CManeastar Fanning, Saturday, October 7,1995
DO YOU HAVE
ENOUGH FEED?
Recent use of stored hay to over
come the effects of the late sum
mer drought has raised the ques
tion of the availability of stored
hay for the coming winter.
There are several factors that
must be considered to accurately
predict winter hay needs. These
include:
• The nutritional requirements
ol the cattle to be fed
• The quality of the hay to be fed
• How the hay was stored
• How the hay will be fed
• How much hay is available.
As we have discussed before in
this column, "beef cows have
changing nutritional needs based
on the particular stage of
production.
Spring-calving cows that are
pregnant are at their lowest nutri
tional needs for the year. A
1,300-pound pregnant cow that
has already weaned her calf needs
about 20-25 pounds of dry matter
daily, but that feed can be some
lower quality stuff. She can meet
her energy needs with hay or good
straw that is only 45-50 percent
TDN and 9-10 -percent protein.
As long as she maintains her
weight, she is probably getting
enough feed. As these cows get to
30 days before calving, the energy
and protein needs go up, and some
better quality feed will be needed.
In this case, the hay better be at
least SO percent TDN and 10 per
cent protein at maximum intake.
Finally, at calving and for the next
60 days, (he cow’s energy needs
are raised by SO percent and her
protein needs are doubled. Most
hay cannot meet this energy need
and some kind of supplemental
feed (usually grain) will be
needed. A good mix of legumes in
the hay will meet the protein needs
for most of these cows.
As one can imagine, no two
bales of hay have the same nutri
tional value, even if they came
from the same field. Those from
two different farms can be vastly
different in value, even if they
“look” alike. Whenever there is a
shortage of hay, the need for a
good analysis of the feed is
greatest.
This analysis is the only way to
make the most of a limited supply.
In addition to feed quality, the
actual amount available must be
known.
Cattle are fed by the pound and
not by the bale. Storage, bale size,
and feeding losses can all affect the
pounds available to the herd. Big
bales stored outside will lose 30
percent or more of their feed value,
so just remember to subtract one
third of the total number of bales
stored outside from the total on
hand.
Bales under plastic will lose
about 16 percent, and those in a
bam will lose about 5 percent of
their value. The well-advertised
“1,000-pound bale” only exists if it
has been weighed and you know
for certain there is that much hay in
the bale.
My experience some years ago
showed the baler that “made
1,000-pound bales” seldom made
one that weighed more than 900
pounds.
What does it all add up to? Let’s
take an example: you have 40
spring-calving beef cows to be fed
from Nov. 1 to May 1 (181 days)
on hay that is mostly grass in big
bales stacked in a bam thatprobab
ly have 900 pounds of dry matter
each. You will feed in convention
al ring feeders. How much feed do
you need?
We will make the arbitrary
cutoff for cow needs at Nov. 1 until
Feb. 1 (stage 1), Feb. 1 until April 1
(stage 2), and April 1 and after
(stage 3).
Stage 1; each cow needs 25
pounds of dry matter times 40
cows times 61 days is 61,000
pounds of hay or 68 bales. Feed
losses are 8 percent and storage
losses are S percent, so the total
need becomes 78 bales.
We will assume an analysis has
shown the hay is 51 percent TDN
and 10.4 percent protein, so we can
meet the stage 2 needs of the cows
with a full feed of the hay. There
fore we will simply add another 78
bales for the next two months.
For stage 3 we will feed hay for
the 30 days before turnout, so we
will feed 39 bales (half of 78). We
will also need to add a pound of
com or an equivalent energy feed
to the ration to meet their energy
needs.