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NE Iowa | I’m on year 3 of bale grazing here - first year I used two cradle feeders and took bales out to the field. Saved a bunch of spreader work in the spring, but busting snow drifts with the skidloader ate up a bunch of time. Last year and this year I’m giving 3-4 bales at a time for 30’ish hd. Running a polywire in between bale groups with a backup wire in case things go south on me (deer, bale goes rogue and knocks out the fence, etc). Bales are spaced 45’ish feet apart laterally and 90’ish feet between groups (that way there’s always 45’ish feet from bales to fence). Bales are all placed in the fall and all the net wrap is cut off prior to freeze up. Plan to have everything eaten prior to thaw in March - lots of moisture here so everybody goes on concrete so we don’t pug things up. Biggest issue last year was when we caught an early thaw and the cows ate off a good chunk of my pasture residual. Come spring the weeds took off in that spot. Got me thinking that setting things up on hay ground vs pasture would be better perhaps. The mower should keep any weeds in check. Not firing up the skidloader as often during winter and fewer spreader trips in the spring has been a huge time savings.
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Our start to bale grazing
