Feeding Only hay - advice needed soon

[bdog]

I have five acres. About 3 acres of it is fenced off with nothing growing on it. It is farmland and I recently disced it up.

They are having an internet auction locally that ends today and they have 1000lb round bales of italian rye grass that are currently at $1.00 each. It is located 20 miles from my place and I have a trailer to go get it. They have about 1000 bales. I was thinking of buying 300 bales, buying 30 steers, sticking them on my 3 acres and feeding them for about 10 months or until the hay is gone.

Basically I am trying to take adavantage of this cheap feed. I am wondering if I can feed them it alone, or if I need to add grain, etc.

My neighbor who is a lot more knowledgeable about this than me looked at the hay and said it would be good for cattle.

 

[eric]

Wow, that sounds like something I would try to do, which means you should probably stay from that idea!

But on another note, do you have somewhere to store 300 bales, and a way to get the bales to you? If you have to pay someone to bring them to you, that might eat up most of your savings. And 30 steers on 3 acres, well, that would be quite a pasture full. That would probably set the pasture back a while as they would pack it down pretty good, but then they would also be resupplying it with fresh fertilizer and grass seed, so discing it up next yr might not be a problem.

Iam curious to see what other folks think, but I probably wouldnt do it. How much do you plan to make on 30 steers, if all goes right? Could you clear a couple hundred bucks each, assuming all goes well and no castastrophies occur?

 

[eric]

O K . I see where you have a trailer. How many can you haul at a time?

 

[jerry27150]

my guess is that a dollar is just a starting bid & it will go higher. if you can get it cheap enough & get steers for a decent price i think you could make out alright. i would feed some grain too!

 

[preston39]

bdog,

You are asking a lot for three acres! Do you have neighbors near? Do you expect to get rain? Is it flat..or well drained?

I just draw to your attention that 30 animals on three acres will turn the area into a muddy... poopy.... mess which will produce a lot of stink...something akin to a corral around a barn...with a lot of animals. The animals will be up to their knees in muk and that could be an environment where foot problems may arise.

I believe you will need to add some grain supplements to achieve a competitive growth during this period. It doesn't mean that you can't do it with hay and minerals...once a terminal objective is set that will suggest what has to be fed. This should be explored to prevent any potential health problems...which may become expensive to fix.

One thing you will have is a well manured, but, acidic based 3 acres when you are done and that will require lime, etc..to get it back too growing a stand of anything but weeds. If you plan to use it immediately thereafter most likely you will need to turn it under.

 

[dun]

What he is talking about is no different then a typical drylot feeding situation. It's not such a big deal as long as it's kept scraped. There won;t be any grass, but the hay is supposed to replace the normal grazing type of forage. It does take a very different type of management then pasturing/grazing. In CA and probably most of the other areas that have multi-thousand cow dairys that's the way it's done. All feed is brought to the cow and all waste is hauled away. Always seemed to me that the cows had the best end of the deal.

dun

 

[preston39]

What he is talking about is no different then a typical drylot feeding situation. It's not such a big deal as long as it's kept scraped. There won;t be any grass, but the hay is supposed to replace the normal grazing type of forage. It does take a very different type of management then pasturing/grazing. In CA and probably most of the other areas that have multi-thousand cow dairys that's the way it's done. All feed is brought to the cow and all waste is hauled away. Always seemed to me that the cows had the best end of the deal.

dun

===========
dun,
Commenting on the basics as he put it... would not consider a tractor with blade, etc....open area...space to dump...no close neighbors...as part of a larger operation. He did mention having a trailer. Hay storage..without a front end lift to stack..would take up almost 1/4acr. of the space to store the hay. :roll:

I believe you may be thinking of 30 animals on 3 acres as a contiguous part of a larger layout...no neighbors....complete equipment for scraping...end loader and space to store hay and dump the residue..... etc....hu?

If thats the situation...different ballgame.

 

[bdog]

Well guys, the auction ended and no one even bid. There were about 10 seprerate lots of the hay and only one which had 180 bales sold and it went for a dollar a bale. I know the guy that runs the place and I may be able to go talk to him and get it even cheaper.

I have a 50 horse tractor with a FEL, and about a dozen other implements. Stacking and storing the hay is no problem. My nearest neighbors are 1/2 mile away and they have about 300 cows themselves. My area is flat and we get little rain. I think annual average is 15 inches.

My trailer can haul 8 bales at a time. If I could make 6 trips a day, it would take me a week to get all the hay. Alternatively I could hire someone with a semi to haul 30 bales at a time for probably $150/load. This would still give me the hay at my place for $6/bale which is super cheap for that much feed.

I ran some numbers and I think I could make a good payout if I don't have to spend much on additional feed or supplements.

 

[bdog]

Maybe 30 steers is too many to be in this small of an area? This is the impression I am getting form some of you. Honestly I have no idea. I have been told a round bale will feed 30 steers for 1 day, and I figured 300 bales = 30 steers for 10 months. Should I be looking at feeding fewer cattle for longer? These are the questions I am unsure about.

I guess what I am saying is if you had enough hay to feed 9000 animal days, what would you buy and how long would you keep them? I could feed 30 steers 10 months, 15 steers 20 months, 60 steers 5 months, etc

Are steers even the best bet? Would I be better off buying pairs, or pregnant cows? I know just enough about cattle to be dangerous. I have been around them and worked for others taking care of them, but I have no idea on the business side of things.

 

[Mahoney Pursley Ranch]

If you are for real and I were you I'd go raise 3000 chickens on those 3 acres. :roll:

 

[donnaIL]

I can only say they wont be happy.(with just hay)..and I hope you are building some real good fences..and don't sleep too close. I have always thought the steers have an attitude. good money if you can pull it off. good luck.

donna

 

[Crowderfarms]

Bottom Line, in my opinion, you don't have enough land to do any of the above with.Maybe enough room to run a Couple Head.

 

[Susie David]

Sounds like a good deal on the feed...where ya going to store it...sun makes straw and rain makes a moldy mess. How do you neighbors feel about a feed lot next door? 10 head on an acre will keep your manure forkers busy unless you can give it away...organic garden good grow enhancer...but then grandpa always said that its the smell of money!

 

[Bama]

This is gonna be something. It is done something like this in a dry lot. But they have facilities to work those cattle. They have places to move them to scrape it. They have a system to get rid of the manure. I don't really see how your gonna be able to keep it cleaned out with them still in there. You will have to do some really good management to keep the smell down. That a lot of steers in one small spot. I ain't saying it can't be done but your in for a challenge.

 

[stocky]

guess i will throw my 2 cents worth in here. 30 steers on 3 acres would be like a feed lot and would need to be treated as such, with cleaning and water concerns. that shouldnt be a problem.
the hay will have good food value for almost no cost, however you will have to feed grain to supplement to get good gain.
the main concern at this stage is the investment in the calves. i am not sure what weight you are going to buy those calves. if you take them past 800 lbs the price per pound drops alot unless you have an outlet for fed beef. but, if you intend to feed 10 months you are probably looking at buying at 500 lbs and finsishing them out. those 500 lb steers will cost you 650 each right now. can you fork out 20,000 for calves for 10 months? if the market holds and you can sell the 1200 lbs for 1,100 each, that is 450 and good profit with cheap feed. if the market drops back to mid 70's by then it is 825 and 175 which wont leave much profit-----i like the idea, i just dont like the gamble of buying cattle at the highest price in history to keep for more than a few months----just my thoughts on the ups and downs, but steers might be your only shot with just the 3 acres

 

[jerry27150]

with only 15 inches of rain you shouldn't have any problems with mud or smell. around here a lot of guys do just that & they have a lot of mud, but we get a lot more rain, personally i wouldn't be afraid to try it

 

[Medic24]

Well, what ever you decide to do, please, if it all starts going bad, as in waste , or disease issues crop up, and they likely will in such an intensive operation, don't let the cattle get the short end of the stick so to speak.

Good Luck with your venture. :cboy:

 

[Bama]

Please keep us posted, as you have the attention of several of us. Thats a bunch for 3 acres.

 

[Orerancher]

Don't know what part of the world your in... But that many animals on three acres would be called a CAFO (confined feeding operation) around here,
State goverment wants permits for such things ($$$) And lord don't get cought running one without a permit ($$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!)
Good luck

 

[bdog]

I am in Texas. Last year I fed 10 steers on this same piece of land for about 45 days just on the sorghum/sudan I had growing. I had zero issues with crowding, messes,mud,disease, etc.

I am not wanting to do anything crazy or extreme. I just have the option to get some feed really cheap and am trying to figure out how I can best make use of it with my small acreage. I see feedlots that seem to have hundreds per acre. I don't want to do that or do anything close to it. I did not think 30 would be that crowded. The feeling I am getting here is they would be, so maybe I should back down to 20.