RSL said:
I've done my time. I doubt most of us measure to be sure.
Basically if you have 100 BIG cows and feed 300 bales a year, then you downsize your cows, I bet most would have 100 smaller fatter cows and still feed 300 bales.
If you still had BIG cows and through testing improved feed efficiency 15% I bet most would still have 100 cows (not 115) and feed 300 bales.
That is been my working theory as well RSL. As I have said before, we have always figured roughly the same amount of hay to winter a cow when we had the little feather necks of the '50's or the monsters of the '80's or the more moderate size we have now. Cows that aren't easy keepers are culled out. If my cows were 300 lbs smaller I would not have any more of them.
I have noticed many folks get awful caught up in what cows eat the most then they go out and through feeding practices waste 10-15% more than they need to. Kinda reminds me of the hunters in the mountains that will spend $6000 on a rifle that's 2 lbs lighter than mine because "2 lbs is a lot of weight to pack up a mountain if you don't need to".
I always tell them they could have just had a poop before they left. Point being there is more than one way to be achieve efficiency, and feed practices are a good place to start. What Grassfarmer is doing by storing grass and grazing into the winter is very forward thinking and goes further towards improving ranch efficiency than anything I've seen in a while.