Wintering cows with straw

[ALLFARMER]

Financing has fallen into place to buy another
80k worth of cattle. Not sure if I should add
heifers now or wait and just buy them bred. We
are finally getting a sprinkle of rain, could use a
couple inches, that would be great. We have lots
if grass just not sure on how great a hay crop at
this point looks like a repeat of last years poor.

I have bunk space for up to head 350 cows. U
can get likely as much straw as I want this fall for
15 to 18$/bale. I can likely find oats, feed wheat,
or peas to roll. So how do I feed the straw? If I
tub grind it I need silage to mix it into ....not
gunna do that this year. Wonder if I could add
molasses to the bales then shred them at the
bunk and add rolled grain to top? Buying green
feed bales a possibility but ??? Maybe pea straw
and grain? Thinking outside the hay bale??

[Happytrails]

No problem wintering cows on oats, wheat, or peas and using straw for roughage. You probably don't need to grind it. Just make sure they are getting enough energy and protein from the other feed sources and don't let them eat enough straw to get impacted.

[ALLFARMER]

With the bunk fence limiting straw would be no
problem. Do you have Cowbytes HT? Likely 20
pounds of straw and 11 pounds of feed wheat
and 1 lb Beef Supp per day right? 1200lb cows

[ALLFARMER]

12 pounds of peas or 11 pounds of wheat with
20 pounds of straw for each ration. 30% beef
Supp. 1 pound/day

$40/ton straw, $5/bushel wheat, $6/bushel peas
30% beef supplement $240 tone

Wheat ration
20lbs Straw 0.3636
11lbs Wheat (60 lb) 0.916
1 lb beef sup 0.12
$1.39/ day

Peas ration
20lbs straw 0.3636
12lbs peas (6$) 1.20
1 lb beef sup 0.12
$1.68/ day

Hay 50$/bale 1250 lb - 4 cents/lb
44lbs hay
$1.76/ day

[ALLFARMER]

Found in my files a paper called "Feeding cows
prior to calving this year using - Cowboy Logic"
Trevor Yurchak, Doc Weder, Don Christenson,
Rod Carlyon, Terry Holmgren from 2001

I knew Trevor and Rod the rest of the guys are
wild cards? Back then you could winter a cow on
wheat & straw for $1.23/day

[ASRG]

In 2009 I never fed the cows any hay (the hay I did have was fed to the yearlings). Rolled the straw out on the ground dumped whole barley on top with front end loader (10 lbs/day/cow). 1400 lb cows.
Gave them all the straw they wanted. 2 row barley straw baled right behind the combine. Don't try to feed straw from a rotary combine....almost a guarantee they will impact!
The barley cost me $3.60/bu at the bin(my barley). I priced the straw at only one cent/lb. (my straw). No supplement. I believe I fed a different mineral (more calcium).
It cost me around $1/day/cow for 150 days. The cows did very well, no calving problems, healthy calves and cows in good shape.
I'm not sure why you would feed 44 lbs of hay per 1200 lb. cow? Do you use hay for bedding?
As far as I'm concerned overfeeding cows and having them in a feedlot laying around is just asking for trouble at calving time. Feed them out where they have to walk to water and get some excercise.
The trick to lasting in the cow business is keeping costs down.

[grassfarmer]

It's typical cowboy arithmetic ASRG, trying to justify
the paradigm we are in, something most of us are
guilty of. Allfarmer has decided against hay so stacks
the figures to make his decision more comforting to
look at. His wheat ration comes to $1.39/day at 33lb
consumption whereas the hay ration at 44lbs was
$1.76/day. If you equalize the intake at say the 33lb
level it would bring the cost of the hay ration to
$1.32/day. These are all before the cost of delivering
feed to the cattle, paying for the feed bunks,
spreading the manure, processing grain or adding
minerals and none of these rations look cheap
enough to me.
I'm unclear where Allfarmer intends to make his
profit? is it through land development, cattle
ownership appreciation or marketing forage through
cattle? If the primary objective is marketing
purchased winter feed utilizing his feed bunks maybe
custom feeding cattle for someone would be a better
choice? That way at least you externalize cattle
ownership risk.

[ALLFARMER]

I came up with the 44 pounds by figuring as a
general rule that cows eat 4% of their body
weight just for maintenance. 1250 x .04 = 50

But we fed 3 bales/day most of the winter to 95
animals. 3 x 1250 / 95 = 39 lbs day

Using bunks cows will be eating nearly all the
grain.

[ALLFARMER]

Ya thinking may be off that cows weight 1250
and bales are 1250 lbs. Likely 1200 cows and
1300 lb bales. Need to a couple bales

[smcgrath76]

Generally speaking a cow will intake
approximately 2.5% of BW in dry matter per
day. I don't doubt your daily costs, but
there could be some cheaper alternatives.
Can you bale graze the straw and supp feed
grain every other day, or mix some higher
quality roughage in the mix and graze it
to drop your costs. Those numbers are
pretty scary in my mind and equate to a
lot of risk in every calf.

[ALLFARMER]

Feed 7 months x 30 = 210 days x 1.40 = $294
for wintering. Compared to 7 bales x $50ea =
$350

[ALLFARMER]

Cattle ownership has been great in this rising
market. The $800 cows I bought I sold for $1250
The heifers I bought for 975 were worth 1700 last
winter now calved out $2150? Cattle charts
bullish again

[ASRG]

Allfarmer: Not trying to rip you here, but realize we are in a fairly sweet time right now in the cattle business?
That can change in a minute? When BSE hit, we went from better prices than now (real prices, adjusted to inflation) to prices that were a complete joke!

What might happen tomorrow if we got something like foot and mouth?

It is only prudent, in any business, to try to keep costs down while maintaining as much productivity as is economically feasible? Good times don't last forever and what we are experiencing right now is a typical cattle cycle?

Yes, use this time to expand responsibly.....but realize margins will narrow as we move along the cattle cycle?

If you can keep costs low in the good times it will allow you to build equity so you can weather the bad times.

[smcgrath76]

AllFarmer - Note that 200 days rolls off
the tongue, but 7 months is over 1/2 of
the year. There has to be a cheaper way
to knock at least a few days off of that
total. If you have cropland, have you
looked at a jones buncher, or chaff
piles?
I would struggle feeding that many days
if it was to a class of livestock that
is not growing (feeder calves). That is
a lot of work and $ when most of it is
going for cow maintenance. I know the
country is different around your area
than it is here, but I would think it
would be worth looking around for other
unique feeding options long term.

[ASRG]

I know a guy who lives in the general area Allfarmer is at who swaths grazes well into January. He does it a little different than most would here. Big swaths. He says even when covered with a couple of feet of snow he just plows along the edge of the swaths and the cows get right down and pull it out! When the snow goes they clean up what is left.