Crickhollow Farms
Exploring the pasture
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2022
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- 5
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Hi All,
I'm in the process of acquiring some cattle as a total cow newbie. I have a question about what to feed them in. Specifically these questions:
1) I have a shedrow horse barn that I've converted into loafing stalls. The dairy barn that I volunteered at, and most facilities I've seen, feed their cows on a slanted fence panel with concrete and they just eat off the ground. Great. However I use the deep litter method through the winter and the straw/bedding can end up between 1-3' thick by the end of the winter so that is really not an option for me. I'm going to have a dairy cow in the barn and I'm wondering if anyone out there on the homestead scale uses a different feeding method. A hayrack or a bunk feeder or something that would sit atop the bedding with success? Preferably with minimal hay waste.
2) I'm also looking into getting a couple steers for beef that would live outside in the pasture. Most feed out the round bale feeders. I'm in the very rainy PNW and am wondering if the hay feeder should be covered? I'd hate to pay all that money for hay for it just to go moldy but I've never really seen them covered. Again, I'm only looking to get a couple so I don't think they'd be ripping through big bales very fast. I probably can't even get round bales around me, but even if I feed normal bales should I be figuring out a covered feeding station solution. I'm also planning on rotational grazing so anything I use needs to be easily moved.
Thanks in advance for any tips/tricks!
I'm in the process of acquiring some cattle as a total cow newbie. I have a question about what to feed them in. Specifically these questions:
1) I have a shedrow horse barn that I've converted into loafing stalls. The dairy barn that I volunteered at, and most facilities I've seen, feed their cows on a slanted fence panel with concrete and they just eat off the ground. Great. However I use the deep litter method through the winter and the straw/bedding can end up between 1-3' thick by the end of the winter so that is really not an option for me. I'm going to have a dairy cow in the barn and I'm wondering if anyone out there on the homestead scale uses a different feeding method. A hayrack or a bunk feeder or something that would sit atop the bedding with success? Preferably with minimal hay waste.
2) I'm also looking into getting a couple steers for beef that would live outside in the pasture. Most feed out the round bale feeders. I'm in the very rainy PNW and am wondering if the hay feeder should be covered? I'd hate to pay all that money for hay for it just to go moldy but I've never really seen them covered. Again, I'm only looking to get a couple so I don't think they'd be ripping through big bales very fast. I probably can't even get round bales around me, but even if I feed normal bales should I be figuring out a covered feeding station solution. I'm also planning on rotational grazing so anything I use needs to be easily moved.
Thanks in advance for any tips/tricks!