Sorry guys/gals I don't post much but read all the time. We run 200head cow/calf operation in south Sask. When they come home late Oct/Nov we graze farmland until Dec/Jan. When its cold or the snow is too deep we supplement them with Triticale grain and hay. We would really like to not start the tractor everyday and have them be more self sufficient in that time period. Tried swath grazing triticale once and almost killed some cows because the crop was so rank. So that turned me off and have never tried again. I don't want to be moving electric fence every few days (sorry). FYI they only had 2 swathes of triticale on 50 ac field.Just looking at options. Can we bale graze oats or rye? I know triticale bales would be too "hot" I am afraid with bale grazing there would be too much waste and worried about regrowth if on native or tame grass. Anyone work out corn grazing costs? We aren't in the perfect area for that but it is getting more common around. Open to all options so let them fly. Thx.
Feeding advice from the experts!
- Thread starter TizHot
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Big Muddy rancher
Well-known member
You must be at least within a couple hundred miles of where I live 
I wouldn't bale graze on native prairie but would on seeded hayland. Probably oats would be the best of the grains for bale grazing. Lots of people use barely for swath grazing but I'm no "expert" on that as I don't farm any ground. I know of people as far north as Beechy and Outlook that have grazed corn but you need to move a wire I think or they possibly could founder. I think bale grazing you would need to move a wire or have them in different pasture/paddock and move them as they clean up.
Hope we get lots of ideas off this thread.
I wouldn't bale graze on native prairie but would on seeded hayland. Probably oats would be the best of the grains for bale grazing. Lots of people use barely for swath grazing but I'm no "expert" on that as I don't farm any ground. I know of people as far north as Beechy and Outlook that have grazed corn but you need to move a wire I think or they possibly could founder. I think bale grazing you would need to move a wire or have them in different pasture/paddock and move them as they clean up.
Hope we get lots of ideas off this thread.
randiliana
Well-known member
We have swath grazed oats, wheat and triticale, without electric fencing. The wheat and triticale were pretty poor crops, but the oats was a decent crop. I would be afraid to swath graze Barley, Triticale or any other 'hot' crop if it was a good crop without electric fencing. I am located in the Mankota area.
We have done nearly everything you mention to winter cows. We swath graze a mixture of Oats/Barley/Fall Rye and also have used Triticale. We also bale graze hay, greenfeed, straw, etc. This winter we actually wound up feeding barley to save our feed pile through a pretty chilly 5 months. We have also grazed corn. We have done this/do this with cows, bulls, backgrounder calves, etc.
I think you can probably bale graze without fences more easily than swath grazing. The problem with not controlling/limiting access in any of these systems is that the cattle will cherry pick all the good stuff (grain) and leave the straw. This can create a problem if the weather gets cold for too long and the cattle only have straw left in the rows. This is not such a big problem with hay.
We don't bale graze on native, but on tame it has boosted our production tremendously (some areas went from 500# DM/Acre to over 6000#).
We are a long ways North of you and there is a lot of winter corn gazing going on here. Some guys have their costs under $1 per day with corn.
Not sure how often you are willing to move fence, but our experience shows that even every 10 days and you can get a good cleanup.
A bunch of research shows the losses from shredding on the ground approaches 15% of the feed value for mixed hay and our bale grazing experience shows much less waste than that.
If you bale/swath graze the same area every year then you need to watch your phosphate levels as they will increase and you will need to bump up the Ca in your mineral.
Our swath grazing averages about 160 AUGD per acre most years with no inputs other than seed, and swathing. Our costs usually run between $0.37 and $0.55 per day (includes all equipment, labour, land rent at local rates and input costs). Bale grazing is better in a big snow winter and also for relocating nutrients to the tops of the knolls.
I like the swath grazing and the triticale has worked well for us, as I have pulled as many as 4 crops off a single seeding. Also with the inclusion of fall rye and a bit of volunteer barley, we will typically gain another 30AUGD before we cultivate to reseed to swath grazing. This likely wouldn't work so well if you are cropping and rotating things through, thus needing to seed earlier than a continual swath grazing situation.
If you are going to use corn, look for fairly short heat units but a little longer than your area supports (so the corn doesn't totally ripen), corn that matures cobs down (so they don't get wet and rot) and dent/semi-dent varieties seem to be preferred up here. Most of the corn is in prior to the 20th of May.
The hotter the diet the more you need to move fence, since you don't want to bounce the rumen microbes and lead to acidosis.
We are in Twp 48 just south of Lloyd, and I have friends at Meadow Lake that are growing/grazing corn quite successfully so I suspect it would work down there too.
FWIW.
I think you can probably bale graze without fences more easily than swath grazing. The problem with not controlling/limiting access in any of these systems is that the cattle will cherry pick all the good stuff (grain) and leave the straw. This can create a problem if the weather gets cold for too long and the cattle only have straw left in the rows. This is not such a big problem with hay.
We don't bale graze on native, but on tame it has boosted our production tremendously (some areas went from 500# DM/Acre to over 6000#).
We are a long ways North of you and there is a lot of winter corn gazing going on here. Some guys have their costs under $1 per day with corn.
Not sure how often you are willing to move fence, but our experience shows that even every 10 days and you can get a good cleanup.
A bunch of research shows the losses from shredding on the ground approaches 15% of the feed value for mixed hay and our bale grazing experience shows much less waste than that.
If you bale/swath graze the same area every year then you need to watch your phosphate levels as they will increase and you will need to bump up the Ca in your mineral.
Our swath grazing averages about 160 AUGD per acre most years with no inputs other than seed, and swathing. Our costs usually run between $0.37 and $0.55 per day (includes all equipment, labour, land rent at local rates and input costs). Bale grazing is better in a big snow winter and also for relocating nutrients to the tops of the knolls.
I like the swath grazing and the triticale has worked well for us, as I have pulled as many as 4 crops off a single seeding. Also with the inclusion of fall rye and a bit of volunteer barley, we will typically gain another 30AUGD before we cultivate to reseed to swath grazing. This likely wouldn't work so well if you are cropping and rotating things through, thus needing to seed earlier than a continual swath grazing situation.
If you are going to use corn, look for fairly short heat units but a little longer than your area supports (so the corn doesn't totally ripen), corn that matures cobs down (so they don't get wet and rot) and dent/semi-dent varieties seem to be preferred up here. Most of the corn is in prior to the 20th of May.
The hotter the diet the more you need to move fence, since you don't want to bounce the rumen microbes and lead to acidosis.
We are in Twp 48 just south of Lloyd, and I have friends at Meadow Lake that are growing/grazing corn quite successfully so I suspect it would work down there too.
FWIW.
Local guy here has about 30 bale rings and fills them about once a week puts them in a line and move them across the field as he goes with the price of hay no way would I bale graze. I unroll all of my hay daily or sometimes two days at a time but I would feed in bale rings long before I'd let them shirt on 1/2 a bale.
Hayguy
Well-known member
what about chaff piles and some form of supplement. I remember that the biggest complaint with them was trying to get through the aftermath in the spring but i would think that it would be no worse than the aftermath of bale grazing.
Had a discussion with Per last week about swath grazing and deduced that it need's to be in a rake bunch or bale that just get's dumped so that the cow's can find/get it in the snow. Even here in the "chinook zone"
the more YOU do the less THEY (the cow's waste) meaning that fences,feeder's, daily feeding etc all contribute to less waste. it all depends on the $ cost of the feed whether it's worth the fuel and time to try and save the waste.
they claim that corn is for winter feeding because it's tall enough to be found, but if you get an early blizzard it will fill with snow to the top,neighbor had this happen a few year's ago. plus it's expensive to seed.
that beng said a fellow on here, AllisWD45 i believe has a good book on the subject
http://www.prettyview.net/
Had a discussion with Per last week about swath grazing and deduced that it need's to be in a rake bunch or bale that just get's dumped so that the cow's can find/get it in the snow. Even here in the "chinook zone"
the more YOU do the less THEY (the cow's waste) meaning that fences,feeder's, daily feeding etc all contribute to less waste. it all depends on the $ cost of the feed whether it's worth the fuel and time to try and save the waste.
they claim that corn is for winter feeding because it's tall enough to be found, but if you get an early blizzard it will fill with snow to the top,neighbor had this happen a few year's ago. plus it's expensive to seed.
that beng said a fellow on here, AllisWD45 i believe has a good book on the subject
http://www.prettyview.net/
3words
Well-known member
Denny said:
I gave bale grazing a try for about a month one winter,so it gave me more time to just haul bales home.My conclusion was if i was going to continue doing that,i better be looking for more hay land to rent just to compensate for all the waste.
First, I apologize for screwing up the other grazing topic. After years and years of doing something over and over, it's sometimes difficult to adjust my thinking and explore new frontiers. Big Muddy, it wasn't a complete waste 
I would like to ask a question about triticale. It's hot? At any stage? I planted 70 acres of it in 2013. I grazed cows on it for a little while, took them off, let it grow, cut and baled it later on. The grain was still soft. I've fed those bales thru this winter. I've done searches about triticale and can't find any cautions. Would someone explain? Thanks.
I would like to ask a question about triticale. It's hot? At any stage? I planted 70 acres of it in 2013. I grazed cows on it for a little while, took them off, let it grow, cut and baled it later on. The grain was still soft. I've fed those bales thru this winter. I've done searches about triticale and can't find any cautions. Would someone explain? Thanks.
Big Muddy rancher
Well-known member
DejaVu said:First, I apologize for screwing up the other grazing topic. After years and years of doing something over and over, it's sometimes difficult to adjust my thinking and explore new frontiers. Big Muddy, it wasn't a complete waste
I would like to ask a question about triticale. It's hot? At any stage? I planted 70 acres of it in 2013. I grazed cows on it for a little while, took them off, let it grow, cut and baled it later on. The grain was still soft. I've fed those bales thru this winter. I've done searches about triticale and can't find any cautions. Would someone explain? Thanks.
I think with swath grazing the cows would pick the heads and get grain overload. Not probably a issue just feeding bales as the amount of grain would be limited each day.
Our experience with triticale is the cows do not like the straw if it is not mature. We treat it the same as any other cereal crop we produce. We let it mature and combine it for feed grain.Easy to produce a 50 bu crop. After the bins are full we bale the rest for grain bales. The straw behind the combine is then baled for roughage not bedding. I use those bales in feeders for extra roughage after they are done their hay. Surprizing how the eat it. If the bales are a couple years old they like them even more. Especially 2-3 year old oats straw. The grain bales are fed on native or tame grass but not bale grazed. What i have experienced is the waste and weed aftermath. Triticale is almost as hot as barley I believe. Its really a mix between rye and durum. Love it as feed but it bit me trying to swath graze. They would maybe do better if the crop was cut in a soft dough stage but the straw would then be an issue as they would not clean it up as well as I would like. Thanks for the comments guys. Sounds as though some of you have had a bad taste in your mouth from bale grazing! I know with some trial and error I could find a program that would suit me. Yes Big Muddy we are close. I am between you and our Mankota poster.