February 1-10, 2017

[Soapweed]

Two-year-old heifers

Looking for a handout

Grandma's crew

There aren't quite enough "buddy seats."

Checking the level of our cake bin

Sure enough, it really is empty and not just cake stuck to the sides.

Home sweet home

Looking south

Since we are out of cake and it will be hard to get a semi truck in with all the snow, I will feed alfalfa.

The 5 year brand shows up well.

Young cows bred to calve next fall. Real soon they will go up in the hills to spend the rest of the winter. So far there has been too much snow covering the grass.

The snow is plenty deep.

Home sweet home from another angle

Interested ladies

The Kosmo Kid's feed outfit, chained up and ready to roll. The basket attached to the grill guard is where he puts net wrap.

My feed outfit, merely an unchained melody

 

[gcreekrch]

More winter at your place than here in the Great White North!

 

[mrj]

It's great to have your photo's again! But looks like 'Mother Nature' thought she had to show off with more snow than you may need right now to celebrate your photography!!!!

Or is it all needed and welcomed to re-charge your lakes and the Oglalla acquifer?

We only have two 'helpers in training' to fit into the tractor cabs, and it is their dad who gets to take them along when he feeds in our backgrounding lot, while his cousin feeds the cows further away. They love it, and the four year old is pretty confident she can drive the tractor, tho her dad has a hand on the steering wheel, too.

She also is a good little 'informant', too, telling me almost as soon as we got home after ten days absence, that "mommy took some jars of your honey when you were gone!" She didn't know I had told her mother to take as much as she wanted, as 'the bee man' was quite generous with the 2016 honey crop.

Our little great grandgirls are even more fun than the grand kids were!

mrj

 

[4Diamond]

Like the fords and hydra beds. I would have that wrap basket tore off before I left the house.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Kosmos carries a pretty good sized chunk of tow rope.

Do you not chain up cause you know how to drive better? :lol: :cowboy:

 

[Soapweed]

Kosmos carries a pretty good sized chunk of tow rope.

Do you not chain up cause you know how to drive better? :lol: :cowboy:

I do have lots more experience.

 

[Silver]

That box on the front of Kosmo's truck would hold the wrap from at the most 2 of our net wrapped bales this winter.
Good looking outfits, both of them.
I might have asked this before, but forgot the answer. Do you have to take a tractor to space the bales so the bale beds can grab them? Or can you wrestle them out of their rows with the truck?

 

[4Diamond]

Not soap but we stack our bales both ways, depending on location and space. It's no problem to pull them out of rows with a hydra bed.

 

[Soapweed]

That box on the front of Kosmo's truck would hold the wrap from at the most 2 of our net wrapped bales this winter.
Good looking outfits, both of them.
I might have asked this before, but forgot the answer. Do you have to take a tractor to space the bales so the bale beds can grab them? Or can you wrestle them out of their rows with the truck?

Maybe you have more wraps of net-wrap than would be necessary. Most of our bales have 1.5 - 2 wraps, and that seems to be enough.

It is a bit handier if the bales are stacked so the bale beds can grab them easy, but it is not hard to pull them out of a pile with the Hydra-Bed. On Hydra-Beds, the spools are smaller. I think with other brands of bale beds, it is harder to pull bales out of a pile.

 

[garn]

It's been an unreal winter in Des Moines, less than 10 of snow inches all winter, the only ones not liking the snow are those who push snow for a living this time of year. 40's and 50's for all of this upcoming week and then 60's for next weekend.

 

[Haytrucker]

I bet Silver is referring to how much hay is frozen to the net... Do you have any concerns feeding alfalfa in deep snow. We have heard it can cause bloat and we avoid doing it. Feed on yesterday's grass unrolling, or feed extra before it snows then feed rough hay for a day or two. All our winter protein comes out of a baler. Using it in corn stalks, which is working this winter.

 

[Soapweed]

I bet Silver is referring to how much hay is frozen to the net... Do you have any concerns feeding alfalfa in deep snow. We have heard it can cause bloat and we avoid doing it. Feed on yesterday's grass unrolling, or feed extra before it snows then feed rough hay for a day or two. All our winter protein comes out of a baler. Using it in corn stalks, which is working this winter.

I didn't know this. Why would feeding alfalfa in deep snow result in possible bloat? Now you have given me something to worry about. :? Having run out of cake, and having too bad of roads to get a cake truck in, I have been grateful to have alfalfa on hand to feed as protein. It's hard to feed cake in snow, because there is undoubtedly more waste. We just feed less than ten pounds of alfalfa, and fill them up with meadow hay.

 

[Faster horses]

2nd cutting fed on snow might cause some bloat. 1st cutting would be pretty safe, we think. Will be interested in what others have to say. We have a friend that feeds a lot of 1st cutting alfalfa on snow with no problems. In fact, he quit feeding cake altogether
and only feeds alfalfa as a protein supplement, similar to what Soapweed is doing. Really cut down on his feed bill and he was already set up to feed hay anyway. He switched several years ago so has had a long time to find out.

 

[Silver]

I had never heard this about alfalfa and deep snow either. Thankfully our cows also haven't heard as they've been eating it that way for decades.

 

[Soapweed]

I had never heard this about alfalfa and deep snow either. Thankfully our cows also haven't heard as they've been eating it that way for decades.

I'm not even smart enough to know why feeding it on snow would be any different than feeding it on grassy sod.

 

[leanin' H]

I have worked for years during winters feeding hay for ranchers and spent almost a decade feeding winter cattle for Utah State University at their experiment station. We have never lost a cow to bloat from feeding alfalfa hay on snow. I do get really nervous feeding it in cement mangers where all the leaves can accumulate and then get wet from rain or snow. Have neighbors up the trail a ways who seem to tip over show steers and even a few bulls quite regularly feeding really high protein alfalfa in cement mangers. Those concentrated leaves and moisture is a bad recipe. But rolling out bales or even bales out of a processor and tens of thousands of small bales of alfalfa, I have never tipped a cow over feeding on snow. At USU we used to feed good hay in the morning and feed meadow grass and tall wheat grass in the evenings. The manager liked to keep eyes on the cattle as often as he could. At other places we would stack small bales of rough hay on half the wagon and alfalfa on the other half and feed them alternately. Alfalfa is a great supplement and can be quite cost effective compared to cake and tubs if a guy gets it put up/bought right. Plus it "stretches" poorer hay out and keeps cattle in better flesh during long winters. A guy could sure go broke quick trying to fill cows up on straight alfalfa when it was $240 a ton around here a few years ago. But lately with it priced around $120 or less, its been a good buy.

Love the pictures Soap!!! We have had a beautiful winter here too with our snowpack on the mountain at 209% of normal and our total moisture at 173% of normal. What a blessing Someday soon, a few of those Sandhill Sisters are coming over the Rockies to become desert cows. Give my regards to your fine wife and all your family. All the H's send our love

 

[Haytrucker]

I sure could have heard a wrong story about alfalfa feeding, we feed 2nd cut before and 3rd after calving. Plan A is alfalfa is almost all they get until calving time, at 5 lbs /hd, Fed every 2 or 3 days. Then more other hay, usually some grain hays. Grass is fed also when it's turbo cold or snows a lot before calving time. I have never seen or caused a problem, just asking. We cut the 3rd alfalfa back to 4 lbs or so, just kinda balance the milking and recovery. Rough hay is handy in April.

 

[Haytrucker]

Edit to above- alfalfa is fed for protein to supplement corn stalk grazing.

 

[Cowpuncher]

In all my years, I have never heard of alfalfa hay causing bloat. We fed 1st and 2nd cutting alfalfa
in snow, without snow for years. We kept 3rd cutting alfaalfa for our dairy cows - and never had any problems.
In more years than I care tp remember, we had one case of bloat and that was a milk cow on green alfalfa
pasture.

Some guys were so afraid of bloat that they sold their 3rd and 4th cutting hay for about the same as 1st cutting.
I bought all I could get.

CP

 

[PPRM]

In all my years, I have never heard of alfalfa hay causing bloat. We fed 1st and 2nd cutting alfalfa
in snow, without snow for years. We kept 3rd cutting alfaalfa for our dairy cows - and never had any problems.
In more years than I care tp remember, we had one case of bloat and that was a milk cow on green alfalfa
pasture.

Some guys were so afraid of bloat that they sold their 3rd and 4th cutting hay for about the same as 1st cutting.
I bought all I could get.

CP

LOL, I need some of these guys around me!

Concrete bunks and mixers are a great combination.