Hay Belly

[tmlonghorns]

I have 6 Holstien/Jersey steers that I am raising that are about 8-9 months old. They were bottle calves when I got them and I had them on grain for several months after that. I bought some grass hay (round bales) that had been rained on several times before being baled. The hay was dry when bailed and I bought about 50 bales at less than $10 a piece. The guy I bought them from raises angus and he said his cows would not eat it and he was just going to use it for bedding. I figured for the price I could not go wrong.
Anyway, the cows appear to growing at about the same rate as previous cows I have raised. I have dewormed twice.......each time with a pour on deworming. However, they all still look like they got a hay belly. I have them in a good size pen and I put the bale in the pen with them and they eat whenever and however much they want. When it is gone I put another bale in with them. Should I be concerned or is the hay belly just from parking their butts next to the bale and eating whatever they want?

 

[tripleBfarms]

If "hay belly" means pot belly, thats from bottle feeding.

 

[dun]

If "hay belly" means pot belly, thats from bottle feeding.

No, it means from bottle feeding incorrectly! If the calves don;t have adequate nutrition until they are at least 6 months or so (grain or some other type of supplement) they will have a hay belly and it will take a long time to get rid of it. And the way you'll get rid of it is with grain or some other supplement. Grain is just the easiest.

 

[tmlonghorns]

Never heard of the hay belly being from incorrectly bottle feeding. Not saying you are wrong just that I have never heard of it.
Not sure what I would have done incorrectly, with perhaps the only I did wrong was maybe over feed when they were on the bottle.
Help me out for the next batch of calves.......

 

[dun]

How much grain were you feeding and at what age did you ean them?

 

[tmlonghorns]

If I said a scoop full twice a day would you know much that is?
My guess is that those scoops are roughly 5Lbs or so. I satrted them at about 120 days....which is when I took them off of the bottle and they stayed on grain until 6 months.
Now I will say that I did have some really old hay that I probably should not have fed earlier but that was about 1 1/2 months ago.

But now you have me confused. You stated this was from incorrectly bottle feeding and now you are asking about the grain.








?

 

[jtbakv]

I am kinda new to alot of this but why would you wait 6 months to put them on grain? I try not to get into bottle feeding but I have a few times and I fed hay and grain after about 3-4 weeks along with the bottle. they would smell it and try a little then after about a week they would dive in. I have always thought the quicker they get to eating hay and grain the better. But like I said I'm kinda new to this.

 

[jtbakv]

Sorry I see it was 4 months when you put them on grain.

 

[tmlonghorns]

I am by no means an expert. Perhaps we both will learn something here.

 

[dun]

Bottle calves need to be eating a good quailty calf starter grain from as early an age as possible. They should n;tbe weaned until they are eating at least 2 pounds of grain a day. Have you ever seen heifers raisewd by a dairyman that were potbellied? They feed grain form an early age and continue it well past weaning and in some cases all the way through to going in the milk string.
Bottle raising a calf isn;t hard but it does take significant inputs to raise them properly on an adequately nutritional diet.

 

[KNERSIE]

You should start bottle calves on calf starter in their second week and then only wean them when they eat enough calf starter and then feed the calf starter ad lib with free choice hay and clean water and you won't have pot bellied calves.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Did anybody read the part about the hay these calves are eating. It sounds like sorry sorry hay to me.

 

[dun]

Did anybody read the part about the hay these calves are eating. It sounds like sorry sorry hay to me.

That's the current problem. The part about "they all still look like they got a hay belly" sounds like they were that way when he got them. The crap hay now will just continue the belly look

 

[kenny thomas]

If I am reading it correctly they are also 1/2 Jersey which does not help.

 

[dun]

If I am reading it correctly they are also 1/2 Jersey which does not help.

Properly raised Jerseys are no more prone to being potty then any other breed. They just don;t grow as big

 

[TexasBred]

If "hay belly" means pot belly, thats from bottle feeding.

No, it means from bottle feeding incorrectly! If the calves don;t have adequate nutrition until they are at least 6 months or so (grain or some other type of supplement) they will have a hay belly and it will take a long time to get rid of it. And the way you'll get rid of it is with grain or some other supplement. Grain is just the easiest.

:nod: :nod: :nod:

 

[jtbakv]

TMLONGHORNS- I have learned so much from these boards I am really greatful for all the suggestions and advice I get from these guys. Its priceless

 

[chippie]

If you are using a feed scoop like this:

It does not hold 5 lbs of feed. The weight will vary depending on the type of feed. A pelleted feed will weigh more than a mix.

Put a scoop of your feed in a large zip-loc bag and take it to the grocery store and weigh it in the produce department. If you are friends with your postmaster, you can ask him or her to weigh it for you.

How many scoops were you feeding per calf? If you were only feeding one scoop for 6 calves, you were not feeding enough.

Also, there was a reason the seller's cattle would not eat it. Your calves are eating it because they are hungry. They don't have a choice.

 

[tmlonghorns]

Ya the scoop I use is like that one. But, no, I do not use one scoop for all calves, I use one scoop per calf twice daily. I do feed a pelleted feed versus a mix.
The reason the seller would not feed his cows with the hay is three fold. One being that he had far more hay than he would use and he is not the type to play around with a few bales to make some extra cash. This is an old friend of mine that was my next door neighbor growing up, known him since we were 3 and we are pushing 40. Second being that he has high dollar cattle, very high dollar show cattle. Third being that he would have had to load them on a trailer and haul back to his farm.....we have land that is next to each other. Only difference is I live here and he just uses his as pasture and takes only one cutting off his.
Just my opinon of the current hay is that is not all that bad. It is last years hay and was rained on but baled dry. The bales I had before the current batch was awful......my mistake. I took another look at them today (the cows) and it does appear the hay belly is going away. I would have thought it would have been sooner from the bad hay....been about a month.
I don't quite get the comment about the dairy heifers though. Maybe it was just the few dairy farms I have been around but I always thought they were fed the feed they were getting because 1) the whole purpose of having calves was to get the milk and 2) they already had plenty of feed. It had nothing to do with anything even remotely tied to the health of the calf. Again, it could have been just the farms I have been on.
Anyway, I have learned alot from this board as well. I check in almost everyday here and most of you guys are great. I have other livestock that I live off........most of you can guess what that is. What I have found with the other livestock that I am sure holds true in cattle as well is that everybody has a unique and different situation and what works well for farm A might not work as well for farm B. The key is finding what works for your situation.
Not sure this next year I will continue with the dairy breeds. I can buy all I can for anywhere from $10-$25 a head but they just seem to take alot of time and effort. I probably will start buying cattle from my buddy mentioned above. Much higher price tag to get in the game but I think it will worth it in the long run.

 

[chippie]

You can not determine the nutritional value of hay by looking at it.

We bought some hay without testing (our mistake) from a friend. It looks and smells great, but our cattle started losing weight. So we are having to supplement more than usual. It is only a rib stretcher. Your hay is probably the same.

good luck.