# Guys who have cattle and cut their own hay



## JD3430

If you cut hay for your own herd, can you tell me what amount of dogbane or milkweed you would accept as safe?
My neighbor has a small herd that he doesn't slaughter- they're like big pets. He wants to buy rounds from me and I am concerned about selling him anything that might hurt his herd.
I have a field of nice hay I can get 20 rounds from, but it has either a little milkweed or dogbane in it. Less than 1% of the field is these weeds. Other 99% is redtop, timothy, orchard grass-looks really nice, but yes, there's some dogbane/milkweed in there.

Last weed topic I'll start......... I promise..........till next week. lol


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## slowzuki

Dairy farmer up the road from me cuts several fields for balage that are over 50% milkweed. When you drive by a month after you'd guess they are solid seeded stands of milkweed. I've looked into it and what I've seen say at young stages common milkweed isn't bad. We have some in fields he cut before and dropped seed into, the horses eat around it, the sheep will eat the leaves but not touch the stalks.


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## scrapiron

I attempt to have all my hay weed free. I don't have milkweed or dogbane,but I do have dogfennel, ragweed,marestale,maypops,tropical soda apple,horsenettle and others. I do spray for weeds when necessary in hay fields & pasture. As long as cows are not starving they will normally not eat harmful weeds in hay. I have not been able to teach my cows to eat weeds. I have been known to walk/ride a field belore it is raked & hand pickup any weeds I see. That can get fun on a 30/60 acre field in mid summer here.

scrapiron


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## ForemanTX

If its in my hay field it gets cut and feed to cows,I let them deside on what weeds the wonna eat and what ones they dont,haha. Serious side the ony thing I watch about cutting is the R.O.W with the Dalis grass in it....


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## JD3430

It's really crazy how much difference of opinion exists here.
I've read everything from "an ounce of milkweed can kill a cow" to "my cows seek out and eat milkweed because they like it".

How about dogbane?


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## Tim/South

First, I am going to have to google milk weed.
I do not overly concern myself with a few weeds. I try to feed my cows good hay. I have learned a lot the past two years. I bought hay to supplement my own. I learned that about anything can be baled and called "cow hay".
I bale all of my own now. There may be a stray weed I do not recognize but what I am feeding is far and away better than what I bought, even from farmers.
My horses eat the "cow hay" I bale.

Off to search for Milk Weed.


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## mulberrygrovefamilyfarm

I have a lot of milk weed in several pastures. My cows do seek it out and eat it. Never have any problem at all. I watched a cow just today eat an entire plant starting with the big flower on top and then proceed to strip all of the leaves off and eat a good bit of the stem too. As far as I can tell it's not toxic to cows or I'd have a lot of sick and/or dead cows.


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## Nitram

I have cut my pastures for years as has my father had them cut and baled. I will echo previous posts on this thread as long as there is good grass mixed in the cows will eat what they like and know to feel good in their guts. Generally all pastures have some weeds. Now dogbane I'd have to look up but if in small quantities doubt there is much of an issue. Martin


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## Waterway64

One thing you don't say is how it will be fed. If it is to be ground or ensiled I would be concerned about poisonous weeds than if it were fed loose so that cows can sort out weeds. I wonder if we are all talking about the same plant when we say milk weed? To me it makes a good feed when cut young. My dad always said that nearly every plant had feed value when cut at the "right" stage. Also cutting or grazing at the right stage can nearly eliminate some weeds. I have never dealt with dog bain and know nothing of it. Mel


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## JD3430

The hay I speak of will be stored in my neighbor's barn. Then I will pull a roll down about once every 5 days and feed it to his small herd in a circualr feeder.

Dogbane looks like small milkweed to me.
http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/weedguide/singlerecord.asp?id=560


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## hayray

[sup]I wouldn't worry about it, I bale lots of it and never had a problem. [/sup]


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## CockrellHillFarms

JD3430......everyone has their preferences when it comes to hay. Cow hay to one person might be different to another. I sell my top quality hay in sq. Little lower in rounds. Everything else goes to cows (I do keep some alfalfa for my heifers). People make a big deal out of cows getting good hay. If people take the time to do research, they will see they dont need "High" quality hay. In some places, they feed freaking saw dust to cattle. So I feed whatever I dont sell. If I feel like its poor quality or a year or two old hay. I supplement with liquid feed. Also, people in a research center come up with reasons why weeds etc....are gonna kill something. Common sense tells us that you wouldnt purposely eat something that is going to harm u. Those cows will do the same thing. If they dont like it, it falls to the ground. Feed them any hay.They will be fine. Knowledge comes with experience not that I have as much experience as some of these other guys (as I'm only 27) but I have been around 3 generations of farmers. Dont let some research scare you off from "real" life experience. I'm sure in a lab they can load up a test tube sample and make it dangerous enough to kill something. I was a biology/chemistry major in college. I know how these things works. lol. Numbers can be manipulated any way you went them to be read.


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## Nitram

There are reports of horses, cattle, and sheep poisoned from eating green or dried hemp dogbane. At one time, it was considered that 0.5 to 1 ounces of green or dry leaves could kill a horse or a cow. However, recent evidence suggests that this report was the result of an error.
This is from the site you linked. I have noticed that if you overly concern oneself with REPORTS , you will go crazy. Often when the rest of the story comes out it was little to do with what we do. Now I am not trying to say don't pay attention or be concerned but take everything with a grain of salt. And mostly compare what you read to what you see in your world. Horses are a bit more sensitive to toxicity but if its something that grows in pastures etc that you often see livestock grazing don't worry too much. like I did with partridge pea earlier this year. Turns out they have to eat 10 lbs a day to be effected by it. just saying Martin


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## ARD Farm

We've been operating a confinement operation for years and feeding forage grown on our own fields without any problems whatsoever. What they don't eat, they pull out (of the feeder bars) and pee on anyway....

Never had any issue with invasive weed species ans never paid any attention actually.

We feed straw with hay (and processed feedstocks) as well. Always have. If you live toward the East Coast. and have eaten beef products or steak in resturants, you might have consumed meat from steers sequestered on our farm....


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## JD3430

Yes I do realize college professors like to sound important by giving us information that will scare you to death.....
Thanks, guys. I had a gut feeling it would be fine, but some of the stuff you read.......it can drive you crazy!


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## whitmerlegacyfarm

I often wondered about this, because i have fed some very weed hay to our horses before and them seem to just eat what they want and push the rest to the side.


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## ARD Farm

whitmerlegacyfarm said:


> I often wondered about this, because i have fed some very weed hay to our horses before and them seem to just eat what they want and push the rest to the side.


........................and pee on it or use it for a mattress.....cattle do the same thing.


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