Feeding in drought conditions

[B&M Farms]

I have never had to limit feed hay or feed the quality hay I have this year before. Usually kept hay and loose mineral in front of them all winter and cubed some with high protien cubes when needed. This year I may have to stretch my hay a little to make it to spring unless we start getting enough rain to plant winter grass. I am dropping calves starting last week and the cows are surprisingly in good condition (about a average of a 5 right now) considering the drought. I should calve out by the end of november hopefully. I didnt make enough hay this year and have already bought one load of awful hay sight unseen that was supposed to be good. The cost doesnt seem to weight out with buying this stuff at these prices and Im still about a month short. Can I limit feed hay and slightly increase the cubes? Are there other alternative feeds? Im still planning to plant a cover crop of rye, but I cant depend on that. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[angus9259]

You can definitely limit feed even without cubes. Horse people do it all the time - they feed to condition not their bawling customers. Limit feeding will also help you understand your herd better - which are the easy doers, heavy milkers, easy breeders, and just plain hard to keep. There are a lot of alternatives - not sure any will be cheaper.

You can also wean those fall calves early and put them on more supplement or sell them as your hay draws to an end.

 

[Lucky_P]

We started limit-feeding about 5 years ago, when disastrous late freeze and severe drought decimated pastures and virtually eliminated any local hay supplies. We liked the results so well that we've continued to do it that way in subsequent years.
We allow access to the hay feeders for an hour to an hour and a half daily - this allows them to consume around 10 pounds of hay per animal. Studies have shown that they can get by on as little as 5 lb of hay/day(actually some say as low as 2lb/day), so long as you make up the remainder of their nutritional needs with another food source. We feed modified distiller's grain product at 10-12 lb/hd/day. We do buy and feed a good quality grass hay, so it's providing some nutrition, but I mainly look at it as a fiber source.
I can't say that the cows especially like the system, but they've come through the winters in much better condition than they ever did when they had only free-choice access to all the crappy locally-produced hay I could buy. And the fact that they have to walk past one of us twice a day coming in and out of the barnlot has made them ever so much easier to handle at any other time.
They're always ready to rush in and eat; and yes, they spend the next 22 hours or so just waiting for their next meal, but they do OK.