I finished feeding cows for the winter today.
And another spot
Some of our swath grazing (14' rows)
Rake bunches
We are doing the bale grazing as an experiment with AESB (PFRA). They have taken soil samples from our site and we buried 3 of these a couple of weeks ago.
They record moisture at 18, 9 and 3" and soil temperature at 3 and 9" every hour for the next 3 years.
Feed tests should come back this week. I have been running some bale grazing economics and the results are pretty staggering.
It took me 6.25 hours to place 320 hay and 70 straw bales. I put out 17,488 cow days of feed (1250 pound cow at 2.5% of body weight). This is a herd of 150 cows for 117 days.
I valued labour at $15 and tractor at $50 per hour. Total cost $406.25.
Feeding traditionally takes us 2 hours per day ($130 using above costs). Total winter cost for 117 days $15210 the traditional way.
It takes me 1/2 hour per week to move wire over the 17 weeks. That works out to $1778 an hour for moving wire.
These are economic values and not cash costs, but they were pretty staggering. The feed cost and trucking was the same whether they put them in the yard or scatter them in the field.
Even if we have a 20% waste we are way ahead. The fertilizer value will be determined by all the testing they are doing, but AB Ag suggests it is $15 per bale. This would drive the cost down further yet, and no corral cleaning bill.


And another spot

Some of our swath grazing (14' rows)

Rake bunches

We are doing the bale grazing as an experiment with AESB (PFRA). They have taken soil samples from our site and we buried 3 of these a couple of weeks ago.

They record moisture at 18, 9 and 3" and soil temperature at 3 and 9" every hour for the next 3 years.
Feed tests should come back this week. I have been running some bale grazing economics and the results are pretty staggering.
It took me 6.25 hours to place 320 hay and 70 straw bales. I put out 17,488 cow days of feed (1250 pound cow at 2.5% of body weight). This is a herd of 150 cows for 117 days.
I valued labour at $15 and tractor at $50 per hour. Total cost $406.25.
Feeding traditionally takes us 2 hours per day ($130 using above costs). Total winter cost for 117 days $15210 the traditional way.
It takes me 1/2 hour per week to move wire over the 17 weeks. That works out to $1778 an hour for moving wire.
These are economic values and not cash costs, but they were pretty staggering. The feed cost and trucking was the same whether they put them in the yard or scatter them in the field.
Even if we have a 20% waste we are way ahead. The fertilizer value will be determined by all the testing they are doing, but AB Ag suggests it is $15 per bale. This would drive the cost down further yet, and no corral cleaning bill.