Out of Pasture

[Hayes' Farms]

Hi every one I am new to the site, I am a 23 year old begining farmer,I have lived on a farm my whole life, but I have never seen Dad or Grandpa, feed hay this early in the year. My question is this.

Dried Distilers Grain + Hay
Soy Hulls + Hay
Corn Gluten Feed + Hay

I have 35 Angus first calf heifers with a calf at side averaging 400lbs. What is the best, and how many lbs. per head per day, will replace pasture?

 

[Chris H]

Consider weaning those calves ASAP.
Pull the cows off the pasture, if you haven't already. Be ready to spread some nitrogen, if you get some rain. I'm assuming you have primarily fescue pastures.
What kind of hay do you have, have you done a feed analysis?
If you have to feed hay from today until April 1st, how many lbs/head do you have available?
Do you have access to cornstalks, baled or in the field?

 

[Hayes' Farms]

Man I have been feeding hay since the 4th of July, I have about 35 6x6 rols left. I have bought 120 5x5 rolls of grass hay.
Corn stalks are out of the question. Everybody is baling there own. And those that aret are selling them for $30 to $40 a roll.

 

[Limomike]

I would definitely consider selling the calves. Even some of the cows if you have to. Its the usual thing to do during a drought situation. Can always build back up later when times are better.

 

[Hayes' Farms]

Sell cows, I can't aford to. I just bought them this spring, I also owe money on them through the FSA beging farmer program, if I sell I will loose more than it would cost to feed them. And you know how the market is. If I sell cows, they will be pound cows because no oune has hay, so I will lose about $750 a head. And you know that this spring when it starts raining the grass starts growing and it turns green that people are going to want cattle, and if everyone sells now there will be no cattle. And the ones that are out there will cost about $1500. Just my opinion. I picked a heck of a year to get in!

 

[Limomike]

I like your attitude.. sounds like you could be a true cattleman. Stick with it then, and good luck! we have survived many droughts and bad bad winters, as I know others on here have. It all seems to even out. But definitely get rid of the calves as soon as u can. It will help with the feed bill.

 

[dun]

Sell cows, I can't aford to. I just bought them this spring, I also owe money on them through the FSA beging farmer program, if I sell I will loose more than it would cost to feed them. And you know how the market is. If I sell cows, they will be pound cows because no oune has hay, so I will lose about $750 a head. And you know that this spring when it starts raining the grass starts growing and it turns green that people are going to want cattle, and if everyone sells now there will be no cattle. And the ones that are out there will cost about $1500. Just my opinion. I picked a heck of a year to get in!

Welcome to the business!

 

[Caustic Burno]

Sell cows, I can't aford to. I just bought them this spring, I also owe money on them through the FSA beging farmer program, if I sell I will loose more than it would cost to feed them. And you know how the market is. If I sell cows, they will be pound cows because no oune has hay, so I will lose about $750 a head. And you know that this spring when it starts raining the grass starts growing and it turns green that people are going to want cattle, and if everyone sells now there will be no cattle. And the ones that are out there will cost about $1500. Just my opinion. I picked a heck of a year to get in!

Welcome to the business!

Aint that the truth on a big Howdy. It has never crossed the boys mind this could be a two or three year drought.

 

[KenB]

Sell cows, I can't aford to. I just bought them this spring, I also owe money on them through the FSA beging farmer program, if I sell I will loose more than it would cost to feed them. And you know how the market is. If I sell cows, they will be pound cows because no oune has hay, so I will lose about $750 a head. And you know that this spring when it starts raining the grass starts growing and it turns green that people are going to want cattle, and if everyone sells now there will be no cattle. And the ones that are out there will cost about $1500. Just my opinion. I picked a heck of a year to get in!

Also a heck of a time of year to get in.

 

[western]

What about planting a fall annual for forage? do you have any open ground? Ryegrass, Brassica, Grain, of these the brassicas have the highest feed value. A local grower gained 2.5 lbs/head/day grazing his livestock on Pasja Brassica. Of course you'll need some rain and someplace to plant them.

 

[Hayes' Farms]

Yes I pulled everything off of 30 acres and drilled it in Ryegrass on Sept. 8th. We got around 2 inches of rain on it that night, I thought I was really doing good. Then it hasn't rained since, and its only coming up in shady spots where the ground holds a litle more moisture. So there went another $750

 

[Brute 23]

This may sound bad to some of you "cattle in a buddle people" but what you have to do. You might have to look at a few ribs for a little while.

It doesn't take as much feed to keep cattle alive as what most people think.

 

[East Caney]

Hayes,

Good luck to you. Nothing like having cows on borrowed money during a drought and hay running out.

Trust me, I can relate. I did the same thing in 2005. I thought for sure Texas wouldn't have consecutive drought years. I paid a lot of money for over-priced hay. From my own hayfield, I baled 15 round bales in 2006. Just for comparison, the same field yielded 202 bales in two cuttings this year (161 in the 2nd cutting).

Keep your head up. Running cattle is a long term thing. Do what you have to do to minimize your losses. Sometimes, it's cheaper to feed them. If feeding them minimizes losses more than selling them, feed them. Find the feed that gives them the most energy and you the most bang for your buck.

Good luck to you (and don't forget to pray - pray when it's bad, praise when it's good),

EC

 

[Chris H]

Man I have been feeding hay since the 4th of July, I have about 35 6x6 rols left. I have bought 120 5x5 rolls of grass hay.
Corn stalks are out of the question. Everybody is baling there own. And those that aret are selling them for $30 to $40 a roll.

And how much is grass hay costing you? We are in the same shape as you, we're just above Cincinnati Ohio. We've run the numbers, we can feed purchased stalks, distillers grain, & corn much cheaper than buying hay.
How good of condition are your young cows? It's cheaper to keep condition than put it back on, a huge plus for weaning ASAP. Feed the calves and sell them vacc'd, and started on feed when they hit your target.
Keep this in mind for a 2 year old cow that's going into a drought right now. She was probably bred while you still had pasture, so she'll calve next spring(cull any open ones ASAP). But if your cows calve as thin 3 year olds, then you will have a lot of open and late calvers as 4 year olds, guaranteed. Been there, done that, got the dunce cap to prove it; but learned that lesson well!

 

[grannysoo]

This may sound bad to some of you "cattle in a buddle people" but what you have to do. You might have to look at a few ribs for a little while.

It doesn't take as much feed to keep cattle alive as what most people think.

I have an uncle that looks at it that way. I'm not saying that he's cheap, but when you ride by his place, if the cows are not standing sideways, you won't see them because they are so thin. Amazingly.... they still have calves in the summer.

Desperate times can call for desperate measures.

 

[cowsrus]

What worked for me this last winter when all I had was a short supply of 2 &3 year old hay. First , ration the hay out, don,t let the cows eat free choice. Figure out how much hay they need a day and roll it out if you need to. And I used what the local elevator calls 3-way. Its wheat midds, corn gluten & soy hull pellets. I fed probably 5 lbs. per day per head. It was real cheap and the cows loved it. I even used it to creep feed calves. My cows came through the winter in as good a condition as they ever have. Also the hay I had besides being old wasn,t very good hay, it had a lot of fescue in it. It surprised me that the cows ate some of the three year old hay before they eat the two year old stuff. But anyway I attribute getting by to feeding the by-product feed mostly.

 

[Hayes' Farms]

Grass hay around here 4x4 $40 5x5 $50 to $60 and get this 6x6 $80.

 

[Angus Guy]

These are my thoughts so take them for whatever you want. I would check out DDG's. If there are any ethenol plants in your area to see if they have some cheap prices. Also wean the calves and put them on grass hay and DDG's. Around here we have several ethanol plants so finding good prices is fairly easy if you plan ahead.

 

[KenB]

Grass hay around here 4x4 $40 5x5 $50 to $60 and get this 6x6 $80.

I know it doesn't seem that it should, but the 6X6 = (169.59 cu. ft.) has over 3 times the hay by volume then the 4X4 = (50.24 cu. ft.) ;-)

 

[Hayes' Farms]

DDG = $149 TON
Protein 25.00 %
Fat 7.00 %
Fiber 8.00 %
Ash 5.00 %
Calcium 0.15 %
Phosphorus 0.78 %
Not enough fiber to use all of the protien.
Very low calcium.

CGF = $149 TON
Crude Protein 18.0 %
Fat 03.5 %
Crude fiber 08.0 %
Calcium 00.3 %
Phosphorus 1.00 %
Same as above.

SBH = $149 TON
Crude Protein 10.0 %
Fat 02.0 %
Crude fiber 36.0 %
Calcium 0.45 %
Phosphorus 0.16 %
Good fiber, good calcum. Little low in phocphoris.

Whole Cotton Seed = $?
Crude Protein 21.0 %
Fat 17.0 %
Crude fiber 24.0 %
Neutral Detergent Fiber 40.9 %
Acid Detergent Fiber 30.8 %
Calcium 0.14 %
Phosphorus 0.68 %
Good Protien, fat, fiber and good Phosphorus.

So I thik that I would do well with DDG + SBH or WCS
or CGF + SBH or WCS.