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beef cow diet

tlakota

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 7, 2007
Messages
209
Location
aberdeen,sd
I am starting to do a little more research on beef cow diets. From what ive been reading ive been probably overfeeding my cows the last couple winters. I have some lower quality alfalfa, some high quality alfalfa, stover, straw, and grass hay. Recently i would unroll about 3000 pounds of grass hay everyday and then feed about 3500 pounds of ground feed. That consisted of 3 stover bales to 1 high quality alfalfa bale. This was going to about 150 cows. Do you guys think this was probably a little too much for the cows. They cleaned it all up but from what ive read i could cut them back quite a bit.
 
Really depends on what condition they are in, what else they have to graze on and how cold/wet it is. I was always taught to think about feeding 40 pounds of hay per day for bred/lactating cows and about 20 pounds per day for calves. But I always try to figure on waht else they have to eat and the weather. And from the figures you showed, that works out to be about 43 pounds per day

For us, we run our cattle on grown up hay fields. There is not alot to graze, but we can move them to other fields also. We feed a little hay when it snows or gets wet and cold. And we dont feed alot of alfalfa at all, it is mostly timothy hay kick outs and they graze timothy fields, and we have had cows gain weight over the winter on just that. But the big thing for us is that we are under stocked for our summer irrigated pasture and I think our cows are way to fat, so this time of year I try to make them hunt for feed. I don't starve them, but I don't feel too sorry for them.

If you look at my post about my day part 1, the replacement heifers told me this morning they were out of grass, they had jumped the tape. So thats telling me I am being a little too tough and needed to give them more grass and feed them hay every other day to help the grass. Even though they are in really good shape, there was just not much to eat anymore.

I think your probably doing fine, as long as it works out right for your checkbook.
 
Do you guys think this was probably a little too much for the cows.

YEP-- If my adding comes out right- that comes to 6500 lbs of feed/hay a day to 150 cows which my calculator says is over 43 lbs per head per day...
Even when I feed mine extra on a 40 Below day- I don't give them that much...Depending on weather- and what they still might be able to rustle up- I probably don't feed on an average of more than about 25-30 lbs of hay a day....And this year- being short on hay they may be looking more at the 20 lb mark- and a little cake for protein supplement- and whatever they can dig out of the snow....
 
tlakota--Don't forget to take into consideration the moisture. You are feeding approximately 40 lbs. AS FED. Depending on the size of your cows and the temperature, that really isn't overfeeding by a lot.

I don't know about stover hay, but if those cows are cleaning up what you are giving them, I'd be careful about cutting them back.

What kind of condition are they in when you start feeding them? I've seen pictures of OT's cows and in those pictures they were in a body condition score of 6 plus. That also has a lot to do with how much to feed cows during the winter. It is cheaper to get them fat early and maintain them, than to let them get thin and try to fatten or catch them up during the winter. I have been taught that if you can get them to a body condition score of 6 going in to the winter, they can lose one body condition score (80 lbs) and be in a body condition score of 5 when they calve. You don't want them to be less than a 5 at calving time. Causes too many problems down the road,

My suggestion would be to get your feed tested, then you really know what you are feeding. It will be the best money you could spend.

This is such an interesting subject to me.
 
my cows are out on cornstalks rite now...we just got about 8 inches of snow. I am hoping they will be able to pick through the snow here and tere. Ill give them a couple days and see how satisfied they are. I just plan on unrolling maybe 1500 pounds of grass a day and they can pick for the leaves and husks. I just feel like i pampered them too much last winter.
 
tlakota said:
my cows are out on cornstalks rite now...we just got about 8 inches of snow. I am hoping they will be able to pick through the snow here and tere. Ill give them a couple days and see how satisfied they are. I just plan on unrolling maybe 1500 pounds of grass a day and they can pick for the leaves and husks. I just feel like i pampered them too much last winter.

Thats about the best you can do--start out lighter and see how they are doing and if they start going down hill- your going to have to add something :???: But like FH says- don't let them get in bad shape... I just checked mine the other day as they are still out on the fall pasture-- and they're looking good...Will probably bring them into the river bottom hay fields the end of the week- and hopefully it will be a brown Christmas and they can just graze well into next year...

And I culled deep this year and everything with any age went- Should be nothing over 10 left...

The other good thing is that with every nice day we have-- the price of hay keeps dropping so if I have to pick up a few loads- it won't be such a pain in the wallet...But the old girls are going to find out what a "fiscal conservative" economy is really like :wink:
 
I feed some big ol cows. They will usually be around 1400 when I pull a calf off. I try to cake & grass till calving, then after I get a few calves, I will feed about 23 lbs. of sorgum hay and a couple of lbs of cake. They do real well, and if I'm not careful in good weather will encourage enterotoxemea problems. Breedback is not a problem either.
 

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