how to tell cattle are eating enough?

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bigrich954rr

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my Cattle are eating in the back pasture which is all dry grass id say there is at least still 50 percent of tall pasture grass left. 6acres 4 cows
Thinking i need to keep them back there for another week then i can move them to a green growing front pasture.

But the left side of the cattle right before the hip seems to be a little sunk in ? which would mean there not eating enough ?
Is this ok or will this set me back in weight gain
should i start giving them some sweet feed at night to give them more cals?
 
They will often look a bit hollow first up in the morning especially if they are not too keen on where they are and are expecting you to shift them but will go back to grazing after giving up on getting moved and by mid morning will look OK. Well that's my experience with mine anyhow.

Ken
 
Cattle can stand in bellie deep grass and starve to death if it does not have any food value. Are they losing condition?? If they are constantly "hollow", then yes, you might need to move them.
You can also get a protein lick tank that will balance their ration so that they can utilize the poor roughage. It's like eating meat & potatoes. Meat (protein) Potatoes (carb - poor roughage). Your system needs both - protein & carbs.
 
Jeanne - Simme Valley":3h8hgstc said:
Cattle can stand in bellie deep grass and starve to death if it does not have any food value. Are they losing condition?? If they are constantly "hollow", then yes, you might need to move them.
You can also get a protein lick tank that will balance their ration so that they can utilize the poor roughage. It's like eating meat & potatoes. Meat (protein) Potatoes (carb - poor roughage). Your system needs both - protein & carbs.
Exactally.....what she said... Plus the absence of moisture in the grass, will make them a little gaunt looking..
 
Thank you all.

They they are looking a litle hollow compared to when the grass was nice and green. one of the guys from work who buys cattle said they look good. But i can tell they have lost very little of the condition they had before so im trying to stop that.

I have lots of dry grass but thinking it might be low in quailty i plan in the fall to seed with white and red clover and alfalfa to try and add to the the pasture . i also might try a little rye grass. I just brough the place, the people before had horses and let them eat the ground bare so im trying to rebuild i think i lost alot to wind and water stripping the top off. last fall i just went to DB supply and threw down a few bags of there pasture mix grass seed to get some thing on the ground.

thinking of giving them a little sweet feed and alfalfa cubes i can buy both locally to help up the protein?
 

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