Hay Unrollers

[Kthompson]

Newby question, are Hay Unrollers worth it?
We typically set out 2-3 bales at a time for our small herd during the late fall-early spring, I hate all the waste as well as the damaged areas of the pasture from the wasted hay.

Thanks for any advice or opinions!
KT

 

[bird dog]

Yes definitely. Dollar for dollar the best money you can spend IMO.

 

[sstterry]

Yes, and they allow the cows and leftover hay to feed the soil.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

I would say depends is the answer. You indicated 'small herd and only 2-3 bales, which has me leaning towards "no", but that is up to you. As long as you do not place bales in the exact same location one after another, I would say leaving the bales intact would be fine. Yes, the bales leave a 'bale scar' for a year to a year and a half, but those are more an aesthetic effect than a resource concern. I don't know the cost of a hay unroller and also don't know what a 'threshold' number of bales/herd size would be to consider a hay unroller purchase. I would think it would be more than 3 bales.

Kinda funny. I just typed this 2 hours ago as an answer to bales vs unrolling to another forum participant. It applies here as well:
If you go with placing your hay that you feed in the winter within the pastures, I wouldn't use bale rings. They are expensive and don't really do a whole lot, maybe save a bit of waste, but it isn't really waste in a pasture if you consider the fertilizer value of the hay. As for placing whole bales vs unrolling, there are a few things to consider. Unrolling a bale takes some time, maybe not a lot, but there is a time factor. Yes, the hay gets spread a bit more. However, if you are placing whole bales randomly and NEVER IN THE SAME SPOT, the spread is nearly as good. As for whole bales creating a 'muddy spot', yes they do. I've never had anyone consider this to be a real significant issue as it heals in a year to a year and a half, other than maybe just looking a bit 'messy' for that time. One thing to possibly consider, and I chalk it up to a freak accident. I worked with a producer one time who told me he fed whole bales. In doing so, the way the cows ate the bale (one instance only) the bale ended up collapsing on top of a calf and suffocated it. Again, a freak accident, but worth noting as a possible consideration, especially since you only have 6 cows, hence, 6 calves and a single loss is significant. There is some merit in keeping your hay dry until ready to feed. This may be offset by the difficulty of trying to get the bale to the location to feed when needed such as dealing with mud or snow, which you probably don't have much of (the snow anyway).

 

[chaded]

They are absolutely worth it. I have a small herd and the beauty of a hay unroller is you can unroll half a bale and pick up the rest and unroll it the next day or unroll the entire thing.

 

[slpatterson]

Looks like to me there would be more waste of them stepping on it and crapping on it would be better under a hay ringer, just my thoughts I never tried it.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Caustic Burno posted about hay cradles and I looked at his design. I wound up building a dozen out of old trampoline frames. The round bales never touched the ground. My waste went to near nothing.

I was feeding 12 bales a week so if I were to unroll it would render me unrolling two per day, which was too much. There was waste there plus it would involve a daily chore.

If you put a hay ring around a bale the bulls eventually tossed it off the bale and they hay was stomped down in to the mud or crapped in.

I've been beholding to CB ever since. Hay cradles are a huge savings. A friend who was unrolling has now quit and gone to hay cradles after he saw mine in action.

 

[backhoeboogie]

If this works, here is a pic. One of the cradles is flipped over so that you can see the gussets. The gussets are a must for that much weight.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I unroll on pasture all winter long. My pastures have never had as much grass as they do now.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Absolutely chevytahoe. You have to keep a good pasture to make it in this business.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

Caustic Burno posted about hay cradles and I looked at his design. I wound up building a dozen out of old trampoline frames. The round bales never touched the ground. My waste went to near nothing.

I was feeding 12 bales a week so if I were to unroll it would render me unrolling two per day, which was too much. There was waste there plus it would involve a daily chore.

If you put a hay ring around a bale the bulls eventually tossed it off the bale and they hay was stomped down in to the mud or crapped in.

I've been beholding to CB ever since. Hay cradles are a huge savings. A friend who was unrolling has now quit and gone to hay cradles after he saw mine in action.

Interesting. I haven't seen his design. I've only ever heard of them one other time and that one was purchased. The producer was telling me about it a month ago. He indicated that the added expense of the cradle was worth it. Bear in mind that this producer had a designated winter feeding area and was not feeding hay in the pasture. Had he been doing that, in order to keep an accumulation of nutrients from occurring in a single spot, the producer would have to move the cradle for each bale fed. So, again, "is it worth it?" the answer is.....depends. I do like what I hear about them.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Maybe CB will weigh in. He started it !

Those trampoline frames are all over the place. People get rid of them. Dusty Britches put me on to one up north of here about an hour. The rest of it is scrap iron. Gosh that was over 12 years ago.

You can buy some of those fancy store bought versions if you need tax write offs I suppose.

These cradles were the most cost saving endeavor i have encountered. Again, thanks to CB. If this method is not for you, just scroll on by.

 

[simme]

If you want to minimize waste, unroll every day and just what they will eat that day. If you unroll enough for several days, there will be a lot of waste.

If you want to put out enough rolls for several days of feed, put it in a ring or some sort of feeder that limits access and keeps them from spreading it out so much. If you set out enough rolls for several days with no ring or feeder, they will spread it out, lay on it, crap on it and waste a lot.

Correct that hay trampled into the mud and dirt will improve the soil, but I suspect that there are cheaper ways to improve soil than letting cows trample good hay into the mud. Fertilizer and cheap rotten junk hay must be a better value than using good quality hay to improve soil. I am too poor and too cheap to put out $50 hay for soil quality.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

If you want to minimize waste, unroll every day and just what they will eat that day. If you unroll enough for several days, there will be a lot of waste.

If you want to put out enough rolls for several days of feed, put it in a ring or some sort of feeder that limits access and keeps them from spreading it out so much. If you set out enough rolls for several days with no ring or feeder, they will spread it out, lay on it, crap on it and waste a lot.

Correct that hay trampled into the mud and dirt will improve the soil, but I suspect that there are cheaper ways to improve soil than letting cows trample good hay into the mud. Fertilizer and cheap rotten junk hay must be a better value than using good quality hay to improve soil. I am too poor and too cheap to put out $50 hay for soil quality.

I know what you are saying, but think about this, and theoretically it is possible. Lets say you put out $50.00 hay. Consider that the fertilizer value alone of that hay is $35.00 (very possible, ask your extension agent). That means all that hay has a cost to you of only $15.00. At this cost, is it worth having some waste or do you want to spend $$$ on a hay ring/cradle? It probably depends, but I'm just pointing out that the cost might not be as clear cut as it seems.

 

[Allenw]

If you want to minimize waste, unroll every day and just what they will eat that day. If you unroll enough for several days, there will be a lot of waste.

If you want to put out enough rolls for several days of feed, put it in a ring or some sort of feeder that limits access and keeps them from spreading it out so much. If you set out enough rolls for several days with no ring or feeder, they will spread it out, lay on it, crap on it and waste a lot.

Correct that hay trampled into the mud and dirt will improve the soil, but I suspect that there are cheaper ways to improve soil than letting cows trample good hay into the mud. Fertilizer and cheap rotten junk hay must be a better value than using good quality hay to improve soil. I am too poor and too cheap to put out $50 hay for soil quality.

I've considered unrolling and placing a hot wire down the middle so they couldn't lay in the middle of it or only have access half of it or less at a time depending on how you set it up.

 

[backhoeboogie]

People criticize me for feeding "premium horse quality" hay to my cows. I don't own horses. I fertilize hay fields that are exclusively used for hay. I do let cows clean up the perimeter after I put up hay. Then they are off and back to their normal rotational pastures.

But I get criticized. No matter how successful you are, someone will always be a critic.

Just do what works for you. No plan fits us all.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

People criticize me for feeding "premium horse quality" hay to my cows. I don't own horses. I fertilize hay fields that are exclusively used for hay. I do let cows clean up the perimeter after I put up hay. Then they are off and back to their normal rotational pastures.

But I get criticized. No matter how successful you are, someone will always be a critic.

Just do what works for you. No plan fits us all.

LOL. I wonder if your critics understand what a 'hay analysis' is and if they understand palatability. "premium horse quality". Does that have some minimum analysis standard attached to it? If it doesn't........ I honestly don't know, but this is meant as a jab at your critics.

 

[dave_shelby]

Can you unroll them by hand? It works well enough and its a good workout. If you have any grade gravity helps.

 

[Lucky]

Been unrolling for 12 yrs now. Unrolling hay is great and will build up your pastures if you feed good hay...if you feed weedy hay you'll spread weeds. Our hay usage was cut by 1/2 or better once we started unrolling. The downside is you need to unroll everyday, this isn't a big deal for us since we supplement everyday too. The trick is to unroll about 25# of hay per cow per day. We unroll 2 rolls a day and drag the field once a year. When feeding season is over there's never a mess to clean up. Saying you have a small herd is subjective. Some people think 5 is small some think 100 is small. What size bales are you feeding? We feed 4x5.5 bales that weigh 1,100#.

 

[Lucky]

Been unrolling for 12 yrs now. Unrolling hay is great and will build up your pastures if you feed good hay...if you feed weedy hay you'll spread weeds. Our hay usage was cut by 1/2 or better once we started unrolling. The downside is you need to unroll everyday, this isn't a big deal for us since we supplement everyday too. The trick is to unroll about 25# of hay per cow per day. We unroll 2 rolls a day and drag the field once a year. When feeding season is over there's never a mess to clean up. Saying you have a small herd is subjective. Some people think 5 is small some think 100 is small. What size bales are you feeding? We feed 4x5.5 bales that weigh 1,100#.