Help! My cows are starving!!

[Doug Thorson]

Because it is now December I decided to cake my cows 3 days a week to make my grass last longer. I am thinking 3 pounds of cake and 25 pounds of hay 3 days a week might make things work through January, but I am not sure my skinny cows are going to last on that. :wink:

here they come

Poor skinny things!

a game of find the cake!

Almost nothing to feed them to shape them up :lol: :lol:

Neighbor's bulls standing in the fence corner, starving to death
(are any familiar BRG?)

I don't think he has enough hay to feed those five bulls for the winter!!!!!

My bulls are in pretty tough shape also! 847 is almost as skinny as I am!

 

[leanin' H]

Those neglected cattle look fleshed up rather nicely headin' into winter! If your gonna cake em' i'd suggest no icing or they might get too fat! :wink:

 

[Northern Rancher]

Great minds think alike-I broke down and hauled a couple protein tubs out to mine today. Did you know caking cows cures deafness-when we tried it with ours they could hear the key turn in the feeds truck a mile away.

 

[BRG]

I do see something familiar

Your cattle sure do look good.

 

[burnt]

Well It's clearly a dreadful case of neglect!! Good thing they're easy keepers!! :wink: :lol2:

 

[John SD]

Doug, now you must get every one of those cows some safety goggles! Those poor cows are going to poke their eyes out getting through that grass to find the cake! :lol: :lol: :lol: 8)

 

[WyomingRancher]

Those cows look great! I'm envious!

I'm feeding these cows creatively as well since I had to move them from their normal winter pasture because everything was coated in ice.

 

[Doug Thorson]

. Did you know caking cows cures deafness-when we tried it with ours they could hear the key turn in the feeds truck a mile away.

That is fine with me since those cows are 7 miles one way away from home! :wink:

 

[Blkbuckaroo]

Poor little fattys :wink: ,so neglected :lol:

 

[nmhighdesert]

thats just funny, nosing thru a foot of grass for cake..........great to see them in that shape going into winter

 

[Ned Jr.]

Those poor cows!! :shock:

If there's such thing as reincarnation I may want to come back as one of your cows. They look good. I see one that looks a little familiar myself, he's looking good also.

 

[Grassfarmer]

OK I'll be the one to ask the stupid question - why are you supplementing your cows when they have that much grass and not even any snow cover? Is the grass so deficient in quality that it needs supplementing? if so why do you give them both pellets and hay? What nutrients are you providing with each of the supplements?

 

[Denny]

OK I'll be the one to ask the stupid question - why are you supplementing your cows when they have that much grass and not even any snow cover? Is the grass so deficient in quality that it needs supplementing? if so why do you give them both pellets and hay? What nutrients are you providing with each of the supplements?

He said he was trying to stretch the grass thru january.

 

[Doug Thorson]

OK I'll be the one to ask the stupid question - why are you supplementing your cows when they have that much grass and not even any snow cover? Is the grass so deficient in quality that it needs supplementing? if so why do you give them both pellets and hay? What nutrients are you providing with each of the supplements?

Just stretching grass and trying to keep them in the shape they are in. I have 1 1/4 acres of grass per cow. Most years a non-lactating cow will eat 1 1/2 per month, but we grew a little more this year, so hopefully that ration and what grass is there will work for 60 days. That would leave 45 days of full feeding before calving. I am not a nutritionist so what I know is from visual, but I am sure that cows do better around here if there is still some grass that they can pick at. The cake is for nutrition and hay is to make them feel full. If you feed only hay here, you have to feed a lot of it and my hay is pretty low quality because I saved my best for April and the next best is for calves I am wintering, then my 2-3 year old bunch has better hay and finally the cows get what I figure nothing else will eat! I doubt they cleaned up what I gave them very well. I will have to try the other side of the stack and see if it is better, because what I gave them was almost alfalfa straw.