Several ways to stretch forage supplies and supplement:
1. Ration exisiting standing grass by strip grazing. This is easy to do with inexpensive portable electric fence.
2. Ration hay by unrolling hay instead feeding in hay rings. Can unroll 1 bale for each 50 cows daily. See this link for a simple, inexpensive unroller device.
http://www.perry-co.com/hay.htm
3. Whole cottonseed My family has fed WCS as long as I can remember, with no problems, including bulls. We do limit WCS feeding to 4-5lb/hd/day. I know research has shown problems from gossypol, but we have not experienced it at the rates we feed. Whole cottonseed is one of the most nutrient dense feeds. It is fed in huge quantities to dairy cows.
4. Dried distillers grains or corn gluten feed. These 2 products are very similar corn milling byproducts. they are high in protein, energy & fiber.
5. soy hulls. excellent fiber & energy supplement. usually run 10-12% protein. work well with corn gluten, ddg, or wcs for a little more protein.
6. shelled corn currently very cheeeeaaaap! good source of energy, but needs additional protein such as alfalfa hay, corn gluten, DDG or WCS. whole corn can be fed directly on grass sod with minimal waste. there will be what appears to be a lot of whole kernels in the manure. this passed corn is a very small % of that consumed and on a low volume basis, will probably not be cost effective to process. Also cracked corn would need to be fed in troughs or waste will be considerable.
See this link for byproduct suppliers & prices.
http://agebb.missouri.edu/dairy/byprod/index.htm
Hopefully this will give you some ideas to consider.
I understand your situation as we are in the same boat. 2005 will go down in history as the 10th driest year in Waco TX. just last month I purchased additional WCS due to drought.
Good luck & best regards
Brock