hey CB, Good to have you back,
Hope all is well with you. We have had so much rain here that I just started feeding hay yesterday, thats only because of the nasty storm. It's sunny today and the grass is growing again. The best news I got was the price of hay here is half what I paid last year.
Tom.

 

[Aero]

Well, like I said, maybe I've got the luxury of having more hay available than most people. If feeding hay is a major cost for you, then I suggest exploring the options that might be avaible to reduce the cost of that practice.

do you buy or make your hay?

how much does it cost you?

 

[chenocetah]

Aero - I cut and bale my own hay and this year with the bales per acre we averaged I figure I had about $12 a bale in harvesting costs and $3 a bale in transportation costs so that puts the hay in my yard at $15 a bale. This was all 4 x 5 bales net wrapped. Many tracts I cut are on an "upkeep", "covercrop" or "wastewater" basis with partner companies and my only expense in them is the harvesting and transportation. These tracts make up the bulk of my hay crops. I know that I've been not only lucky, but very fortunate to establish these business relationships. Similar opportunities may be availabe to some of you if you are willing to pursue it and work toward it. I squeeze all my input costs and on other tracts I am responsible for and work entirely and I had about an $8 additional expense per bale in land costs, weed control and fertilizer on them.

 

[Aero]

you are leaving at least one big cost off the list... equipment. and labor is worth something... $5/hr?

 

[donaldjohnson]

Research tell us that a cow need to eat a good quality hay for only four(4) hours per day (24 hrs.) There will be no waste and the cows will do better than those free choice fed cows plus they waste about as much as they eat. This is the program I have use for several years and it works. Don!tell me you do not have time , etc to dothis. What does good management cost?

 

[donaldjohnson]

Research tell us that a cow need to eat a good quality hay for only four(4) hours per day (24 hrs.) There will be no waste and the cows will do better than those free choice fed cows plus they waste about as much as they eat. This is the program I have use for several years and it works. Don!tell me you do not have time , etc to dothis. What does good management cost?

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Donald, we had a Univ. guy go over research on exactly that. Don't limit the hay in front of the cattle - limit the time the hay is in front of the cattle. But, on this program, you have to be sure to have enough "elbow" room for each & every cow to eat at the same time.
We have not inplemented this management practice, but we are considering doing it. One thing he pointed out, was that this was for DRY cows only, not nursing cows.

 

[Anonymous]

remember though also, they will clean up the hay before they eat the pasture most of the time. Most animals will take the higher nutrient forage over the rest, leaving the lower nutrient stuff for when they run out of the good stuff. All this does is make them spoiled, at least in my limited experience.

 

[angus9259]

Maybe I've had the luxury of having more hay avaible than some people, but we keep our hay racks and hay feeding trailers stuffed full all of the time. That means we might feed 5 bales some days and 50 others. Not all of our hay is the same quality and I feel the cow is a better judge of what she needs to fill her up than I am. Some types of hay they eat more of than others.

Just my opinion that its easier to keep a cow up than it is to let her go down a little and then try to get her back.

Making them clean up the hay is a long way from letting then lose any condition.

Yup. This is what we do except I'll probably wait half a day. I'll fill the round feeders, wait till the cows are just picking at what's on the bottom and giving me stink eye for it, then take out fresh hay the next morning.

Actually, that stops a LOT of the complaining too. I've found that if they complain and the tractor starts rolling, they learn to complain. I think my teenagers taught them that. When I got caught in that trap, they were complaining half way through a bale.

 

[JRGidaho`]

remember though also, they will clean up the hay before they eat the pasture most of the time. Most animals will take the higher nutrient forage over the rest, leaving the lower nutrient stuff for when they run out of the good stuff. All this does is make them spoiled, at least in my limited experience.

Interesting. Our cows always preferred stockpiled pasture to hay. When we were space-bale feeding, they would always graze out all the grass around the bales first before they took any hay.

Maybe that's just a testimony to how poor of hay we made????

 

[Anonymous]

remember though also, they will clean up the hay before they eat the pasture most of the time. Most animals will take the higher nutrient forage over the rest, leaving the lower nutrient stuff for when they run out of the good stuff. All this does is make them spoiled, at least in my limited experience.

Interesting. Our cows always preferred stockpiled pasture to hay. When we were space-bale feeding, they would always graze out all the grass around the bales first before they took any hay.

Maybe that's just a testimony to how poor of hay we made????

Your hay may have been perfect, who knows. Cattle are all animals and each animal is different. Its just been my experience that when I throw out hay they leave the pasture alone till the easy pickings is gone. then they will go back to the pasture.

 

[dun]

remember though also, they will clean up the hay before they eat the pasture most of the time. Most animals will take the higher nutrient forage over the rest, leaving the lower nutrient stuff for when they run out of the good stuff. All this does is make them spoiled, at least in my limited experience.

Interesting. Our cows always preferred stockpiled pasture to hay. When we were space-bale feeding, they would always graze out all the grass around the bales first before they took any hay.

Maybe that's just a testimony to how poor of hay we made????

We must make lousey hay too. Ours might grab a mouthfull now and then but they far prefer to glean anyting they can off of the pasture.

 

[Anonymous]

I wasnt saying anyone makes bad hay. But everytime I put out a round bale of alfalfa, the cows always came running, and left the bahia field to sit there and grow until the hay was gone.
I would think that if your cows arent eating the hay, then you both have really good pastures! Nice work.

 

[angus9259]

I wasnt saying anyone makes bad hay. But everytime I put out a round bale of alfalfa, the cows always came running, and left the bahia field to sit there and grow until the hay was gone.
I would think that if your cows arent eating the hay, then you both have really good pastures! Nice work.

Yup - a cows like a human - it knows what will make it fat and it will eat that first.

My cows would snuggle up to a bale of alfalfa all day long before picking through my pastures. In fact, if I moved the water out to them, I doubt if they would move at all.

 

[JRGidaho`]

I wasnt saying anyone makes bad hay. But everytime I put out a round bale of alfalfa, the cows always came running, and left the bahia field to sit there and grow until the hay was gone.
I would think that if your cows arent eating the hay, then you both have really good pastures! Nice work.

hook,

I knew you weren't saying we made bad hay. My comment was a little bit tongue-in-cheek. dun is from MO and I used to be. We readily admit our hay is less than ideal!

It is easy to grow good pasture in MO, but hard to make decent hay due to the weather. That is one of the reasons we got away from making and using any hay. Expense was the biggest reason.

But you're right, cows will develop their own preferences and just when you think you really have them figured out, they'll fool you.

 

[dun]

But you're right, cows will develop their own preferences and just when you think you really have them figured out, they'll fool you.

When ours are on really good WSG pasture they'll knock down a fence to get to the old summer stressed fescue. We board some cows for a neighbor that are fed WSG hay during the winter and they'll knock down a fence to get away from the fescue and eat the old stemmy and poor WSG. I really think a lot of it has to do with what they're used to that helps to build their preferences.

 

[chenocetah]

Aero - I didn't leave out those costs, they were included.