Alan":nohccrbu said:
The area in front of my feed bin for the bred cow herd has always has problem getting churned up and end up in belly deep mud. Last spring after it dried up enough I took the tractor out and worked the dirt to give the area a steeper slope and to even things out, hoping to get better drainage and less of a problem with mud. Well we have had less than a month of our usual heavy rain fall and the cows have already got it churned up to the point its belly deep mud, the mud's texture is like a thick soup, they wade through it to get the the feed. With a good 4 months a rain and mud to come I hate the thought of feeding on the ground because of the waste, and I don't (won't) feed round bales in a ring, due to same problem with mud in another area. I don't think concrete will help, I feel the mud will be belly deep at the end of the concrete pad. Any Ideas on firming up the mud soup so the cows can get to the feed bin easily without being covered in mud on the bottom of their bellies and udders?
Thanks,
Alan
Alan - and others who read this long response - it is a thought that many people ignore for some reason - we do this every year now with astounding success.
Do not know your set up as there are no pics.
I hate feed troughs and bins - very messy - we feed on ground - cows never come to the yard they stay in the fields year round - health benefits and added benefits far out weigh the health and potential health problems of tagged up cows.
Since you do not want to do this I suggest the following.
Put skids under the trough. Hook on to it with a chain and move it.
If you work it right you can move it 20 feet every two days or so - provides manure spreading and ground aeration of sorts. Rig it up so you can pull straight all winter - even across a field if required.
Do this and you will be amazed at how the grass comes back.
Personally if I did not have a covered feed area - cedar poles and old tin will do a grand job - or a method to keep the cows from wading in mud to eat - I would leave them in the field and bale graze. Just recently there has been a tremendous amount of writing and discussion on this. Most of which has been done by me.
Once again - the waste hay argument is more than off set by the benefits of having the cows do the work for you. Do the math and see if it works for you.
I never could understand why people bring the cows in to the yard for winter - they do far, far better in the field - no matter what the weather is.
So - for the sake of argument lets do a small example:
Lets say it takes 100 round bales to feed your herd for the winter.
Each bale costs 40 bucks because you bought it in.
You have spent 4000 bucks to buy hay
You lose 25% (a very high figure in my opinion) so you have wasted 10 bucks a bale or 1000 bucks. We believe it is more like 10% but you can do your own math later. Lets stay with the higher number for now.
If you fertilize your fields and can do it for 1000 bucks you have such a small place it probably does not matter - but you can discount the fertilizer - we never buy fertilizer now. And we bale graze over a 75 acre area or larger each winter - although we are seriously downsizing now - for other reasons. Different areas each winter to spread the benefit out. Right away we have more than paid for the cost of the wasted hay.
You have no pen and fence maintenance in the yard - another savings.
You do not start a tractor in the winter - which some will say is not a problem - a cavalier approach in my opinion as winter starts and stops mean warm up and wear and tear on equipment. Another savings in added run time. Less fuel costs.
You will have less health problems - so you can expect a drop in medical treatment or veterinary calls.
If you have some calves still sucking they are pulling on clean tits. You know how important that is - they also stay healthy and therefore grow faster.
You will not have to spend money on fancy water and feed areas - construction is not cheap.
Calving out in the spring you will have less scour problems as they are on clean ground.
You will have cleaner and happier cows - I cannot give you a dollar figure but you know it is important.
You will not have to clean pens.
You will not have to haul and spread manure.
You will not have to buy in straw or shavings for bedding as they will sleep on that waste hay - which means you are only really losing the difference in the cost of straw and hay. Reducing your loss even more.
Add it all up and ask yourself if it is worth doing - we are in our fourth or fifth year at this.
We set it out in the fall - for the 100 bale example I would do it in groups of 20 bales and separate the cows from the other bales until the hay in that group is finished.
We take the bale and set it on the ground as a normal round bale sits - just before setting it down we remove the wrap or twine - it will hold its shape and shed water just fine.
When the hay is finished we walk them through the snow to the next group of bales. We use distance and/or fences to separate cows. Fences is self explanatory. Distance means just that. Once the snow is deep they will not travel to other areas of the field to eat the bales - in fact sometimes you have to drive them through the snow to the next bale group. A cow will not leave feed to travel in deep snow.
They will pack down a real nice area in each group of bales in the snow to live on - and it is clean. It stays clean and they make new areas once in a while so the cows never get dirty.
Test your hay! It costs frigging nothing!
We sort our hay. We feed low quality at the start of winter, medium through the second trimester and the better stuff during calving.
If your hay runs 7%, 9% and 11% you will never have to feed grain or high protein. In fact they piszz it out on the ground if you are much over 11% - so why bother. In fact I would bet you a steak that most people just talk about the quality of their hay and a very small minority actually
KNOW their hay quality.
Those that know are able to do a better job and it helps them make MORE money.
Provide some free choice mineral and you are off to the races. Grain costs go to zero.
Can you do all of the above for the same or less cost of the wasted hay in this example?
If you can I would be surprized. I am sure you would spend more than 1000 bucks.
And it only costs you a bit of hay. Which is even cheaper if you make your own.
Just a thought for you (and others) to chew on. Do the math.
Over the past 5 years or so we have cleared about 50 more acres of pasture - we used cows.
For us to have cleared that land with equipment would have cost us many thousands of dollars - I know because we spent 40 grand on doing just that in an area we have never had cows - and we will never do it again - too expensive - we did it with hay in the past and that is how we will do it in the future.
Cows are wonderful land cleaners and the grass in there is terrific now.
We fed them in there for every winter - and they killed all the willow, alder, poplar and small cedars - what they did not eat, they trampled and broke. I frost seeded a little grass seed and away it went.
It is just another reason to think a bit differently and at the same time stop thinking wasted hay and start thinking of the total cost.
Finally - in all cases - time. You may enjoy checking cows - but time is always an issue - if only because of other things that can be done, need to be done or you want to do.
Feed once in a whole winter - that is worth something. Makes it easier to check cow - jump on the Skidoo and go for a ride. Drop some grain if you want - it keeps them coming on the run - but might not be required for feed - if you have had it tested.
Or - just take a thermos of coffee and enjoy checking them.
All important reasons for some to do the math.
Yeah, I say it a lot - put pencil to paper - do the math - and think outside of tradition - there are some serious advantages to this.
Regards
Bez+
