monitor your cattles energy balance

[chalice]

-30 for 3months is the great equalizer. In 1991 I spent a year in Australia. I landed at the tail end of an 18 month drought. I thought I had seen thin starving cows. That was until I moved to southeast Saskatchewan and saw transplanted Alberta ranchers trying to deal with the extended cold after not being prepared for it. Now most of the transplants are starting to figure out that they need to get prepared for winter with early weaning or some other management strategy to fix a low BCS early, when it isn't so costly to turn the cows around. Now I deal with locals that are changing their management system and type of cows to the bale grazing more hands off type of management.
I think there are quite a few factors that have lead to this perfect storm on some operations and for the most part I think everyone that I deal with is learning from it. What they are learning is that just because you may not be out there physically feeding the cows doesn't mean you shouldn't be out there watching or even bringing in a outside set of eyes to get a second opinion.

[BTOfarmallll]

Actually Rand, been handling the Farming Game so long, my thumbs bruised. Got the kinda Money the Bank kin't hold.......

[Happytrails]

Hey Henry this post has sure turned out good and it is nice to get to know you. Risking too much information I will offer one more tidbit that I picked up somewhere that on the surface doesn't seem to make any sense. It is that a cow doesn't get fat on the hay that she eats but the hay she sleeps on. Strictly speaking no doubt you can pick it apart but I think it works. Regards HT

[grassfarmer]

How's your stockpile grazing looking Kato? We haven't seen ours yet - still buried deep under the winter snow. This is a management challenge for us as we are normally on it by April 10th at the latest. Looks like they won't get back onto grass before May 1st so we are buying silage in as our own is gone. Cows are in good enough shape, heifers a little too good which is causing me some work I don't usually have.

I really think more people should consider making silage versus seeing hay as the only feed cows can eat. I realise it won't work for everyone but it results in far more predictable, quality feed and almost eliminates weather risk and feed spoilage.

[smcgrath76]

GF - silage is a great equalizer when
fighting weather and forage quality,
however it is high cost and can require
significant amounts of labour depending
on the operation.
We are just out on swath grazing and
leftover corn with the cows,
supplementing with some bale grazing.
First calvers to be are back out on
swath grazing (buried some months ago),
and heifer calves are on grass. We have
a set of heifers destined to PQ that are
on hay until the truck gets here next
week.
I agree with the environment part,
although it is always possible to push
the envelope. Everyone is different and
that is a good thing.

[grassfarmer]

There are different ways to make hay for sure but I see guys in $100k tractors and $40k balers making rounds out of black weathered crap or storing the bales over till next year and losing 30% of the feed. I can't see how that is cheap. I'm lucky I can get custom silage done for @$10/ton - standing to packed.

[chalice]

HT it is good to get to know you too. I agree with you on that. A cows body heat is generated by the activity in her rumen, so anything to preserve the heat that she is generating such as bedding, wind breaks, bluffs and backfat. I liken these things to the insulation in your house and the more insulation the less it takes to heat the house.
GF makes a good point about the silage. I use it every year because I never wean my first calf heifers early enough. I barely have enough cows to package up my calves as it is let alone weaning twice so I strain my heifers and I want to pick them up as fast as I can(before Jan 1 when the deep freeze sets in)and silage is the most consistent product in our area as well as you can give them a TMR. I find with pellets or grain if your feeding 6-8 lbs to replace lost weight some get 2lbs and some get 12lbs. And it isn't always cows that are weaker or poorer they may just be shy and less agressive. For example one I have what I think is a picture perfect blue roan cow she is quiet, has a nice bag, raises a good calf, breeds back early. However, when you cut a water hole she is the first there and the last to drink because she won't put up with the pushing and shoving. In a bale grazing with OLS tubs or a TMR winter feeding program she is in the middle of the pack but when she is in a feed everyday situation where she has to compete she falls behind.

[per]

I have a soft spot for Blue Roans but having said that if she did not do well in my system I would not change the system for her. She would be culled. That is not to say I wouldn't try to find a home for her that she would do well in. As far as silage goes, I came from that back ground and found the forage based program that I use now to be more cost effective. GF, you point out the 100k baler tractor etc but fail to point to the cost of the silage units. Both can be hired as well. Neither beat stockpiled forage and swath grazing except in the one in eight winter like last year. I am just heading back to the swath grazing fields now but quality has been compromised.

[chalice]

Per we cull our cows as well and we don't change our system to suit one cow. It is simply an observation that when we do change to a more hands off winter feeding program that fits my off farm job, I noticed that there is less of a spread between the bottom and top cows. I may be wrong but I think my less agressive cows are full 6 out of 7 days instead of not quite full everyday.
In an everyday feeding system there will always be the less agressive cows that get pushed to the bottom. I will cull them and create a new bottom. Am I culling actual poor doers or am I dropping efficient cows that aren't as dominant as their herd mates? I am not sure.
In environments where there is more grazing, cattle don't have to push one another off of grass to get a mouth full, so competition for food isn't as big an issue as a bale that has been rolled out or pellets in a trough.

[kato]

That less dominant observation is a good one. I wonder if, over a period of years and a few generations if a herd that has been raised in a style that rewarded the dominant cows with more feed would become a herd of more generally aggressive cattle?

It would be interesting to know just what a role dominance plays in deciding who gets fat and who gets leftovers. I know it's been proven that docile cattle produce more tender beef as well, so would that come in to play over time?

How closely is dominant behaviour connected to aggressive behaviour...

[grassfarmer]

Per, you are right I was not making a fair comparison with only highlighting the cost of baling equipment, of course silage making equipment is way more expensive. Probably close to a million$ of equipment pulls in here when we make silage. I still find it is cheaper getting silage made custom than getting hay made custom - if you take the cash costs and apply it to the dry matter tonnage the hay always pencils dearer for me - and that's before allowing for the weather risk.
I agree also that a system where the cow harvests her own feed is always cheaper than a mechanical system. We will be going to swaths next winter for the first time. Once we decided to grow our own winter feed rather than buy it all it's a no-brainer for me to swath-graze.