Hay waste

[jedstivers]

On the issue of not enough cows to be able to unroll a bale. What's wrong with unrolling part of the bale for them to eat an taking the rest to another group or just waiting to feed the rest of that roll to them? We do that alot.

 

[SRBeef]

On the issue of not enough cows to be able to unroll a bale. What's wrong with unrolling part of the bale for them to eat an taking the rest to another group or just waiting to feed the rest of that roll to them? We do that alot.

I have been using the bale spear to take a partially eaten bale out of a feeder and put it on the ground and spread it a bit. Maybe 1/4 of a whole bale. The cows think it is Christmas morning! And it gives them some bedding in the snow using a part of the bale they are hesitant to eat otherwise.

Jim

 

[Angus Cowman]

On the issue of not enough cows to be able to unroll a bale. What's wrong with unrolling part of the bale for them to eat an taking the rest to another group or just waiting to feed the rest of that roll to them? We do that alot.

Ain't nothing wrong with that
I am feeding on bunch of cows down the road (Jed I think you know the ones I am talking about) that there is 20 cows in that herd and they won't clean up a full bale in 24 hrs so I unroll about 2/3rd of it on a hay field and then put the other 1/3 in a bale ring that is in another lot by doing this I can feed these cows for 3 days and then skip a day on feeding them as they have whats in the ring to eat
I am not a big fan of bale rings but this works out better than wasting the hay

 

[Isomade]

On the issue of not enough cows to be able to unroll a bale. What's wrong with unrolling part of the bale for them to eat an taking the rest to another group or just waiting to feed the rest of that roll to them? We do that alot.

Ain't nothing wrong with that
I am feeding on bunch of cows down the road (Jed I think you know the ones I am talking about) that there is 20 cows in that herd and they won't clean up a full bale in 24 hrs so I unroll about 2/3rd of it on a hay field and then put the other 1/3 in a bale ring that is in another lot by doing this I can feed these cows for 3 days and then skip a day on feeding them as they have whats in the ring to eat
I am not a big fan of bale rings but this works out better than wasting the hay

Works well for me too. I have cows in two places, each has an off ground hay cradle, I unroll a bale and put one in the cradle. They always eat the unrolled first, then move to the cradle.

 

[msscamp]

How does waste factor into the discussion of buying versus making your own? Having a lot of waste doesn't make any difference on whether to buy or make, in my opinion.

Actually it does. We raise our own hay for resale and, inevitably, we end up with a fair amount of bad bales for one reason or another - usually the weather. Those bales are recycled into soil amendment, bedding for my goats, grinding hay, or some other use. While a hay producer never wants to have hay go bad, recycling costs a lot less if you put them up yourself vs the cost of buying them and then having them go bad due to one reason or another.

I still don't see where it makes a difference whether you buy it in or put it up yourself (or even have your hay put up by a custom guy). Waste is waste whether it was bought or put up. That hay is sitting in the barn, hayyard or wherever. I believe you are saying that buying hay gets too expensive if there excess waste. However, putting up your own hay still costs a lot of money. It may not be quite as expensive as buying but than again it may be more expensive than buying. We all know that waste costs money and in the end I don't see that there is any difference where the hay came from. If you put it up you should be able to sell it for the same money as what you could buy it for. Maybe I'm missing something in your argument?

I think I'm missing something about the way hay is priced in your area. Then again, maybe it is just the way we price our hay. Buying hay in this area is expensive, and I think what you're missing is the pricing differences and there is no way you could have known about that.