Out Of Hay: What Can I Do?
US - The “Easter freeze” and subsequent dry weather has left some cattle producers looking for more hay for their winter feed supply. It seems like extra hay is in short supply and a lot of late-cut (over-mature) hay is of poor quality.
17 August 2007
3 minute read
However, it was good to see many of our local producers harvesting the regrowth from their spring-cut fields, in recent days. The quality of that second cutting should be pretty good, if it was cut while immature.
What can you do to prepare for the winter feeding season? First, do what our UK specialists always recommend. Shorten the hay feeding period by extending the grazing season. Some possibilities include grazing (1) corn stalks, (2) stockpiled/accumulate fescue pasture and (3) winter annuals. These have been mentioned in this writing many times in recent weeks, but I don’t apologize for repetition because these practices have lots of potential.
Dr. Roy Burris, UK Extension Beef Specialist reminded me that grazing corn stalks, especially with “dry” cows after weaning, is a routine practice out West. We can graze corn fields after harvest in Kentucky, too. The biggest problems are fences and water but, if we could remedy that with electric fences and temporary water supplies, we could get potentially 40 days of grazing. A rule of thumb is that stalks will yield about 16 lbs of dry matter per bushel. If a field yielded 150 bushels of corn that would be 2400 lb/dry matter per acre. If you allowed 50-60 lbs per cow per day (including waste, refusal, etc.) that would be about 40 cow days per acre. Workers at Iowa had cows graze stalks from Oct. 11 for 41 days and fed modified distiller grain every third day (18 lb/head – after a week long step-up period). All cows maintained body condition and weight. Thus, we could get the cattle fed up to Thanksgiving Day if these are available and assuming there are no restrictions, including any from any crop pesticide residues. Check labels of products used for any restriction situations.
What would you graze next? Let’s consider stockpiled fescue. If we could get some decent moisture in August, we can apply nitrogen and allow it to grow (accumulate) until needed. That could be about Thanksgiving – after you have grazed stalks. Dr. Roy Burris recommends allowing between a half-acre and an acre per cow. I realize nitrogen costs are high this year but everything else is too, isn’t it. The key to being successful is using it judiciously by strip-grazing.
We can, sometimes, have both early and late grazing with winter annuals – like ryegrass or cereal grains (rye, wheat, or oats). This practice is riskier since cold weather can limit their growth. Dr. Burris has used cereal rye for the past few years in a grazing trial at Princeton. Results have been somewhat limited. He said that they get some winter growth which allows creep grazing by fall-born calves then see a flush of growth in the spring but it is usually not too far ahead of fescue. If you have considered using winter annuals, this might be the year to give them a try. Select these forages based on their cold tolerance. If we successfully grazed cattle until mid-February, that will just leave about 60 days of hay feeding.
Source: Glasgow Daily Times
