I just got done baling 350 little square bales of Rye hay. My share was over 150 of the dumb things. Now I don't know what to do with them. All I have in the winter is 2 cows, 6 fat steers, and a bunch of horses. The Rye was immature when I mowed it, but had headed out, maybe 80%. Kinda leery feeding it to horses, and I sure can't feed that much to 10 bovines, over the winter,especially when the cows run with the horses. So now what do I do with it? It would make great calving barn bedding, but I don't have a cows to calve out.
Rye Hay
- Thread starter LazyWP
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James
Well-known member
if need be I could take it off your hands as there is quite bit of that fed here by the neighbor. very good feed a little bitter but good feed
JF Ranch
Well-known member
One year when we were short of hay, I bought and fed several loads of rye hay. I don't remember how it tested, but the cows liked it and by spring, we had lots of rye coming up where ever the hay was fed. I decided it would be great stuff to feed on eroded areas where some cover and early regrowth is needed. 'Seems like around here, we have plenty of places to feed that sort of stuff.
Nicky
Well-known member
Why don't you want to feed it to horses?
Big Muddy rancher
Well-known member
Nicky said:
Beards.
Big Muddy rancher said:
Yep, I did cut it while it immature, it still is about 80% headed out. They tell me the beards/awns can cause a horse to become impacted, or colic. I am not willing to risk it.
I think I got it traded off on some good meadow hay in round bales.
burnt
Well-known member
Big Muddy rancher said:
Just thinking about your reply.
Don't believe I've ever seen a horse with a beard...
You sure you're not remembering those goats from way back when?
:wink:
Clarencen
Well-known member
We fed a little rye hay here a few times, but not enough that could make any comment on it. The mention of beards did interest me though. Barley has beards too. These beards bothered bare arms when you shocked it. When I was a small kid, my Dad planted and grew spring wheat, we noticed that some wheat had beards and some didn't. We were told that there was bearded wheat and beardless. My Dad always saved his own seed, he said it was a mix of two varieties Marcus and Series, maybe that is why there was a difference. When I was in high school a seed salesman. maybe from Canada, sold seed here. He sold Rival spring wheat and Beaver oats. These out produced what we had been planting. The Beaver oats grew tall made lots of straw. It was later maturing, it did well for a few years, but when we got the summers with hot days and hot winds it didn't produce as well as some of the earlier maturing varieties.
Denny said:
If need be, I can make my Longhorns scrounge for food all winter. I have seen times where they will clean an area of snow, and then the horses run them off. If I ran the cows in a separate pasture, I would keep the rye and feed it. I'm just lazy and only want to feed in 1 place.
Nicky
Well-known member
We feed bearded triticale to the horses and have never had a problem.
3words
Well-known member
Nicky said:
It may be bearded,but is it smooth or rough awned?