Who's not feeding hay yet?

[redangus]

I'm hoping to make it until mid December.

 

[dun]

We've had to pull them from the back pastures because of above ground water lines. If the winter isn't too bad I may put them back into them and just haul water. If so we'll make it through most of January, otherwise only through December.

dun

 

[G&L Cattle]

We still have some green grass! There is a freeze possible this weekend. Hope to make it till Thanksgiving. G&L

 

[redangus]

Do you use fertilization, electric fences, and stockpiling to extend the grazing season?

We've had to pull them from the back pastures because of above ground water lines. If the winter isn't too bad I may put them back into them and just haul water. If so we'll make it through most of January, otherwise only through December.

 

[lazyhill]

We are feeding hay already this year. The grass has been good but we are recovering from 7 years of drought. I have reduced my stocking rate significantly trying to get the grass to recover.

 

[dun]

Do you use fertilization, electric fences, and stockpiling to extend the grazing season?

We've had to pull them from the back pastures because of above ground water lines. If the winter isn't too bad I may put them back into them and just haul water. If so we'll make it through most of January, otherwise only through December.

We haven't had to fertilize although we may have to do one of the hay fields. The tests shows that it's ok, but the only thing that grows well in it is clover.
We do rotationally graze using temporary polywire electric fencing. I just moved them to the front because of deer season, keeps them away from the woods and the possibility of a stray bullet. We grazed the field twice, hayed it once, grazed it again then let it sit until today. In the winter we make the paddocks larger even though there is more grass. Keeps me from having to go out in the real nasty stuff to move fence. They'll be good for around 2 weeks on the half of the front they're on now, then I'll move them to the other half. I'll probably put them in the calving paddock for a couple of days just to get the stuff shorter.
We also intentionally understock. Remembering the 3 year drought when we had to start feeding hay in July has made me abit paranoid.

dun

 

[sidney411]

We're not feeding hay yet either, I hope to make it into next month. I turned the cows into the hay field which is still green and they are eating it like crazy. The rest of the pastures are starting to turn brown and the rye grass is peeking through the shady areas.

 

[mbdear]

We are still rotating every 3 or 4 days and have a 7 day pasture and then a couple of 4 day pastures coming up that still have good green grass in them. I'm looking for a frost any day now that will change everything overnight. The grass in the resting areas was still growing good up til a week or so ago.

mbdear in East Texas

 

[dun]

We are still rotating every 3 or 4 days and have a 7 day pasture and then a couple of 4 day pastures coming up that still have good green grass in them. I'm looking for a frost any day now that will change everything overnight. The grass in the resting areas was still growing good up til a week or so ago.

mbdear in East Texas

Maybe there is an advantage to fescue that I hadn't considered. Freezing stops the growth but it stays erect and the cows still graze it. If it's under much snow they don't, that's when we feed hay. And as soon as it's visible again they abandon the hay and go back to grazing.

dun

 

[Dee]

Everyone is running on corn stalks here, except the calves that we put in the lot to background. Cows should be good till January, or heavy snow, whichever comes first.

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

We had no rain from august 22 until october 1.Everything had dried up,and I fed hay though september.After the rain started again I drilled in some wheat and rye which came up nicely,The fescue started to come back out as well.I swear it looked like the spring of the year! I sure was glad to see it! I have kept some hay out but they have been eating less and less as the grass recovers. :cboy:

 

[Jake]

we feed hay year round, but then we have cattle in the lot or on the hill year round too... The main herd is off of grass and out on stocks or in the back pasture getting ready to be moved to stocks.

 

[Campground Cattle]

Not yet grass is still in good shape

 

[Beefy]

ours are gleaning the peanut and cotton fields. there is also an alicia pasture they have accress to and lots of coastal around the edge of the fields and woods. should last another week or two until the other cotton field is harvested.

 

[certherfbeef]

Our growing season ended this year in September. We stock pile a pasture for fall grazing and moved there not too long ago. Won't put hay out till the first snow. Hopefully that is not till Christmas or so. Our herd size has been cut down by 20 so we won't have any worries about having enough hay this winter.

 

[Tod Dague]

The annual Rye grass is about 4" so far and the perennial is about 2.5" so far. We broad cast the Annual as early in Sept. as we can then shred the weeds and fenced it off. I recently opened the annual as the Johnson grass was coming on strong and wanted it kept to a minimum so I don't have to worry about pusitic (SP?) acid latter. I am feeding a few bails that tuned on end and were rained on. This is on the lease. I only have one water source and can not rotate. At the house we plant the whole place in annual rye grass and keep on rotating. ;-)

 

[MrBilly]

We still have a lot of grass (fescue, Bermuda and clover), and one field in Wrens Abruzzi rye. All doing great, but we have had no frost and no freezes yet - that may change this weekend. I hope not. We're ready with a barn full of hay, should we need it.

Billy

 

[D.R. Cattle]

No hay here. Can't even remember the last time we hayed.

 

[Ryan]

No hay here either. Probably won't start haying til after the first week of december. We've got hay stacked all over the place, too. Maybe by january we can get back the use of part of our barn.

 

[J Baxter]

I have been feeding hay since the end of September as we had no rainfall from Aug 8 until October 10, but I'm about through with most of it as I am going to move them over to wheat next week and then rotate them between the wheat and the rye grass in the big pasture. I have enough hay to cover me if I don't ever put them on wheat (at least enough to cover to mid march).

JB