# Unmarketable hay - cattle?



## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

We have about 3000 square bales of hay each year that I'd prefer not to sell as it get a bad name for my horse hay. Stuff with various weeds etc in it. I'm bouncing back and forth, first thought is to plow and plant grain for straw but I don't have a combine nor is there a custom harvester around here.

Next thought was to roll it up and start feeding some cattle when the pastures are done in November. I know nothing of the cattle market other that locally people try to get rid of animals before the snow flies so the prices depress a bit before winter.

I assume you aren't going to build weight well over the winter so if you feed hay you will need to get them on grass into the summer next year before shipping any.

We have about 8 acres of fenced pasture that we hay, there is another 5 acres of pasture that isn't currently fenced but could be easily electricfied.


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## Dill (Nov 5, 2010)

And this is how it starts. At first the thought pattern is, I need some cows to eat the bad hay. Then you need more cows. And suddenly you are feeding the good stuff to the cows and selling the lower end stuff to horse people.


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

You can winter cows on poor hay and a little corn syrup to sweeten it up. Run thru a tub grinder and they don't know the difference. At least mine don't...


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## Leggupfarms (Jun 30, 2014)

I think there are several ways you could go. First are there any local auctions you could take and sell the hay where it wouldn't interfere with your horse hay. There have got to be cattle and goat people who need edible hay. You could always winter cattle and sell them in the spring when others are looking to buy. Maybe get light feeders and feed them out to heavy feeders or just finish them out yourself.


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## SwingOak (May 19, 2014)

When I was a kid we hayed whatever was growing out in the field, we didn't plant anything other than corn for the hogs on our farm. Our steers ate that hay and did pretty well on it, weeds and all. So I'm not really sure exactly what type of hay is good for cows or not, (but I know what's good for horses and what isn't).

What exactly IS considered good hay for cows, and what would be considered bad hay for cows?


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## Fowllife (Sep 10, 2010)

Dill said:


> And this is how it starts. At first the thought pattern is, I need some cows to eat the bad hay. Then you need more cows. And suddenly you are feeding the good stuff to the cows and selling the lower end stuff to horse people.


So very true. After the first year of making hay we got a few steers to eat the hay we could sell as horse hay. After the first year with steers we bought cows so we didn't have to deal with selling horse hay. Now we round bale 90% and feed 100% to our cows


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## Fowllife (Sep 10, 2010)

This does bring up the old topic though of what is "horse hay". I would rather feed better quality hay to my cows then to horses because the cows will make me more money.

Unless you have a good source for reasonable priced grain I don't think it will work very good for you, unless you buy bred cows in the fall and sells pairs in the spring. Even they would probably need some grain over the winter in your climate. I would think in order to add good weight and make money you have have to feed steers quite a bit of grain to get them to gain in the winter. Starting your own brood cow herd would also work if you want the year round work & have the market to sell calves or finished beef.


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

Our climate is warmer and cows usually do well on a hay diet over the winter if the hay has much feed value. Some weeds to not bother me in the least as long as there is some grass in the bale to provide nutrition.

I supplement with Brewers Grain for $54 per ton delivered.

My concern with getting into cattle right now is the price. I would hate to be buying momma cows or heifers right now.

Raising cattle and hay vary from region to region. I do not have enough knowledge to offer an opinion on how things work in the northern climates.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Round bale grass sileage (balage) without grain appears to be the most common feeding setup among the neighbours beefers here. No grain except the dairy guys. I'm not opposed to doing a bit of sileage either as the wet climate makes that much easier than dry hay. I'd have to borrow/rent a wrapper but thats not an issue.

Semi-Local price is 2.61$/lb at the plant, I pay trucking but there are local options nearby paying maybe 2$/lb.

Say 20 pairs, I think the most you could gross on 20 once established would be 20,000$ with a net closer to 12,000$, and you wouldn't get there the first year. Hmm, pain of looking after 20 cows to make an incremental 6000$.

Not clear cut to me, maybe we'll just pick up 2-3 to feed out for ourselves and family to reduce our meat bill.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Seems calves are pretty cheap here, the dairy culls at least. Holstein / angus cross vaccinated are about 160$ a piece. I seem to recall they have to have starter or something for a month or two that is expensive though.


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

You sure they are still that cheap?

There are many different routes to go. My first steers/bulls came from the sale barn (learned bull lesson). Angus/simmental or something like that. They did ok on grass alone but not as well as my Highlanders. For raising a few steers I have read jerseys do well on just grass. Not going to break weight gain records but raise some quality beef. Consider your winter water source. After I got my Ritchie fountain my winter workload and electric.bill.went down considerably.


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## Dill (Nov 5, 2010)

Hows the market for selling freezer beef up there? That's my angle. Growing up we always had some dairy steers to feed the not great hay too. And then silage came along. Really in our climate which is your climate it helps a lot. We go full out in June doing silage bales, and take the good fields first. That means I have nice 2nd crop ready to square in august when I finish up rest of the first crop.

My father still does the dairy beef route.I can sell them fine and haven't got any complaints about taste in fact some people prefer the burger. But it takes longer for them to get up to weight and I hate the bottle routine. I've been butchering my herefords around 18months and the dairy guys are 24-28 months, so quite a bit more feed. My brother is buying a small herd of belties tomorrow, 8 cows and 5 calves, he is planning on just feeding dry rounds, since he works for a diary and spends june putting up that baleage. It will be interesting to see which herd does better.


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

Belties grow slow. But all they need is grass.


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## Dill (Nov 5, 2010)

Not sure on that. I've done a couple belties and I was surprised how heavy they hung. Not tall cows by any means, but they get heavy. I actually wanted a beltie herd, but at the time couldn't find any, but now I'm fully into my herefords.

I used to work for my brother's father in law, (hey farming in a small state is a real small world) he's got 200-250 Oreo cows, I liked them, easy keepers and they do well on grass. Half of my brother's cows are red/white the others black/white. One of the reasons he went for them is he has plenty of free bulls available now.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Yes the calf pricing is low here.

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-livestock/fredericton/calves-for-sale/600663921?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

Taking round bale silage in June and second cut as square is a good idea, it is a son of a gun to get dry hay up in June here.

Water is never a problem here, it comes out of the ground year round in most field, all wells are artesian. Snow and feeding in the winter is a pain. We already feed 2 work horses and 3-4 riding horses and about 40 sheep.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

stack em up said:


> You can winter cows on poor hay and a little corn syrup to sweeten it up. Run thru a tub grinder and they don't know the difference. At least mine don't...


using glycerin instead of corn syrup. sort my poorest hay out and grind that during the summer when energy requirements are lowest for the girls, they also have some pasture in the summer as well.


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