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Eastern NE KS | My take-away from this discussion is don't luxuriously feed the herd because we don't know when the next blade of grass will grow. It not a great time to try to feed for 2-3 days in one choring session. The whole herd will do better while preserving hay supply if they get fed frequently, meaning daily.
'Feed what they need" can equal what they clean up in about 6 hours. They really 'clear the table' over the remaining 18 hours. If they still have pasture-pickens and fail to eat the last stem of given hay, cut them back. Watch body conditions if the cows go backwards adjust carefully (Cull cows or more fed feed but the second option shortens days to last bale.).
In 2012, Dad made our cows get by on 2/3 to 3/4 of normal hay fed by limit feeding with easy access for all, no rings. This required splitting bales over 2 days to get to proper cleanup. We used a bale processor but since it was so dry, a simple spinning spear or unroller could achieve the same. Cows were housed in a sacrifice pasture. By the end of winter, there was nothing out there to eat until fed feed was delivered.
I kept my mouth shut because every time I did the math, we had supply was reaching May 1. I learned a lot. But unlike the western droughts, it was just one year. I do not know what our outcome would have been if it failed to rain in the next year.
By the way, next year breed up was very close to normal. The cows were turned out on unused pastures with green grass that was doing well. The sacrifice pasture is still showing weeds and lack of perennial grass but foxtail and crabgrass works well to protect the summer pastures.
One last comment. Dad had a tradition of feeding all hay, every year. No carry over; mostly because we have no barn stored hay. This has changed, we now carry over 10-20% of normal use/yr. That helps me sleep well.
Edited by Doug61 9/13/2023 10:56
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How dry is it - unrolling hay in Sept
