Hay price

[ASRG]

Sean: How do you do the "rake bunch thing"?
The end of grazing banked native pasture in my area usually ends in the Dec 1-15 range as the snow is just too deep. I have often thought of swath grazing but could never pencil it out....swath grazing vs. grain crop?

[ASRG]

Sean: You may be overly optomistic on the "nutrient value" of bought in hay? I think grassfarmer had it figured out at about $31/cow over the winter?

[smcgrath76]

The rake bunch thing, we just cut with
our haybine and pile with a dump rake.
We are looking at our old farmhand sweep
in the future as an option.
I am interested in what you feel is "too
deep" as far as snow cover. We have
found the type of snow makes more
difference than the depth, but up to 12-
18" on prairie is around the limit and
24-30" depending on snow type for swath
grazing.
GF may be closer on his nutrient numbers
than I am, although I know the price of
fertilizer fluctuates a lot. I don't
include any of this "free" benefit when
I run our cost analysis.

[grassfarmer]

Can't remember figuring out to $31/winter ASRG but I
might have forgotten. I thought the figures were
about 40-45c/day nutrient value coming out the back
end of a cow? That's just over $40 per cow on a 100
day winter which is what I try to feed for. $80 on
your 200 day winter. It's rather vague given how
much can volatize if the winter conditions aren't right
or they are in a corral.
We feed everything out in the fields when we have to
feed - movable bunks even for the weaned calves and
any time we can buy old/scrap hay/straw bales for
@$15 we do so. Let them eat/bed on it. Its a cheap
way to capture (and add) nutrients to get the bale
grazing effect and it doesn't kill spots out so bad.

[Horse]

I always figured on 210 day feeding some yrs came less some more The problem I have is I dont have 2or3 extra 1/4 to pasture so I figure on 165 and have feeds on hand if short then buy some in, I always wanted to get rid of the haying and buy all my feed but then I would have to more thjan doubled the cows and I just didnt feel like calving 300. I know some do but my comfort level was more like 100 to 150 but now I have none and life goes on esxdcept now m,ore haying and field work., Time to surender I guess after 50 yr to late to smarten up.

[Happytrails]

The 40-45 cents worth of manure a day that GF says comes out the back of a cow gets my attention. Guess I never thought about it that way but it makes sense. I had finally come to the realization that feeding hay where it grew might keep the fields fertile indefinitely. If you had hay you didn't need you would be better off letting some cows eat it in your field than selling it cheap. HT

[grassfarmer]

Depends what was growing in your hayfield HT. Cows
only recycle at best about 85% of what they consume
so a field with enough nutrients to grow grass for 100
cows one year would only have enough nutrients to
grow enough for 85 cows the next year. Hence the
need for legumes.
Absolutely you would be better off grazing the hay at
home rather than selling it. I have never, and would
never sell forage off my place. Can't afford to.

[ASRG]

Well I've never got feeding costs down to $80/cow. Usually in that $140-$160 range for hay and straw. That doesn't include running a tractor. The tractor I use is very fuel efficient (japanese) and I keep it in a shop with a timer on the plug in.
I run relatively efficient cows (Angus) and don't start calving until April.
I feed (and bed) out in the field on a quarter section, but often need to feed near willow brush due to wind. The grass is pretty lush in those areas!

[grassfarmer]

The $80 I quoted was what might come out the back
end of a cow over a 200 day winter not what goes in
the front end ASRG. We can't winter them for $80 -
not even for the 100 day period.

[ASRG]

I'm kind of intrigued with Sean's idea of "bunching hay"? I was at a farm sale where there was this old dump rake (you had to sit on it to trip it-horse equipment).
I can kind of see how it might work. Not sure if it would be worth the trouble or time......?