I live in Alabama, and I planted some ryegrass back in oct. It has turned out really good for me this year. I turned my cows out on my pastures this week and It has been really nice not having to feed any hay at all. I am trying to train them to come off the rye grass but you can get them to budge off those lush green pastures. I hope in another week I will have them trained.... Hay feeders are expensive, and I don't recommend that you buy one unless you really need it. As I said my place gets really muddy and most of a bale that sits on the ground will be wasted. I bet I was loosing about a quarter a bale a hay every bale I put out. Now I loose maybe a quarter a bale every eight bales I put out.
I know I have seen some used wagons for sale from time to time. If you can wait a few seasons one will show up at a reduced price. I was just in a horrible bind this year and it was either sale cows or be proactive in hay savings. One field where I normally get 100 bales a cutting off it only yielded 18 bales all year.....I did graze it some when I would not normally, but all in all. It has
been a dry year here for sure.
If money is tight I would not jump out there and buy a wagon just yet. A deal will come along on one. I had a little extra this year and I used the purchase as a tax write off so I was ok. However, this winter grazing has been outstanding for me. It has been a mild winter with decent rain so the lord is blessing me for sure. Another thing I noticed today is how my cows bags are much fatter than when I was feeding hay and corn gluten/soy hulls. There is no comparison in how much more milk they are producing. So after today, I am sold on winter ryegrass planting. Even if I had to wait a little longer before opening the pastures up to my cows it beats feeding hay.