Give it a try Click here to go to live calculator on our website. Tractor Tools Direct. Take the hay rule of thumb and go from there to fill in your own unique specifics in your area. I like Alfalfa/Grass mix best for goats. Youll either have to run it yourself or hire someone to bale your hay for you (which is another cost). How much hay do you keep for the winter - CattleToday.com Judicious livestock feeding is an art. Estimating hay needs, size, weights and costs - Farmbrite A standard-quality bale of this size costs around $12.99, making your daily expenditure just over $90 per day. Peer reviewed (Orange level). Flail Mower? Take 1.5 tons x 2,000 pound per ton=3,000 pounds of hay, 3,000 divided by 60 bales=50 pounds per bale. Hay may have to be fed from October through March, perhaps even April. But some will eat anything. , In order to keep the best products at the best prices stocked and ready to ship from our warehouse a Id have to buy the same number of round bales for the two horses, the same number for the goats, and the same number for the sheep and donkeys, which would mean at least 70 round bales total (if they were the exact same size round bales I used last year). One of the most common questions is about hay for winterhow to plan it, how to know how much is required, how to know how many animals they can afford to keep. , Drum mowers, as a general category, are sturdy, low-maintenance machines designed for the compact tr Let the ewe lambs eat what they want, since they are still growing. The best way to determine hay needs is to know the weight of the bales and the weight of the goats. If you have ground level storage space in the barn, for example a 12 x 12 stall with a 10-foot wall, then the number will be . that! Hay stored outdoors has about 20-percent wastage (i.e., a waste factor of 1.2);hay stored indoors has about 7 percent (or 1.07 WF). Each type of hay, whether it is grass, legume, or grain, has its own characteristics that make it suitable for different purposes in a goats diet. Nov 2007 | Its not worth your money. Now that you have considered these factors, use the following Hay Calculator to determine your livestocks winter hay needs. I noticed that you have stacked your hay flat. (Will your flock make money?). Designed to help dairy farmers calculate the costs of homegrown forages and compare them to the costs of purchasing forages. I havent heard that in regard to goats specifically, though that may be true. Right now with hay being so expensive a mix of grass and alfalfa hay is a good idea. Simply input your animal species, average animal weight, number of animals, number of days you will need to feed hay, and average bale weight. The SWEETLIX Meat MakerProtein Pressed Block or the SWEETLIX Meat Maker Roughage Balancer Tub provides supplemental protein in addition to 100% of a goats trace mineral requirements in a convenient, weather-resistant, 33.3 lb. Hay price is another variable, and it varies widely. A nice, well made first cutting timothy is hard to beat! Click here to go to live calculator on our website. All types of hay should be free from mold, dust, and other contaminants that could harm your goats. x Number of Cows (15) This will be great for your sheep! , Tractor Tools Direct You counted because this is the easiest way to get the weight per bale. It is always better to store extra because you can use any old hay for bedding. Why might I need one? When buying hay for the first time from a farmer, also pay attention to the weight in relation to the size of the bale. Since raising your own Hey there, Im Kathy! Be careful with limiting feed to save money. Some animals are more wasteful than other animals, by the way. Add description, images, menus and links to your mega menu, A column with no settings can be used as a spacer, Link to your collections, sales and even external links. In my experience with my animals, sheep are the most wasteful hay eatersthis may vary and other people may find differently, but its what Ive found with my animals. Also if the pasture and browse is limited, you should feed more hay. 1-87SWEETLIX (1-877-933-8549)
Sheep are ruminants, this means they naturally eat grass and other forages as their biologically appropriate diet. This means that if you have a 130 pound ewe she will need 4.55 pounds of hay per day. If you are keeping your lambs inside with their moms for now, they will eat some of the hay that they see the ewes eating. All you need to do is calculate your herds consumption in this way against how long they will be eating hay, and then you will know how many bales are needed. Some people dont provide feed at all. That is lighter than most, but since you are paying by the ton, it does not matter. Forage testing will yield this information. Legume hay is great for goats because it is very high in protein and plenty of other nutrients. Please seek the advice of a professional vet beforemaking any changes to your herd management or individual treatment ofyour goat. Let us say that we feed small square bales of dry hay, that weigh about 40 pounds each. I was expecting hay prices to go way up because of the draught but last delivery was the same price. Figuring out how much hay your sheep will need is easy, you just need to know some basics. Hay Calculator - Tractor Tools Direct Feeding Goats: What you need to know about forages and winter Additionally, when cows are limit-fed, its important to realize that free-choice consumption of a vitamin-mineral mix can exceed the desired daily level, and it might be necessary to add additional salt as an intake limiter to achieve the desired level of mineral intake. However, it is important to remember that outside bales can sustain substantial losses. The larger yourgoat herd, the more important this is. Do the Math for Winter Feed Preparation - Cornell Small Farms , In our phone calls and chats with customers, many ask about the Ibex Drawbar Kitwhat it does and wh You should know, some sheep are very accepting of a creep gate keeping them out of an area and others will try all day to get through it. You will not have the same hay types available as we do, unless you live in or near Ohio! He tells you that the weight of the load is 1,800 pounds. Per winter, plan at least 100 days feeding hay (which, of course, varies per your area and even per winter in the same area, but 100 is a good rule of thumb). . Obtaining an entire season's supply from a new hay crop certainly beats underestimating needs and having to cobble together purchases of more hay in late winter when demand may outstrip supply and quality may be variable. A goat might be filling up on even high-quality hay constantly and still be deficient in one or more nutrients! link to Is Raising Sheep Worth It? Extension Catalog publication If you havent already, take time to have forage analyzed for nutrient profiles in order to determine supplemental feed needs. Because Im using feeders this year and will have less waste, I would probably be fine at 600, but Im planning to pack in 700. Average hay consumption - Cattle, Cow & Ranching Community This publication discusses how to care for your livestock during the Winter. x Feed Period (150 days) If your estimate reveals that youll come up short in meeting your herds nutritional needs, consider stretching supplies with alternative feeds, such as crop residues. Troy Downing, Michael Gamroth | Jun 2023 | This means that if you have a 130 pound ewe she will need 4.55 pounds of hay per day. Old hay (that isn't moldy or too dusty), is still good to feed to goats. New posts Search forums. Other factors affect DMI as well. Moldy hay is very bad for goats. Peer reviewed (Orange level). Find a lab in your area by contacting your local cooperative-extension office or theNational Forage Testing Association (402-466-7677). Dec 2019 | Raising Goats: Can A Goat Eat Too Much Hay? - Family Farm Livestock The best way to feed round bales of hay to your sheep by unrolling the hay with a hay unroller. You should know that if you put out nice hay for the lambs to snack on, the ewes will hog it all! Im not that bad. x Percent DM (0.8) While we are talking about the differing weight of bales, make sure that your hay storage (if it is a loft) can support the weight of your hay. As long as you have plenty of quality hay available to the flock, hell get what he needs. (Unless its an extremely harsh winter. We do periodically get round bales if a local farmer has an abundant hay crop and is willing to bring the round bales to us and place them in the fields where we want them. How much hay do goats need for the winter? - Walden Effect You can also limit hay access time to stretch forage supplies. Cold weather will require an increase in nutrients to meet increased maintenance requirements as well. Well go over calculating the hay needed per sheep and how to figure out the weight of the bales you purchased. Just know that it will have lost some of its nutrition, so make sure they are getting plenty of other good feed. The amounts of hay will be about the same for any ewe lambs you decide to keep in your flock. You are better off keeping fewer goats. How Many Bales Of Hay Do Sheep Need? - Family Farm Livestock That is a tough question to answer, since the real answer is "it depends". Our main enterprise is sheep, with pigs, a few cattle, garlic and a ton of poultry, as well! Thats 400 square bales so far! I average a bale a week per goat during the winter. How Many Bales Of Hay Per Cow For Winter According to the National Dairy Council the average dairy cow produces about six to seven gallons of milk per day. So make sure you get quality hay from a good farmer. Obtain representative samples from each field and harvest date and have a certified forage-testing lab analyze them. Hobby Farms publishes the info you need to know to run a small-scale, sustainable farm. Thanks Suzanne! It is particularly beneficial for pregnant does as it has plenty of folic acid that helps with mineral absorption. How much hay for winter | The Goat Spot Forum Goats generally need between 3% and 4% of their body weight in hay daily. away! Calculate Winter Forage Needs - Hobby Farms Hay is absolutely essential for dairy goats. Let me be very clear - you do NOT want to run out of hay. Underfeeding livestock in winter is an unfortunately common practice. Here is what Jim from MD has been up to:
A regular-sized bale of hay typically weighs between 30 and 60 pounds. You should assume any link is an affiliate link. Find a hay that you can consistently feed your goats. On average that horse should be offered/be eating around 2-3% of their bodyweight in forage/hay per day. Hay for goats. Our sheep tend to be the try all day to get through it types! FujiQ, yes, that is what Ive heard about cows vs horses re old or poor quality hay. If you have minis you could probably go with about 3lbs per goat per day. from! This post is about hay, so I wont go into a feed equation, which has even more variables than hay and is subjective to some extent. Sheep are becoming more popular and for good reason, they are a family friendly livestock that fits well into many situations, even folks with minimal acreage available. Figuring how much hay you need | Homesteading Forum Cold weather will require an increase in nutrients to meet increased maintenance requirements. If you have 10 ewes in your flock, youll need to feed a 45.5 pound bale everyday. Domesticated livestock is entirely dependent on us to provide for them, be it pasture or hay, and if you cant feed them, you should not have them. What does the Ibex Drawbar Kit Do? round bales for each cow. It is best to do this by multiplying the average weight of your hay bales by the total number of bales. Assuming that a mature meat doe weighs 125 lbs. Regular rumination and cud chewing (ruminants). Any of these products should be offered free choice as the sole source of salt and minerals. Your average square bale weighs between 50 and 75 pounds. Even last year straw. Extrapolate the calculation to round bales. Shes special. However, it is to your pastures long-term health and productivity for grazing to cease in the fall and not start too early in the spring. If it feels lighter than it should, the farmer may be baling light and selling underweight baleswhich is only fair if the price is also underweight. Too expensive. This is the most accurate method because it requires knowledge of the average size of your goats. Theyll nibble around and gradually build up to eating alongside mom. Oct 2022 | Extension Catalog publication It may be that they are filling up on pasture but if you are talking about the 50lb (roughly) square bales they will go through a LOT more than 3 bales for the winter. Did you ever think, when you were writing romance novels, that someday you would be writing about equations with several variables? At Goat Milk Stuff, we mainly feed just square bales because we don't have a tractor to move round bales and because we don't have a place to store round bales out of the rain. Im down to two sheep. How much silage does a goat need per day? - Worldsrichpeople.com Well made first cutting hay is great. In order to maximize herd health and minimize long-term economic consequences, you should develop a plan for winter feeding long before the last blade of grass or bale of hay disappears. Animals eat a round bale from the center out, and the outer layer will be left behind when theyre finished eating the good stuff. Thread starter Goatscrazy1; Start date Nov 14, 2017; Tags For my two sheep, Ill still plan 100 square balesbut Ill throw in Jack and Poky to round out the estimate. Nov 2019 | That includes their care and their feed. I would rather have 50 bales left over in the barn than run out.). These gals need more of a grass based hay. Wed love to hear from you if you have any questions! Low quality or junk hay should never be fed to your flock, theres no nutritional value. He!! Ha Ha. Apr 2009 | That would mean you would need 6.2 1200 lb. The words horse hay seem to be magic as far as communicating to a hay seller that you want high quality hay. I just put the flower back on her head and it hides the $250. Monitoring and the Grazing Response Chris Schachtschneider, Vanessa Schroeder, Dustin Johnson | Alfalfa only hay is probably too rich for your sheep, especially the main flock. Since hay is just dried grass, it works out great as a food source for your sheep. Peer reviewed (Orange level). That's about 70 pounds of milk. Which still wasnt big enough, but we compromised on the conclusion that I could always refill it. Thank you! These nutrients must fit into the amount of food an animal can physically consume. Just finished putting the last of ours in yesterday. Explore more resources from OSU Extension: Regional Livestock and Dairy Extension Specialist, Credit Alyson Yates (Cropped from original), Photo: Teagan Moran (Cropped from original), Credit Amanda Loman (Cropped from original), Calculating winter hay needs for livestock, Commercial fishing, crabbing and clamming, Local, regional and community food systems, Scours in Beef Calves: Causes and Treatments, Living on the Land: Winter Livestock Care, Series of livestock clinics enhances 4-H experience in Lake County, Grazing Management for Rangeland Health: A Threat-based Land Management Approach, Bunchgrass Phenology: Using Growth Stages of Grasses as Adaptive Grazing Management Tools, Nonstructural Carbohydrates in Cool-season Grasses, 2023 Wildfires, Smoke, and Livestock Webinar Series. Alfalfa hay is more expensive. I have seen anything from 40-80lbs depending on the type and . How Much Food Do Goats Need Per Day? - Silver Lake Farms Total hay DM disappearance was reduced by 17.6 percent when cows had access to hay for eight hours per day versus 24 hours per day. Peer reviewed (Orange level). Lets say we want to calculate how much hay to purchase as the foundation for a ration for an 1,100-pound beef cow for a six-month (182 day) feeding period. Therefore, eight adult does equal one animal unit. For more information, contact yourlocal SWEETLIXdealeror call1-87-SWEETLIXto speak with a SWEETLIXnutritionist. The International Exposition of Machinery for Agriculture and Gardening, Customer Spotlight: Jim from MD and the Ibex Compact Homesteader Hay Package, Pine Straw Production: A Personal Look at the Industry. At Goat Milk Stuff, we tend to use old hay as bedding or to put down on muddy areas of the property where we are trying to get grass to grow if we've had extremely wet weather. To determine per-cow DM needs for the given feeding period: DM Disappearance (37.5 pounds) 1 horse at 1000 pounds x 2% BW = 20 lbs hay per day. Your average round bale could weigh anywhere from 400 to 800 pounds. Copyright 2023 NewLifeOnAHomestead.com - All rights reserved. Extension Catalog publication My bales have about 12-15 flakes per bale. This 2-year project has been helpful in characterizing nonstructural carbohydrates in cool-season grasses. DMI rates are estimates of how much dry matter (water component subtracted) an animal can consume in one day. Don't switch from alfalfa hay one month to clover hay another to grass hay another. Assists livestock producers in using forage analysis as a management tool to improve livestock nutrition. Disclaimer: This information is provided as an example of how we personally raise goats at Goat Milk Stuff. How much do your goats weigh? And you really need to know before you bring the animal home. In this publication you'll learn about housing, feeding, and health considerations when raising feeder pigs, both for a Gene Pirelli, Dale W. Weber, Scott Duggan, Melissa Fery, Nathan Parker | Great job, clear and understandableeven to someone who has only driven by farms. The videos in this library fall within the Sergio Arispe | Unfortunately, not all farmers have high quality hay. Ability to work with the hay producer's schedule. ), link to 6 Reasons Why People (Just Like You!) Dont set hay directly on the ground. Unfortunately, there are no cheap, easy fixes for beef producers who have short pastures and limited hay supplies. Planning 100 bales per large animal, that means 200 square bales for my two cows. As the picture notes, we feed haylage to our sheep all winter. (at $60.00 a bale) Next year I am SOOOOO getting squares - I don't care what he says!!! From this profile, a safe diet can be formulated to meet your herds needs in a cost-effective manner. It's also great to use for composting for your garden (but make sure it is completely composted so you kill any seeds). It is also high in calcium and essential amino acids, which are all important for growing kids. Raise Sheep, Why Do You Cull Sheep? Oregons Outback is a Sustainable Rangeland-Based Beef Production Video Library that highlights best management practices for cow-calf producers and agricultural professionals. Peer reviewed (Orange level). If feeding pellets to growing goats nursing goats, aim for 1 to 2 pounds per day, or about 1% of the goats body weight. Use whatever is commonly fed to sheep in your area that has an acceptable nutritional value. Are you using your hay for bedding as well as eating? I do get alfalfa cubes for the goats and will for the horses, too. Determining how much hay you need is always a challenge because it depends on a lot of factors.