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| There are a lot of deer here, but the farm is quite open , deer seem to prefer corn fields that are still standing and hay and fields with cover crops on near the woods. As long as we have been doing it only have had one cow over my poly wire with the bales that were to be fed then next time without the feeder, was actually a bred heifer, think she either was pushed thru or MAYBE walked over on a drift. I usually put up the next poly wire so that if something happens to the one by the feeders they get into a limited amount of hay. Oops just realized this fall when we first started with the cows and the bred heifers together(basically comingled 2 herds) they tore down the poly wire and were in with about 70 bales, luckily caught it soon enough and put it back up. piled the hay they pulled out of the worst 5-6 bales, not a big deal, would have been worse if they had been out there longer. Our cows are used to poly wire as we use it all year, either for rotational grazing or in the winter with the bales.
Additional thoughts:
1. want to clean all the hay up in about 3-4 days, if dry or frozen you can go longer, the wetter/muddier it is the quicker you want it cleaned up.
2. 2 different types of hay helps, they will almost always like one better then the other so will clean 1/2 up then go for the other thus if it rains you have less bales opened up getting soaked
3. will be more weed 1st years so need to either graze or make hay out of it before they get too mature, needs a little more management perhaps, but succeeding years more production
4. freezing temps are definitely your friend for this
5. dead spots disappear in a season, at least here, not sure in a drier climate
6. read the post from Northern Grazier , I use sisal twine so not plastic left behind, can't imagine trying to do it with net wrap, had plastic twine once on a few bales , never again (I hope)
7. far as the argument of being no better then JBS or Cargill, it is the neighbor's choice to sell the nutrients off of his land whether it be thru hay or beans or corn, it is something, far be it from me to dictate what he does with his operation, that is his choice. On our farm I fertilize the fields that never get hay fed on them, the ones that get bales fed on them far less if at all.
Edited by WCWI 1/30/2023 07:50
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Our start to bale grazing
