I was in hay shock after the drought of 2012 and the late spring in 2013 extended the hay feeding season, delaying pastures. I was purchasing all of my hay needs and ran out.
Begging people to sell you stalk bales at $65 or grass hay at $225 is an experience one does not soon forget. As mentioned above by someone, must be like our folks or grandparents felt going through the depression.
So went into full throttle mode this past year. It was either that or get out of cattle. The days of being able to purchase your winter hay needs (6 month hay feeding season) for a beef herd in WI are over. You could do that at $65 a 5x6 bale, not at $150 or more for good hay. That is pretty much for the dairy folks now.
No matter how well a rotational grazing system works during the green grass months, you can not make cow/calf work purchasing all winter hay needs at current hay prices. And I doubt hay prices will go back where they were.
Built a hay shed, bought hay equipment, converted soybean ground to oats/alfalfa, made my own hay, hired inline wrapping stuff that was marginal to too wet. Also had some corn silage custom bagged for the first time. And has that ever been a life saver in this extremely cold weather. Silage gets a lot of needed calories into a cow when its below zero (F) and the wind is blowing snow.
Net result looks like I will be ok for hay, likely have enough left over to feed some in the summer rather than destroy pastures if there is a real dry spell. Also moved calving start back 3 weeks this year from April 1 to late April and glad I did.
Feeding as I am at the hay shed and using silage in a wagon has dramatically reduced my hay consumption per cow from when I was trying to meet all protein and energy needs with good hay alone.
They are maintaining condition fairly well. I put silage in the wagon once every 4 days. Consumption averages about 30 lb/cow/day but is not uniform. I am going to reduce the silage in February as the third trimester starts.
Jim
I'll add a couple pictures from the past few days. It has been cold and windy. The silage you see on the ground was blown to that side by a 25 mph wind as I dumped the loader bucket. Temperature was 5 degrees F this afternoon and going to -22 deg F temp/-45 deg F windchill Monday and Tuesday.
I realize this is a thread about hay, however the thing that has really extended my hay supply is this bagged corn silage. Not good dairy silage as it was a short season grain corn variety but in a way that is good as its not "hot" and probably better for beef cows. I want the girls to stay full and warm but don't want huge calves in late April.
My inline wrapped alternating oat-alfalfa-grass hay bales are tube wrapped and half covered in snow and ice on the right
