how much hay should i buy for winter?

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lineman-up

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i need to know how much hay to buy to get my calves through til spring? i will be buying six bottle calves at the end of august and i found some cheap round bales from a friend. i will probably try to buy some beef breed if i can find them otherwise it will just be holsteins again!! please help i need to let the guy know on the hay!!! thanks
 
We shoot for 1 per cow, times # of months of winter. Usually have a few left over depending on how early winter actually starts.
 
A lot depends on QUALITY of hay and CP% and TDN%, etc. Still other depends on severity of winter, amount of grass you have going into winter, amount of rain or snow you get in winter to help "winter grasses".

Otherwise, figure 1.5% to 2% of animal's body weight per day in grazing or hay.

Cheap, low protein hay that is stemmy will not give anyone very much nutrient.

You get what you pay for. (Sometimes you DON'T get what you pay for...buyer beware).
 
Please be careful to note where you are located determines how long you have to have them on hay in the spring. Being in Northern MN you need to plan on a late spring - maybe May 1st - before you can put them on pasture? Maybe others here from MN can give you a better idea. In any case they are sure to be on hay longer than if you are located in Texas or other southern areas.

You also need to know the weight of the bales you are planning to buy and the general quality of the hay. Since these are calves and not pregnant cows you may be able to get by with 2.5 % of body weight/day/head. Allow for some spoilage - don't feed them moldy hay.

4 calves x 150 days on hay(?) x 2.5 % of body wt/day x 500 lb avg body wt = approx 7500 lb of hay to get to spring? You may want to have at least 8000-9000 lb of good hay available? How many bales this is depends on the size/wt of each bale you are looking to buy.

Others please check my numbers. Good luck.
 
thanks for the replys i told the guy i wanted 15 bales for sure. it is good grass hay. the bales are 1000lb. i can buy hay year round but am thinking it will be about half price right now, so i would probably be better to buy to much than not enough. thanks

rob
 
15,000lbs of hay and they'll be on the bottle when you purchase them? You'll have hay left over but that's not a bad thing. Wish I had hay left over from previous years... it'd save me the expense of buying overpriced stuff this year.

If it's just grass hay you definitely need to figure the cost of grain into your budget; bottle calves (esp Holsteins) aren't going to do very well without grain.
 
like i said i dont know what to buy, last year was my first calves and i did holstein and just fed them corn til it hit 7$ a bushel. then i put up a fence a kicked them out of the barn. i have no idea how much hay to buy but i do know it is 35$ a bale right now and at least double that by nov. how much hay do you think milkmaid? i will supplement the hay with some corn, but only as much as needed.

rob
 
Mature cow consumption is easy to estimate, but it's harder to mathmatically figure out how much hay to feed growing calves... because their rate of consumption changes as they grow. I can tell you what I put into my Holstein bottle calves though. I feed hay from Oct/Nov through April/May. If I purchase calves in Sept/Oct as day-olds and sell them in April/May, I usually go through 1/2 a ton to 1 ton of straight alfalfa hay per animal for the winter. Sometimes a touch more or less but it's largely dependent on if/how much grain they're getting and how fast I want them to grow. My calves usually end up around 400lbs in the spring when I sell, which is about 1.8lbs ADG. That translates to "not being pushed very hard."
 
lineman-up":u9g8qror said:
thanks for the replys i told the guy i wanted 15 bales for sure. it is good grass hay. the bales are 1000lb. i can buy hay year round but am thinking it will be about half price right now, so i would probably be better to buy to much than not enough. thanks

rob

15 1000lb bales would be about twice what you need. I would not purchase 2 years worth of hay if it had to sit outside unprotected. You might lose 50% of the carryover in N MN weather. Having extra hay is nice if you have a way or place to protect it. It's different buying excess hay than saving your own excess.

I had about the outer foot of 6 ft diameter netwrapped bales spoil on me in the wet snowy fall and winter we had last year in WI. By late winter and early spring I had to peel off the outer ft of moldy bales. The outer foot of a 6 ft bales is over 40% of the hay in the bale. It was enough to make a person consider a hay shed, wraps, tarps etc.
 
thanks milkmaid that is exactly what i wanted to know!!!!! i will still buy the fifteen bales because it is cheap , worst case scenario i feed them hay a little longer to let the pasture go. i reall appreciate the input. i am also curios from someone that raises holsteins, is there much difference in meat quality? i havent butchered mine yet but cant wait. they will probably make to be about 14 monthes old, once the pastures freezes so will they!!! again milkmaid thanks

rob
 
14 months... I don't think you'll have them much over 1,000lbs at that point if they're pushed hard. There'll be meat but not an awful lot. As long as they're on good pasture and grain they should be fine though. Don't let them get stunted or potbellied -- I see a lot of folks do that to their Holsteins and they turn into just bones and belly.

Can't comment on meat quality as I've never butchered anything but Holstein and Hol/Angus crosses. They tasted great to me. :p
 
Those Holsteins when feed properly will make great beef. At first 1 bale will last 6 calves a month or more. By Spring it might take nearly 2 bales per month. Figure feeding 7 months, 10 1000 pound bales should be plenty. Getting more is fine, if you plan to get a couple more calves. Or carry the extra into Summer in case it gets dry again. With that grass hay you will need to supplement protein and cracked corn.
 
thanks mnmtraunching, maybe i should feed the other five rounds to the older ones to bulk them up a little before the ride to the cooler!! thanks again milkmaid. i will be tarping the hay to try and keep it as dry as possible and setting it on pallets.

rob
 

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