I've love my morning chores when the weather is nice. This morning its not exactly totally sunny, but there is enough clearing of the clouds to give me a beautiful dawn. It's also above freezing, 35 degrees, which also makes it nice.
The cattle are so happy to see me. The four little heifers run for the barn as soon as I step out the door. They know I'm on my way to the East Barn to give them a bucket of sweet feed ( a mixure of grains, molasses and vitamins) for breakfast. With all the rain this year, the nutritional value of the hay is low. Mostly it will provide carbohydrates to keep them warm. These heifers need good nutrition to develop into good mama cows, so about half of their feed ration for the day will be this sweet feed until they are back on spring pasture.
Grass fed is a nice idea, but a good herdsman looks out for his animals nutrition. If I was just raising what I call "dirty old feeder calves", that is just keeping cows to have calves that I sell in the fall, I might get by with just hay, no matter how bad the quality. Some years I'd have good calves, some years I wouldn't. I want to raise my animals the best way I can for their overall health and well being and this year that means some kind of nutritional supplement. If I didn't live in horse country, I could get by with alfalpha hay which has a higher protein content then other hays - its a legume, not a grass. Horse people seem to think their hay has to cost a lot to be any good (don't get me started) and so the cost of alfalpha hay around here is twice what it should be. If I can find rejected alfalpha hay (hay that might have a list dust or mold from all the rain) at a good price, I'll buy it quick enough and won't have to buy grain. Cows don't mind a little mold or dust. So far this year that's not happening.
On the west side of the property the new mama and calf are doing well. Bobby (last spring bull calf) and his mom are in with Cinnamon and her mom along with a two year old heifer who will hopefully calve in the spring. They share a bucket of the sweet feed each morning. The new mama needs plenty of protein and vitamins to make good milk for the calf, and Bobby the bull calf needs good nutrition to develop into a healthy, strong breeding bull.
The rest of the herd is on hay at present. They are still picking green pasture, so their nutrtion is good enough. When the cold is more pronounced and consistent, they too will get grain as well, about five pounds each a day - which is the equivalent of 10 pounds of hay. When the tempertures drops below freezing and stays that way, they will need as much as 30 pounds of hay or hay equivalent feed a day. I am constantly assessing the cost of hay and the cost of grain and balancing the two costs against the nutrition needs of the herd. Last year I fed no grain and the herd came through the winter just fine, but the hay was much better quality.
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