Round bale questions

[crazy4equines]

Ok this is our first year having cattle. I have no idea how many round bales our cattle will go through this winter and I am trying to get an idea of how many I need to buy. We have plenty of forage for them to eat for now.First I should say we have 9 calves they range from 100 lbs to 500 lbs right now. We also feed them a custom made grain mix from our local feed mill 2 times a day. Any help would be greatly appreciated as soon as possible as I need to call my hay guy to reserve my hay. I don't normally buy round bales for my horses or goats but thought it would be much easier and cheaper for the cattle.Thanks in advance.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Ok this is our first year having cattle. I have no idea how many round bales our cattle will go through this winter and I am trying to get an idea of how many I need to buy. We have plenty of forage for them to eat for now.First I should say we have 9 calves they range from 100 lbs to 500 lbs right now. We also feed them a custom made grain mix from our local feed mill 2 times a day. Any help would be greatly appreciated as soon as possible as I need to call my hay guy to reserve my hay. I don't normally buy round bales for my horses or goats but thought it would be much easier and cheaper for the cattle.Thanks in advance.

need to know where you are located first

 

[novaman]

Location would help.

 

[crazy4equines]

Sorry northern il.. very close to wis border

 

[dun]

In the past I used the Cowculator program form ok state

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/software/Ex ... sucowc.htm

 

[crazy4equines]

In the past I used the Cowculator program form ok state

Way to complicated for me... lol I have no problem buying a few extra bales I just wanted a rough idea.. Thanks

 

[agmantoo]

3% per day of their body weight of good hay should suffice

 

[makemfat]

It all depends on your climate. Here in southwest Arkansas, where we have relatively mild winters, depending on whether it was a drought year or not, and a thousand other factors I'm not even sure I'm aware of, I plan on putting between 4 to 5, 4 x 5 bales per head in the barn for the winter. I usually end up with leftover in the spring. But that's better than coming up short and paying higher prices. Up north, I have no idea how much you folks need. Probably twice or three times as much, wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Cattle need 2% to 3% of their weight in hay/forage/grass per day, depending on weather, quality of this roughage matter, and condition of grass. Protein should be about 9 to 10% from all sources. Unless you are "fattening" your cattle as grain fed "feedlot type" cattle, I'd skip the grain and concentrate on hay which is better for their rumen/digestion.

Formula: Total weight of all cattle X 2.5% x # days hay to be fed / by weight of bale = # bales needed. (Or something like that). Example: 5000# of cattle X 2.5% = 125# day hay X 30 days = 3,750# month / 800# 4x5 round bale = 4.69 round bales a month.

Also, they need 10 to 20 gallons of water per day per 1,000 animal unit, depending on temperature, heat index, wind, etc.

In Northern Illinois, I'd suspect that your "green grass" growing season is probably not more than 6 months (I lived in the Springfield area for about 6 years) and seemed like we had about equal parts of winter and summer, so to speak.

IMO, skip the bagged feed (expensive and labor intensive) and concentrate on quality hay, forage, good clean water, minerals. Cattle thrived for thousands of years without ever eating anything except of grass, leaves, weeds...

:cowboy:

 

[vclavin]

We usually save back 1 bale per cow per month of no or limited grass. Bales are fescue/clover and sometimes other grasses have been bought, bales are 1500-1800lbs - not sure if that is at just harvested or after a month or so of drying. We also have some left ober, but you never know if there will be a shortage come spring.
Valerie

 

[cowboy43]

I have seen several questions on how much hay to feed for the year. But I have not seen it discussed on how much hay in dollars you can feed a cow and make a profit on the cow remembering you do not have a 100% calf crop to pay for the hay. Here you figure 4 bales to a cow at $60 to $70 a bale and that knocks a big hole in your profit. Is their anyone willing to say what their actual hay cost is per cow?

 

[SRBeef]

Ok this is our first year having cattle. I have no idea how many round bales our cattle will go through this winter and I am trying to get an idea of how many I need to buy. We have plenty of forage for them to eat for now.First I should say we have 9 calves they range from 100 lbs to 500 lbs right now. We also feed them a custom made grain mix from our local feed mill 2 times a day. Any help would be greatly appreciated as soon as possible as I need to call my hay guy to reserve my hay. I don't normally buy round bales for my horses or goats but thought it would be much easier and cheaper for the cattle.Thanks in advance.

Are these calves still on the cows or is the 100 lb esp a bottle calf? Why are you feeding grain with the grass the way it is in this area?

Amountof hay depends on the amount of land/forage/grazing you have. In WI west of Madison I put out my first bale last fall on Oct 11th. Stop feeding hay and moved them out of the winter sacrifice area May 10th. Over this period you need to figure 3% of their body weight in hay per day add 10% for spoilage and maybe another 15% cushion/insurance. Take into account the a 2 lb/day weight gain just for a guess.

The key is knowing accurately what the bales weigh. I suggest you purchase hay by the ton (weight) rather than by the number of bales. And have some way of confirming that those "1200 lb bales" really weigh 1200 lb not 1000 lb. Truck scale ticket is one way if you don't have a scale. Good luck. Please put your approx location in your avatar. Jim

 

[agmantoo]

cowboy43
I live in zone 7 and do year round rotational grazing. My costs for hay is zero. I do not use commercial fertilizer. Some overseeding is done as insurance for backup forage. Typically my seed costs is less than $500 and my fuel expenses for seeding only is just a few dollars as I use a 20 year old ATV to broadcast the seed (Marshall ryegrass). There are 93 mature animals in the herd at this time. More animals could be stocked but I like to have some margin of surplus feed because of weather fluctuations. I can usually carry a cow and her calf for 365 days on 1.2 acres. The calf will be marketed during the period and the cow rebred. Rebreeding usually within 50 to 60 days of giving birth.

 

[BILL CLAYLAND]

Agmantoo, is Marshall ryegrass your primary seed you spread.I'm trying to figure out the best pasture mix for a old hay field that will be grazing (5 acre)area soon.
I'm in MD near PA border so we get a little icy.

Bill

 

[cowboy43]

AG
After over 2 years of excepitional drought and wipeing out my pastures and cattle herds that is my plan when I go back in is to stock fewer head , rotation graze and use as little hay as possible. In the past I was able to not feed hay but I got greety and was overstocked when the drought hit, then it was like gambling and losing and getting deeper in debt , sometimes you just have stop and reorganize what you are doing if it is not working.

 

[agmantoo]

BILL CLAYLAND

My primary stockpile winter forage is endophyte infected tall fescue. To back that fescue up and to get the earliest new grass forage possible following winter I overseed about 15% of the pastures with the Marshall ryegrass. Any thin stands of fescue are overseeded also with fescue seed that I harvested. In years like this one, I have to clip the pastures to prevent the clovers from choking out the fescue. Timing is important because I have to clip before the fescue goes to seed and the clover has not reached full height because if the fescue goes to seed it will cease growing and clover will stress what remains of the fescue. By clipping at the tops of the leaves of the fescue it will often start to grow again and usually this regrowth is better feed than the initial growth plus the action extends the growing period. I have a lot of lush fescue even now with the hot temperatures we are experiencing.

 

[agmantoo]

cowboy43

I know how you feel when drought hits and hits hard! I went through what I thought was a drought in 2003 nearly unscathed. Then the sever drought of 2007 hit. That drought outlasted me and my supplies. I lasted at least 6 months longer than my neighbors but as that drought endured I did not. I was forced to bring in feed from out of state at a premium cost. Though the area I live in has lots of cattle we just are not positioned with suppliers for such things as simple range cubes. I had to resort to feeding cotton gin waste supplemented with limited peanut hay. My cattle had a filled gut but the feed was marginal at best. Doing what I was forced to do stressed my cattle. Anything that I am growing, be in plant or animal, I never want to stress. I learned from that experience to never waste surplus forage and that is when I switched to daily movement of the herd and I have ceased to give standing hay away. I either feed the forage efficiently or return it to the soil when it is unsuitable or unneeded for feed. Good luck on your returning to rotational feeding. If I can assist, just ask.