Big Chore day

[RSL]

We have had a pretty laid back winter. Start calving in a couple of months. Spent nearly 2 hours on chores today, but got cows, replacements and bred heifers all done for about a week.
Cows Coming for swaths

Buffet style

Portable windbreaks (keeps cows out of the bush and saves trees)

Quite a bit of Bale Grazing to go

Even fed some bales today...

Pretty happy winter. We have put about 20 hours on the tractor since November 1st (mostly bugging around), have 1/2 of our swath grazing left at the bred heifer location, nearly 2/3 of our swaths left with the big cows and our replacements and late calves are still grazing rake bunches. We are pretty confident, barring an extremely snowy May and June that we will have quite a bit of bale grazing pre-placed for next year.

 

[Rancher3!]

How did the raked bunches turn out? How big were they?

 

[RSL]

How did the raked bunches turn out? How big were they?

As an experiment I was disappointed that I was unable to test them in deep snow and through fall moisture. From a practical standpoint they are FANTASTIC! and we plan to do it again (only more acres).
The bunches settled quite a bit but contain roughly 200-250 pounds of hay. When you dig into them even now, the quality is better than the stuff we baled. That said I would like to test them through a wetter fall. It will also be interesting to compare regrowth on the grass the the spots we are bale grazing.
I will figure it out when we are all done, but I think the cost per day using bunches will be under $0.35.

 

[burnt]

...I will figure it out when we are all done, but I think the cost per day using bunches will be under $0.35.

That is an unbelievably low cost. And very enviable to an easterner!

We couldn't make that work here because our rainfall/climatic conditions would turn those bunches into piles of rotting, black . . . . !

 

[RSL]

Replacements on bunches

The research in Oregon showed that bunches that get a lot of moisture crust over the top, and turn to haylage in the middle. One year we might get to test that theory...

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

We did a bit of bale grazing this year. Also had some windrows we left as it had Foxtail in it. The hay was all cut July, August and the windrows were pretty black, The cows probably had access to more bales then they should have at once but are getting them cleaned up.
Last year I cut some second cut alfalfa and some prairie wool and dumped raked it into big rows. It settled nicely and didn't blow. It was really buried under hard snow by the time I got the cows to it but they cleaned it up pretty good.

 

[cowsense]

RSL; Just trying to figure out if those are battery tanks in the background......always heard ranchin was easiest in the shade of pump jacks! :lol: :lol: :wink:

 

[Justin]

i sure like your wind breaks.

 

[Hayguy]

How did the raked bunches turn out? How big were they?

As an experiment I was disappointed that I was unable to test them in deep snow and through fall moisture. From a practical standpoint they are FANTASTIC! and we plan to do it again (only more acres).
The bunches settled quite a bit but contain roughly 200-250 pounds of hay. When you dig into them even now, the quality is better than the stuff we baled. That said I would like to test them through a wetter fall. It will also be interesting to compare regrowth on the grass the the spots we are bale grazing.
I will figure it out when we are all done, but I think the cost per day using bunches will be under $0.35.

liked the bunches that we did and so did the cattle. have my teamsters all lined up for next fall. i was concerned with wind but after having one of the worst winds in years with no bunch movement it's a non issue. not a good test year to see if they could find them better in the deep and crusted snow though, but that, ok


:wink: