# What way are y'all feeding hay?



## MScowman (May 18, 2011)

If you are like most people in the Deep South, me included, you feed it a ring or rack. However, I've been watching a guy on youtube lately named Greg Judy and he feeds his by rolling it out. Now, I know that the most common answer to that is you are going to lose a lot do to standing, manure, and urine but as he says that's good for his pastures because of what it does to the pasture by putting down free fertilize and Carbon into the ground. Just curious on y'all's thoughts.

Thanks,

Bo


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## TJ Hendren (May 12, 2017)

When it is time to start feeding hay in the fall i start them in rings. Right now as the grass is coming i took them back to rings, in between its unrolled. One might get 15 head if you are lucky around a ring so it requires two or more depending on herd number. At those sights a good flush of weeds always pop up and for me it is usually spinney pigweed. With hay unrolled everyone gets to eat on one bale till its gone even calves. As far as waste is concerned you will not loose anymore unrolled than a ring will depending on the quality of your hay. If it was cut at the right time and not set outside they will pretty much clean it up. Hay sitting outside in wet weather for a while is a different story whether feed in a ring or unrolled. I used to tell my dad they will only eat so much of it. Think of yourself as sitting down to spoiled food---Ain't gonna happen. As you mentioned it spreads the manure and urine out across the pasture and what they don't eat breaks down into other nutrients. Also what they don't eat during wet or winter weather can serve as bedding to give them somewhere out of the snow and ice or cold wet ground. I have been unrolling for the better part of 25 years now and it serves me well, just use you judgement when to unroll and when not to. Right now with grass greening up they will waste more unrolled than they will eat hence back to the rings because they don't all crowd at once now just a few at a time at the ring the rest are grazing.


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

We spread it out as well. We feed big squares, and for the last couple years have been putting it in the manure spreader. It seems to do a pretty good job of breaking up they hay, and the cows do a pretty good job of cleaning it all up. We just make sure that we feed on a clean spot each time, besides that helps spread out the urine and manure. The challenge is being able to tell where the last time you fed after a bunch of new snow. This way I can estimate about how much they can eat, and not waste any.


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## SCtrailrider (May 1, 2016)

I only feed 7 cows & 2 horses, I have a good hill I roll it down, they almost always eat it all and they can spread out and eat without pushing and shoving...


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## Trotwood2955 (Sep 4, 2012)

We feed a few smaller miscellaneous groups in smaller lots in rings, and occasionally in bad weather we'll set out some hay in rings. Otherwise everything gets unrolled either with a haybed truck or 3 pt unroller on a tractor. I know different methods work for different operations, but I personally do not like rings because of the mess they make. If you feed quality hay and gauge the amount relative to the group size there is minimal waste. And what is "wasted" and not eaten is really not waste at all but going back into the ground as nutrients. On top of the manure that gets distributed naturally rather than having to mechanically load and spread it from rings. I also think rings waste more hay than some folks want to admit. At least our cattle sure waste a lot out of them. Plus as others have said unrolling gives the entire group plenty of space to eat. Only disadvantage I see to unrolling is you pretty much have to do it every day or you do get more waste than you want. If you have a lot of rings you can put out several days worth at a time.

I've watched Greg's videos also. A lot of good concepts but he must have more time (or lots of cheap labor) than I do to go through and manually pitchfork our every unrolled bale to cover more ground. May sound good in theory but probably not worth the economic effort. Gotta remember he probably feeds very few bales like that overall with his stockpiling and grazing. Also his method of feeding with a 4 wheeler and manual winch unroller would get old FAST if feeding any significant number of bales each day. So again, have to take some of it with a grain of salt.


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## ozarkian (Dec 11, 2010)

I roll it out on thin pasture spots. Every cow and calf have an equal opportunity to eat. It's less destructive on the feeding area. It

allows for better distribution of manure and seed that is in the hay. Thickens up the thin pasture areas. Early spring I run a chain harrow across it to distribute manure and left over hay.


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## Cozyacres (Jul 16, 2009)

Another option is bale grazing, using hay rings, spreads out manure, everyone gets room to eat if you give them enough bales, no starting tractors in cold weather, just move rings and electric fence when hay is cleaned up


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## MScowman (May 18, 2011)

Thanks for the input guys, just looking for any way to save a buck and also improve. We've been feeding hay the same way for fifty years, just putting in rings and like some have said only a few can get to one ring at a time, so we have multiple rings. Spring and summer, a lot of pigweed where the rings were and no grass. Also, where I live winter weather here is WET and muddy can't believe we were ever able to do it without a front wheel assit tractor.


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## chevytaHOE5674 (Mar 14, 2015)

I unroll for my herd. I feed them out on pasture all winter long even in 6 feet of snow. My pastures have never looked better and I spread zero manure. Only muddy spots are gate openings, once in the field i drive in a new place everyday.


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## U Lazy V Ranch (Nov 30, 2020)

CowboyRam said:


> for the last couple years have been putting it in the manure spreader. It seems to do a pretty good job of breaking up they hay, and the cows do a pretty good job of cleaning it all up.


We feed big round bales and went to a "Haybuster" about 15 years ago. Our Canary Grass hay can get pretty "stemmy" and the Haybuster does a good job of chewing it up. I'd say an easy 15% gain in useage of the hay fed. It really makes a difference! We do about the same as you....just move over a bit every day and try to feed on clean ground. It's easy as the snow gets deeper, as you just move over to put the windrow of hay on the bank of snow.

I spent my youth, feeding "idiot cubes" (small bales) off the front corner of a sled, behind a team of horses. Some days it was great...some days it wasn't so great, but like Dad always said, you knew the team would start when it was 45 below 0! We bought a few semi loads of big squares a few years ago, and used the team and sled again... it IS a pretty inexpensive way to feed!

John


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## ClinchValley86 (May 9, 2021)

We have all but discontinued the use of our rings. They make too much of a mess. Unless its only for a few head.

I much prefer unrolling. Even got a 3 pt unroller last winter and love it.

I also just set bales out and remove the strings. Usually do this if it is too wet to unroll.

Not using the rings has resulted in far less mud in spring time.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

I'd say it depends on your conditions...

We've unrolled round bales on the hills at Shiner since we started. The Shiner farm is on hilly, sandy ground and unrolling bales works great. Set the bale at the top of the hill and give it a shove with the tractor forks or front end loader and let it unroll down the hill... sometimes give it a nudge or two to keep it rolling. When it gets down to about 2 feet in diameter or a little less, get out of the tractor and give it a shove with your foot a few times to unroll it out completely flat. Works great, all the cows can eat (no bullying) and they make good use of it, spread the manure and p!ss and they eat a lot more of it with less waste. Wouldn't do it any other way up here honestly.

Now when we quit row cropping in 03 and fenced the farm and got a herd going at Needville back then the first thing we were inclined to try was doing just like Shiner and unrolling the hay. Well, that didn't work too well for a few reasons. First, Needville is flat as a pancake (there's only 3 feet in elevation difference in a half mile long farm, versus over 200 feet difference in elevation over a similar distance at Shiner). The soil at Needville is a heavy gumbo clay, versus the sandy soil at Shiner, so when it gets wet at Needville, the soil turns into a mucky mire of MUD... Plus it rains like twice as much at Needville over the winter it seems than at Shiner, and the sandy soil can just drink that water in, where the clay at Needville turns into a saturated sticky mess. Cows were trampling and crapping on more hay laying on it to get off the wet ground than they were eating it seemed. Most guys use rings around Needville but I've NEVER liked rings and didn't want to start now, but I had to come up with a better solution, and I did. I had an old four bale hay trailer I'd built out of an old '56 Ford grain truck frame and a dually pickup axle years ago. It has steel plate fenders and a "saddle" over the axle for a bale, and the rest of the bales sat on the frame for transport. SO I set a bale up on top of the saddle between the fenders and let the cows eat off the trailer. It works great, but the cows do tend to bully each other more and definitely have their pecking order at getting to the hay. The hay that they pull loose mostly drops down under the trailer frame and around the axle, so the calves and older cows pick that up pretty well, what they can get to. Every time I feed a bale, I basically move that trailer up by its own length, and the old cows go clean up the loose hay that was so far up under the trailer they couldn't get to it when the trailer was sitting over it. They clean up about 90%+ of the hay, and leave the manure in "rings" around where the trailer is parked, which is constantly changing with each bale fed, so it gets spread out pretty evenly across the pasture during the winter. Moving the trailer also keeps the hoof traffic spread out, so they're not there long enough to work an area up into a mire very easily, particularly since I feed on the highest ground during the wettest weather. It's a good system and it works. Not perfect, but SO MUCH BETTER than stupid rings... If I need it, I do have another small trailer I can use in a similar way-- it was an old pickup bed trailer, made from a pickup cut in half with a tongue welded onto it. The box was rotted out and so I pulled it off and junked it but kept the running gear- it could hold another bale in a pinch if I really needed it, but since we feed daily it's not a big deal and we haven't needed it yet. To move the trailer, I just lower the forks under the front clevis hitch-- there's a bolt that sticks out below it and it catches on the frame of the forks quite nicely, and I can pull up with the trailer to where I want it, then set the forks back down and drive off. Works great.

SO, depending on your rain and snowfall, and soil type and slope and stuff, and how many cows you're feeding and how often your feeding, all that should come into play when you figure out what's the best method of feeding for your operation. I will say that I agree with Greg Judy-- spreading the manure and hoof action around over a larger area, as well as the "waste" hay that doesn't get eaten, is better for the soil and water than having it all worked up into a sh!tty muddy mire around a feed ring with a 2 foot deep layer of rotting hay underneath and around it...

Later! OL J R


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

I unrolled them until we bought a nice used Hay Buster.
I just like seeing the cows all spread out and eating at the same time.


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