Jeanne - Simme Valley":33zrv26q said:
Cattle look very content!
Please explain your feed / feeding system??? dry haylage?? How do you keep it from spoiling? Is that their winter's supply?
Was it chopped & put there or do you haul it there as you need it? Doesn't snow become a problem?
Sure is an easy "daily" feeding!
Thank you Jeanne.
The feed is tubground into a pile. There are about 30 lg (1200 lb) bales of hay and 30 lg bales of Kochia (weed) and barley in that pile. They are just dry hay, no haylage. We just ground it about a week ago.
Unless we were to get a lot of rain it isn't too bad for spoiling. In fact, the pile, once settled will shed water to some extent. This pile is our 'calving' supply.
It should last us for close to 90 days, I hope. The cows go into that pen as they get closer to calving and then are moved out as they calve.
We ground the feed right there (I have some pics of us grinding, I will try to find them), although I do take bucketfuls when needed to other pens. That is what our horses get to eat as well.
Snow does become a problem. It is not much fun shovelling out that feed bunk after a night of snow/blowing snow. But you do get your excersise doing it ;-) . And, if you noticed the big piles of snow in the pics, that was all dug out of the cow side of the bunk with the tractor. The bunk where the calves is has snow in it level to the top of the bunk on their side. They are on their knees to eat.
It is fairly easy to feed, just go along when it is empty, and fork it down. Once we get back away from the bunk too far we use the tractor to push the pile up to the bunk.