How much do you feed per winter?

[TANK30705]

I am doing hay right now and making plans for winter.

I am curious how much hay yall feed per winter???? I know their are a lot of factors in this, but I am just curious how much everyone feeds and what time frame.

I will go first: I feed 220 rolls of 4x5 hay from normally december 1 - march 1. To about a hundred head.

 

[Brute 23]

I avg 1-1.5 round bales... aprox #1400-1500... per head... per year.

 

[1982vett]

Always varies but always figured a ton per cow.....probably have fed more June to October the past few years than November to March.

 

[greybeard]

about 1 4x5 per head, and 30 acres of ryegrass with loose minerals. If I don't get ryegrass up, and it's a bad winter, add 3 lbs ofrange cubes/head/day during cold snaps.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

We average about a 900 pound bale per 2 cows per month in a cold year. Usually feed from mid-November till March here, when we get good rains!

 

[kenny thomas]

Fed from March 10th to April 5th last year. 70 cows. Gonna try to make it all winter this year on stockpiled grass. But goit 800 rolls in the barns if I need it.

 

[3waycross]

I usually figure 2 tons per cow more if it snows early. Less if there is anything stockpiled.

normal window is Dec 15th to early may

 

[houstoncutter]

Some years salt and mineral, and 10 lbs of 38% cubes a week. Otherwise one ton of hay, salt and mineral and no cubes

 

[snake67]

I am doing hay right now and making plans for winter.

I am curious how much hay yall feed per winter???? I know their are a lot of factors in this, but I am just curious how much everyone feeds and what time frame.

I will go first: I feed 220 rolls of 4x5 hay from normally december 1 - march 1. To about a hundred head.

It takes 10 - 12 - 5 foot round bales to get each cow we have through the winter

Right now we have zero hay in the yard due to drought - and hay is running 80 - 100 bucks a bale

Planning to sell everything if there is no change by mid Sept.

Best to all

Bez

 

[TexasBred]

Where are you located Bez?

 

[Bigfoot]

I figure on feeding 5 5x5 rolls per cow. I'm jealous of those that feed less, and don't see how those that feed much more than that make any money.

 

[J&D Cattle]

I figure a 4X5 round bale per month per cow. We generally feed for 3.5 months. Depending on the hay quality I supplement with DDG and always keep out loose mineral.

 

[Galloways1]

on average we feed for 6 months, about (1) 5 X 5 bale per cow / month. Some years we feed 1.5 bale per month. Last year we had such a mild winter with no snow ( LOVED IT) We only fed about 3 bales per cow the entire year. We typically graze stockpiled pasture or cornstocks until Feb. 1 or the snow gets 2-3 ft deep, whichever comes first.

Calving starts Feb. 1.

 

[Dave]

I figure about 2 ton per cow some years a little more if grass is slow in the spring. I feed from about November 1 to April 1. I could run longer on stock piled grass in the fall but the rains start and the ground gets too soft so they would tear up the fields.

 

[bigbull338]

in winter we usually feed 1 to 1.5 bales to grown cows calves an heifers a year.right now we have about 2.2 4 by 6 bales pre grown head.normally we start feeding hay the end of nov till march 15th.thats 105 days of feeding hay or less depending on what the rye grass an clover does.

 

[JSCATTLE]

I figure 4 4x5 rolls per cow . I also plant ryegrass . If I get a good stand the hay stays in the barn . Last year I fed 120 rolls to 60 head . Had to start haying oct 15 because of the drought. This year I'll start haying around Christmas . Hopefully we get another good winter for ryegrass and I can hay about a month .

 

[Banjo]

What type of winters do you have in Texas?

 

[greybeard]

What type of winters do you have in Texas?

With it's length being approximately 790 miles northe to south and its width measuring 773 miles, and altitude varying from sea level to 8000 ft, It depends where your cows are--and whether the winter follows a drought like last winter. Winter in Dalhart is a lot different than winter in Brownsville.

My area generally has a very mild winter, with the 1st killing frost coming sometime in late nov thru Dec and grass greening up again in early March. Last winter tho, you might as well say the first killing frost came in late Sept--all the grass was dead by then from drought and that is when I started feeding hay, but I had tomtoes in the ground around March 30 2012.

 

[houstoncutter]

What type of winters do you have in Texas?

With it's length being approximately 790 miles northe to south and its width measuring 773 miles, and altitude varying from sea level to 8000 ft, It depends where your cows are--and whether the winter follows a drought like last winter. Winter in Dalhart is a lot different than winter in Brownsville.

My area generally has a very mild winter, with the 1st killing frost coming sometime in late nov thru Dec and grass greening up again in early March. Last winter tho, you might as well say the first killing frost came in late Sept--all the grass was dead by then from drought and that is when I started feeding hay, but I had tomtoes in the ground around March 30 2012.

As Greybeard stated, it really varies greatly here. I am not that far from Greybeard, but seldom do I have to feed hay. When I had cows in the past they were in river bottoms, which usually meant there was always something green to eat. One of the reason I sold my cattle was I was losing most of my river bottom leases because of development.

The price of hay is going to make a lot of cattlemen change their feeding practices in the future. I loved the cattle biz, but I like to make a profit on my money, and at present, the cattle biz is a tough row to hoe.

 

[highgrit]

If you can't make it in the cow business now you never will.