Bez>
Well-known member
Lots of talk on weeds and hay and supplements and such.
At risk of offending:
Well this outfit never worries about hay quality as long as there is some hay that reaches 7 % for fall feed and the rest hits 11 - 12% for the remainder of winter - 9% will do for mid winter if required.
If I have that I never supplement and the girls seem to do ok. All winter long.
And remember, these girls sleep on some pretty deep snow. They are generally on free choice hay from mid November until late April to mid-May.
You can bale weeds until - pardon the pun - the cows come home. What we tend to forget is that there are a lot of weeds out there that actually do provide decent feed value. And in fact the cows not only will eat them, they actually like them.
Not to say hay is not important - but I wonder why it is so important to place such a high protein content from various supplements in front of them?
To me is is money that is not well spent unless desparately needed, and anything over about 12% is pisss ed out on the ground anyways.
Without any BS - perhaps it is because we have literally bred them to do well on this type of condition - I spend nothing on those cows unless it is apparent they will be in dire straights without it.
Regards
Bez>
At risk of offending:
Well this outfit never worries about hay quality as long as there is some hay that reaches 7 % for fall feed and the rest hits 11 - 12% for the remainder of winter - 9% will do for mid winter if required.
If I have that I never supplement and the girls seem to do ok. All winter long.
And remember, these girls sleep on some pretty deep snow. They are generally on free choice hay from mid November until late April to mid-May.
You can bale weeds until - pardon the pun - the cows come home. What we tend to forget is that there are a lot of weeds out there that actually do provide decent feed value. And in fact the cows not only will eat them, they actually like them.
Not to say hay is not important - but I wonder why it is so important to place such a high protein content from various supplements in front of them?
To me is is money that is not well spent unless desparately needed, and anything over about 12% is pisss ed out on the ground anyways.
Without any BS - perhaps it is because we have literally bred them to do well on this type of condition - I spend nothing on those cows unless it is apparent they will be in dire straights without it.
Regards
Bez>
