Winter housing

[farmer rich]

Do most of you guys outwinter your cattle?
How far North do you have to go before folks house overwinter? Im also interested in how far your grazing season varies through the country.

 

[MikeC]

Do most of you guys outwinter your cattle?
How far North do you have to go before folks house overwinter? Im also interested in how far your grazing season varies through the country.

Outwinter? You mean, are the cows "out" in winter? Mine are, I'm in the southeast. Can have grazing year round here too!
I'd like to ask you how has BSE affected you.

 

[farmer rich]

quote]
Outwinter? You mean, are the cows "out" in winter? Mine are, I'm in the southeast. Can have grazing year round here too!
I'd like to ask you how has BSE affected you.[/quote]

Yep, thats what I meant, over here we house our cattle for 5 months over winter. Just too wet to graze without wrecking the ground. Its our biggest cost. Thanks for your reply.

BSE certainly has had a majorly adverse reaction on beef farming over here. At the moment there is a maximum age of 30 months on cattle to enter the food chain, anything older like cull cows has to be burnt. The export trade to Europe is just starting to pick up again now after nearly 10 years. We had a ban on beef bone for a while which is still in place on exports, all carcases have to be completely de boned.
There have been lots of added costs due to the increase in tracability. I have written a little about cattle passports before, somewhere on the r-calf board.
For an idea of the effect on finished cattle prices, look at this link to a previous post.
http://cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 039#101039

I sure hope it doesnt affect you guys as bad as us. Like someones already said, it will all depend on the media reaction.

 

[Cattle Rack Rancher]

I live in Manitoba, Canada and my cattle are out all winter. They eat snow and hay and they stand in the bush when it gets real cold.

 

[msscamp]

Our cows are out all winter, also. The only exception being if one has calved during a snow storm, or during the night on an exceptionally cold night. In that case they go under a shed, so the calf is protected, for a day or so. They also graze all winter, but are supplemented with hay during snow storms or (to a much lesser extent) very cold weather.

 

[bigbull338]

the cattle here stay out yr round. anusually have grazing 10 months of the yr but hay is still fed. start feeding hay in dec an quit in mar . use its dry an grass burns up. then if grass is gone hay goes out. scott

 

[Australian Cattleman]

Our cattle are out all winter. We feed hay only when its drought usually, though some of the sale cattle are fed hay for roughage during summer and winter. These are confined to an area within half a mile of the house and yards.
We burn the dry grass in some of the paddocks especially after the rain we had last week to give them a green pick. We ussually hang onto as much dry grass that we can for when we need to feed out liquid supplements (molasses type mixes).
Colin

 

[lancemart]

Do most of you guys outwinter your cattle?
How far North do you have to go before folks house overwinter? Im also interested in how far your grazing season varies through the country.

Mine are out year round, but they have two sheds for shelter both for the hot sun and the zero nights, maybe I baby them--I left them on pasture all winter and during the wet season and they ruined some of the ground, this year in March, during the wet season they will be confined to a small area. I feed them round bales from November through april, and I frequently rotate my pastures, weekly.