Cattle bedding

[ALLFARMER]

I have likely asked this a couple years ago but its very quiet on this slice of Agriville so here goes?

When do you bed your cattle...and if your swath grazing ya I bet you don't. My swath grazing land is long used up and now under enough snow my 4440 is no longer very interested in going there. My feeders I unless its snowing keep a dry spot for them...some times it snows for 3 or 4 days straight here. The cows if its about -27 and a beeze I start thinking about bedding the girls...only shelter for them a wind fence stopping west and south winds so really they only use the west wind side. My idea is at colder that -27 they need to be keeping all the energy they can and a laying cow saves a lot more heat/energy than a standing cow? Also there must be something in pea straw because that and green feed bales and the cows are looking doing. 120 Black cows 1250lb eating 1 pea straw and 2 green feed bales a day... snow for a drink. Have to go the phone in ringing is is the spca??

[per]

I bunch graze and swath graze generally up to calving by then the snow hopefully is gone. They bed themselves either in the bush when they are still grazing or in the bunches or swaths. I do put up some straw for spring storms and just might need to provide the necessities this morning until they can dig back into the swaths. It is nasty out there.

I guess the answer is, the cows are provided what they need, it is just that I don't have to haul it out to them everyday.

[T.N.T.]

I know i like to sleep in a warm bed every night,and i treat my cows the same way.I know my cows eat less feed,when they have somewhere warm and dry to sleep every night.Plus one more week until calving,so they need lots of straw all winter anyways.

[kato]

That's our philosophy too. Hubby says straw is the cheapest preventative medicine there is, especially for feeder calves.

[hgb]

Anyone with abundance of natural
weather protection the answer is much
different than for others. As a mixed
farm with my own straw I use it almost
daily, a cow bedded cow chewing her cud
is holding her own out there, on a nasty
day like today.
My cows work for me and get treated well
they make my living. The straw I take
off the crop land costs me in the loss
of nutrients, but comes back from the
grazing,feeding cattle on the stubble.

[ALLFARMER]

I would like to get back to growing my own straw bu with us expanding the herd to 155 cows we really are going to need more land. The boys and I would like to use the combine again, its been 3 years. Between buying and hauling the straw home and then having already lots of manure to haul out this year I have been cheaping out.

I am considering buying a gravel truck with a 14 foot plus box. Looking at Richie results page I can get something farm workable for 10 to 15k I wouldn't need it to be certified or insured. My old wooden box grain truck I bent the hoist on a little hauling manure a couple years ago. A tandem grain truck with a silage endgate would be nice but 50 to 60k it a whole lot more cash. I figure pull type manure spreaders are too slow for higher volumes of manure.

[burnt]

Our situation here in the east is likely much different than what you encounter in the west, but I use no bedding for our cows all winter.

All winter, they run out in the pasture where they can get into a bit of a light tree stand for shelter from the wind. I do need to provide more windbreak but haven't gotten it built yet.

Our southern Ontario weather is likely more moderate - last night the merc dropped to -22C and calm. We will see more of that as we move toward February.

I unroll hay and haylage every day and adjust the amount fed to how well they clean up. If they waste 10%, which I know they do not, that is still cheaper than buying bedding and hauling manure.

I move their feeding across the field systematically onto clean snow every day. They always (unless it is storming) sleep on the ground where they were fed that day.

When they get up in the morning, they crap and urinate on that strip and by spring they have uniformly covered a lot of ground with cowpies. When the snow melts away from the poop in the spring, the field looks like it has grown a great crop of brown-capped mushrooms on white stems . . .

In-field feeding works as long as the snow doesn't get too deep, in which case I resort to feeders and watch the wastage go up, up, up and the ground around the feeders get pounded.

I like this system and have cut my cow-bedding and manure hauling costs to zero over the past 4 or 5 years than we have been doing it this way.

But what works for one doesn't necessarily for another.

[ALLFARMER]

I like the idea of unrolling hay because you don't loose so much leaves and fines...the protein.

What I like about shredding is you stay in the nice warm tractor no frozen strings to pull off while the tractor idles away burnin up fuel anyway.

Basically after working one winter for an alfalfa plant pulling strings off bales for 12 hour/shift (usually 5 guy crew) the fun is gone from that. The only good part was you could visit all day as you pulled twine.

If the snow gets too deep I just stay on the packed stuff and drop the shredder windrow on the deep stuff. That really in my opinion in the best way to feed. It's not the extreem feed loss of bale grazing, no pulling frozen twine outside in the dark & cold, the only feed waste is a little more fines, I use an affordable amount of fuel like 150 litres (tank full) lasts about 2.5 to 3 weeks

I was impressed with the oat swath grazing I tried this year.

[ALLFARMER]

The gravel/manure truck would be for mainly hauling out of my feeder pens. I plan to be feeding 500 calves/winter in a couple years

[Happytrails]

AF. There is an another option for feeding cows. That would be to wrap your bales with a new bio degradeable twine called sisal. I roll out bales for my cows without ever getting out of the tractor and never have any trouble with waste twine. It just disappears. HT

[ALLFARMER]

HT How long does that take to break down? 2 3 years?? I honestly don't know. We used it years ago in the square baler. I would suspect it is thick than plastic twine so a person may have to change rolls more often. How many guys on here are using the old stuff??

[15444]

HT, Sisal twine is 'new'? Been around for decades.

If you want to still use plastic without the long-lasting effects of finding it in the fields for years, I would recommend trying solar degradable plastic, which is fairly new to the market. It's pricey mind you. I buy mine stateside at $32 US a 20k roll. It's called Clearfield Solar Degradable Plastic Twine. I just started using it this year, so I am not sure how long it will linger. Sales guy told me the longest he had heard was 2 years, for some it's 10 months (depends on how much sun it's exposed too). They sell so much of it that they don't even bother keeping up stock on every other twine.

[burnt]

To be accurate, I will spread a bale or two of straw for the girls if we are having stretch of bad weather. They like it and it makes me feel better!

[Happytrails]

AF...sisal twine is mostly rotted in a year. In moist conditions even sooner. The important thing is that it WILL biodegrade whereas plastic that is buried stays good as new.

The 16000' sisal I use is good for 35-40 bales per 2 roll bundle which you usually can buy for under $40.

You do have to pick the bales relatively promptly (4-6 weeks) after baling or the strings will start breaking. Also don't expect any strings when you take them out of the stack. For me these drawbacks are a small price to pay for NEVER having to pick up twine. HT

[rkaiser]

Had to post my two bits before the thread disappeared.

About 25 below celsius this morning out here at Caroline Ab. Went out to feed my cows and found a couple of them lying out in the snow, chewing their cud. They have access to a wonderful protected treed area and there are areas with some hay on the ground where the bale feeder sat that I moved the day before. Why were these cows laying in the snow and none actually lying on that old hay; i asked myself? Maybe it's because they have a choice, and they choose to lay there.

I guess I should tell a bit more of the story for those who don't know me. I am running 140 cows with heifers and all mixed in. Even have 3 coming three and on coming 5 year old bull with them. They get 3 hay bales a day this year. Feed that I buy. And there is always a bit left in the bale feeder each new morning.

I have tried every way of feeding cows over the years and found that many ways work. I am not saying mine is the best by any means.

One thing I would like to mention however is the water thing. Just like the shelter and bedding thing, I think that animals need to have a choice. We are the ones who erect the fences after all. When I have bale grazed in the winter or swath grazed, I have always allowed access to water for the cattle. They have had to walk a long way at times, but always choose to walk rather than go without water. I don't think they would walk as much if the feed was not stock piled in one way or another, but again, that's just my thoughts.

All the best everyone --- whatever works for you is right --- obviously.

Randy