Hay Unrolling?

[plumber_greg]

I unroll everything until calving. I look at what they ate yesterday, if it's cleaned up they get more. If there is some left, they get less. When I drag pastures in the spring to spread manure, there is very little waste left. Where there is waste, snow covered it or ice, the grass has a tendency to kill out. Just look every day. gs

 

[Isomade]

i wouldnt unroll more than 1/3 to 1/2 of the bale a day.

This is terrible advice for 45 cows. One if the top 10 worst pieces of advice ever given on this board.

 

[shaz]

When you unroll hay waste isn't a really such bad thing. Worst case is you have a 4ft x 100 strip that very little grass will grow through this spring. This waste acts like a moisture sponge. It soaks up rain really quick and releases very slow. So, that long wasted strip probably has great grass growing on either side of it.
If you can feed hay every day then unrolling is clearly the way to go.
FYI: I feed 1.5 4x6 rolls to 70hd every day.

 

[Angus Cowman]

i wouldnt unroll more than 1/3 to 1/2 of the bale a day.

This is terrible advice for 45 cows. One if the top 10 worst pieces of advice ever given on this board.

Now Isom, Don't go disputing what an expert cattleman says remember he has poop in his veins
Plus if he rolled a bale out his cows would waste it by pooping and peeing on it
:deadhorse: :deadhorse: :deadhorse:

 

[hayrack]

I unroll hay and have one group with 45-50 in it and use 5x6 rolls. I have paddocks and I will unroll a full roll if the weather is cold in one paddock and the next a half and so on. I turn to the full roll in the morning and about 3:00 pm I turn to the half roll. I the weather is warmer and they can pick some I just unroll a half in each paddock. The more you teach them to clean up the better they will get. If you let them leave a little each time they will gradually leave more each time. You will learn as you go, along with the cows. I had a meeting and got all the cows together when I started to tell them the way it was going to be and all I got was alot of bawling. haha

 

[John SD]

IMO, roll out whatever hay the cows will clean up in a day. If they clean up every speck, feed a little more the next day. If they leave some and crap on it, back off some.

Quality/composition/age of hay combined with weather and pasture quality/availabilty makes hay consumption infinitely variable.

Obviously cattle will consume less hay if they are fed in a fresh winter pasture with good grazing and it's a dry winter day, the sun is shining, with calm winds and 30 degrees.

Opposite scenario: With grubbed off pasture, fridgid cold, 3 feet of snow on the ground blowing around, -30 air temp with -50 wind chills, and no sun to be seen, those same cows may need 2 or 3 times as much feed just to stay even.

To summarize: Simply be observant, and your cows will tell you how much to feed them. :2cents:

 

[John SD]

i have turned them wrong, and some still come apart, but this is on a big steep hill.
have also have then turn and flip end over end

I always prefer to unroll bales the "wrong" way because they go further and spread out more. But when I was out there freezing my a$$ with no cab I didn't always take time to study things out closely enough to do that. :roll:

I carried the bales out with my little tractor and rolled them out downhill with the front tire. Most of the time I had to drive backwards with a bale on because the tractor front end rared up when I d try to drive forward with a bale on.

No,it almost wasn't quite enough tractor but it worked. Also, I was never man enough to unroll bales by hand.

Got a shop made bale unroller for the big tractor so could roll bales out anywhere. If I had old out of shape/rotten twine bales to feed, I used the Stur-D double bale fork to carry them out and spread the bales out with the dozer.

Sometimes the old bales would roll out pretty good. Sometimes they were too flat and just had to knock them around a bit with the dozer to spread. :lol:

 

[bigbull338]

iso you said it,unrolling hay a 1/2 to a 1/3 of the bale is bad advice that i gave.well you maybe right as ive got better sense not to unroll no hay,an waste it like that.but you have people on CT an thats fine because thats the way they like todo things.

 

[Bigfoot]

Tomorrow or Saturday, I should start on my rolls stored inside. I'm gonna unroll one, and see what happens. I'll let you know. If the ground wasn't froze, I wouldn't even try it. I feed about 3 a day now. I'm gonna see what 1 unrolled in the morning, and 1 in the evening looks like. I figure of the three a day that I feed in rings half of one roll, or more is wasted now.

 

[bigbull338]

bigfoot do you let them clean up the hay in the rings.we let the cows clean the rings up pretty good before we put out more hay.we put out 4 rolls yesterday.an will put out 3 or 4 rolls sunday.as our cows are eating 8 bales of hay a week.

 

[Black and Good]

There's a farmer that lives south of me that mounted on the front of his tractor where weights would go. He made a bracket and has tire and wheel sticking out there that uses to unroll bales works good. The wheel is upright and spins as it unrolls the hay. B&G :idea:

 

[torogmc81]

I know a guy that tried to cut up a round bale with a chain saw. (cough cough)
Didn't work out too good.............

Did you get the fire put out??

 

[Isomade]

iso you said it,unrolling hay a 1/2 to a 1/3 of the bale is bad advice that i gave.well you maybe right as ive got better sense not to unroll no hay,an waste it like that.but you have people on CT an thats fine because thats the way they like todo things.

Wrong! You have to have enough cows to clean up the unrolled bale and second it depends on the quality of hay being fed. Poor quality hay will be wasted and in such a case it's better to put it in rings. Unrolling the proper amount of good hay leaves very little waste and if stragically unrolled throught the pasture that pasture will soil test much better come spring and require little or no fertilizer.

 

[Cattleman 9.5]

I am new here but this seems like an interesting topic and one I have researched quite extensively
My findings were the more you feed the more they will waste and the less you feed the less waste you will have
so I have determined that if I have my hired hand only feed 1 bale every 3 day to my 110 cows that they waste nothing and are waiting on him when he feeds them on the third day and there is none of the bale left that he previously fed
Since we have implemented this program our hay supplies last a lot longer and our expenses have decreased immensely, because we are using less fuel and his time can be spent doing other tasks here on the ranch

 

[hurleyjd]

I unroll my hay and they eat it then poop and pee in it and then I pile it up and make compost. The poop and pee makes the compost work off a whole lot faster. When the compost gets through composting then I spread it on the pasture amazing how fast the grass will grow. You can go to where the compost has been fed and actually hear the grass growing it squeaks and you can hear it. I spread it with a 250 horse power tractor and it spreads it very well. How is this for a cock and bull story.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

I think it was here that I learned this with unrolling hay:

Day 1 - It is dinner
Day 2 - It is the bedroom
Day 3 - It becomes the bathroom

 

[piedmontese]

I am new here but this seems like an interesting topic and one I have researched quite extensively
My findings were the more you feed the more they will waste and the less you feed the less waste you will have
so I have determined that if I have my hired hand only feed 1 bale every 3 day to my 110 cows that they waste nothing and are waiting on him when he feeds them on the third day and there is none of the bale left that he previously fed
Since we have implemented this program our hay supplies last a lot longer and our expenses have decreased immensely, because we are using less fuel and his time can be spent doing other tasks here on the ranch

So ur sayn that u feed 1 bale every 3 days to 110 cows?? Don't worry,soon they will all be dead from starvation and then u can sale all your hay.

 

[Isomade]

I am new here but this seems like an interesting topic and one I have researched quite extensively
My findings were the more you feed the more they will waste and the less you feed the less waste you will have
so I have determined that if I have my hired hand only feed 1 bale every 3 day to my 110 cows that they waste nothing and are waiting on him when he feeds them on the third day and there is none of the bale left that he previously fed
Since we have implemented this program our hay supplies last a lot longer and our expenses have decreased immensely, because we are using less fuel and his time can be spent doing other tasks here on the ranch

You Sir are a genius!

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I am new here but this seems like an interesting topic and one I have researched quite extensively
My findings were the more you feed the more they will waste and the less you feed the less waste you will have
so I have determined that if I have my hired hand only feed 1 bale every 3 day to my 110 cows that they waste nothing and are waiting on him when he feeds them on the third day and there is none of the bale left that he previously fed
Since we have implemented this program our hay supplies last a lot longer and our expenses have decreased immensely, because we are using less fuel and his time can be spent doing other tasks here on the ranch

You Sir are a genius!

:idea: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :cry2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :cry2: .

 

[Cattleman 9.5]

I am new here but this seems like an interesting topic and one I have researched quite extensively
My findings were the more you feed the more they will waste and the less you feed the less waste you will have
so I have determined that if I have my hired hand only feed 1 bale every 3 day to my 110 cows that they waste nothing and are waiting on him when he feeds them on the third day and there is none of the bale left that he previously fed
Since we have implemented this program our hay supplies last a lot longer and our expenses have decreased immensely, because we are using less fuel and his time can be spent doing other tasks here on the ranch

So ur sayn that u feed 1 bale every 3 days to 110 cows?? Don't worry,soon they will all be dead from starvation and then u can sale all your hay.

Yes that is what I am saying and since I implemented this program we have only lost 1 calf and that is an acceptable % and it had nothing to do with the feeding, plus you are on an internet forum and have No clue of my operation and have no idea if my cows will Starve to death on 1 bale of hay every 3 days

I also never SALE my calves or hay I SELL them ! There is another topic on just this type of misuse of grammar on these boards and I would advise you to read it.
I also plainly said my HIRED HAND fed the hay! I just instruct him on what to do and when to do it