Old Timer,
That is a super easy keeping cow. She has not seen any grain since the beginning of March in that picture and it was going into the fall.
All of these cows are Sydenstricker stock, and I have trouble keeping the weight off of them.
People are always telling me, "Back off of the grain" when I am not feeding them anything. This year, the temps were really low, down into the single digits, and the hay was not as good as it should have been. Normally I would be feeding each cow a scoop of grain, but this year I weighed it out. When it stayed down in the single digits, I fed them 5 lbs of feed each, but when it is warmer, in the 30's* they get 3 pounds each.
The hay is low protein this year, as it rained almost every day. It went to seed before we could cut it; the fertilizer was washed away from hard rains, and the hay would get rained on after it was cut. So, none of the hay is consistent. I am just glad to have the hay. So they are getting a bit of feed with vitamins, and such added along with a really good mineral.
The mud... they make the hole. They pick the spot, stand there, urinate in the same spot, make cow piles, and never move. The cycle continues on until they have a cool sludge worked up, and it gets deep. That is where they go lay down when it is hot. I have blocked them out of a hole, and they start another one. My ground has a clay content to it, so when they get wet, it sticks to them. It just drives me crazy. They are never without the clay/mud pack.
I had a new born calf to get in the mud when he was first born, and I was telling a good friend about it. He said that he figured that they were all born that way. :lol2: She had taken him up next to the hay ring where it was wet.
Does anyone else's cows do this in the summer time?
I would like to just go ahead and dig a pond so that they could come half way clean. I don't like the fact that their udders stay in the feces and urine all the time.
Two other mud packs.
