2012 Winter Feed Program

An incredible amount of time has been spent on the getting cows fed this winter in the part of the country I live in. The summer was hot and dry, and the usual feed suppliers were lucky to produce enough to meet their own needs. There is very little leftover forage for the cows to eat over the winter, and we're basically feeding them every bite they consume this year. It has taken more time, money and planning to get a winter feed supply delivered, and more time than usual on the feeding end as well.
What do I mean when I say, "feed the cows?" This post is on what we're actually doing every single day around here to make sure our cows are not only fed, but provided the right feeds to meet their nutritional needs and energy requirements.

First, we did a lot of research and determined what feeds were the best combination of price and in meeting our needs in terms of nutrients, filler and quality. Since we have a hay hauling business, we ended up deciding on a combination of various types of hay, including (very) low quality grass hay, medium quality grass hay, high quality grass hay and high quality oat hay. We are feeding this in combination with a cake protein supplement (you can learn more about what cattle cake is here).
Before we can feed any of this to our cattle, it has to be delivered to our ranch. The cake comes from the company that produces it, but the hay is all delivered by my dad and brother. Usually they haul each load between 100 and 200 miles. But, this year that has more than doubled, and a load hauled 450 miles is considered a short trip. This has meant a lot of extra time on the road for the haulers, which has consequently limited their ability to haul for other people. So, we're spending more on feed, spending more on fuel to deliver it, and making less with the business as a whole because we aren't hauling for other people. That's a challenge lots of ranchers are facing this year.
Since the guys are so busy, their end of the feeding program has primarily been the delivery end. From there, my mom and take over, and are usually the two in charge of making sure the right amount of each kind of hay, and the right amount of cake, is fed every day.


Feeding is done on a set schedule, regardless of what else may be going on, the weather, how we're feeling or what other tasks we have to accomplish that day. Here is mom filling the cake feeder out of our cake storage bin. Our cake feeder is set on a scales, and each cow gets a specific amount of cake based on her nutritional needs, the protein content of the cake, the temperature, and a few other varying factors. We know how many cows are in each bunch we feed, and if we're in doubt as to whether we have them all or not, we will count them and adjust how much cake we feed accordingly.

Meanwhile, if there are two of us around, the second person (me) is loading two bales of hay from specific piles within one hay corral. If there is just one person, we feed cake first because it is the most palatable to the cows (it tastes the best).

 The person feeding cake typically arrives in the pasture with the cows first, since they're going to be feeding first. We use sirens to let our cows know it's time for breakfast, and they start the trek to an area of the pasture that is pickup accessible. Different ranchers use different sirens, and cows know the difference and respond to "their" siren from several miles away in some instances. The reason for sirens is some of our pastures are very big (we measure them by miles long and wide), and the sound of a siren carries over long distances much better than a horn. They also last longer than horns, and are easier to hear in wind.

 While the cows make their way to the feeding area, the cake feeder heads down to check the water tank. We have at least two water sources on in each pasture our cows are in, and are sure to check the primary source every other day while feeding. This water tank has the overflow set to drip continuously this year, which prevents ice buildup like in the above photos most of the time. But, water is critical for cattle, so regardless of how reliable a tank is, we check it.

 On this day the hay feeder checked the water, and is headed back to where we will feed for the day. Since it's so dry this year, we are being careful not to feed in the same location because the cows are tromping the grass worse than normal, and basically churning it to dust if we feed in a spot twice. It usually isn't snowy here like in the above photo, which was a welcome bit of moisture a couple weeks ago!

 Eventually everyone arrives. It's important to wait for everyone so they get equal chance at feed, especially the cake. This can mean sitting for over an hour some days. Only a few pounds of cake per cow meet her nutritional requirements, and the cake is also what makes low quality hay work. A cow can eat cake at approximately 30 mph, and is like a bovine vacuum cleaning house. If you're not there when it hits the ground, you're probably not going to get any. The same is true with hay, but since several more pounds per cow are fed, it does take longer to consume it.

 When everyone shows up, the cake feeder begins feeding, watching the scale head located in the cab as they go. The cake feeder has a control that is also wired into the cab that turns it on and off. It's what you would call a "customized" cake feeding system, seeing as how the entire thing was homemade.

 Here's an up close view of the cake feeding out onto the ground. Speed is somewhat important here - you don't want to feed it too fast or it's all in a small area and the less aggressive cows won't get very much. But, you also don't need to spread it out over miles of prairie - that would take a long time to eat and waste your time feeding.

 Meanwhile, the hay pickup waits, preparing to role out a specific amount of hay following the cake feeders run.

 Here's a closer look at the combination of hays we're feeding this year (the red door is another story).

And an even closer look. The one the left is an oat straw bale, and you can see the oats in it. This would be considered a high quality winter forage. On the right is CRP grass hay, which ranges from awful to decent in quality. We've actually been very surprised at how well our cows are doing on the lower quality grass hays we're procured.
There is technique involved in feeding the hay too. The oat straw bale is left for last. This is primarily because, while we did have it tested and it didn't show anything of concern, there is always the potential of Nitrate poisoning in grain hays. To reduce the risk even more, we feed all the grass bales first, which means the cows eat on them for at least a few minutes, before we give them the option of the oat bale. Since it is a higher quality feed, they will all go eat it as soon as you give them the chance, but with additional grass already in their rumen, the chance of toxicity is reduced. Just a management practice we do in an effort to make sure there is never a problem in this area.

 This cow would like her oat bale, please.
We do that for two bunches of cows (the mature cows and the young cows/yearling heifers) every other day. This day is known as "The Big Feed Day," and on averages takes from 7:30-10:30, if the cows are close at hand and the weather is reasonable. But, we always plan on all morning, and it can easily turn into that.

Here is the second bunch, which are the yearling heifers and coming three-year-old cows. They are kept separate from the older, mature cows because they have a hard time competing with the older cows for feed, and won't winter as well if they're expected to compete. It's like high school sports, and comparing freshman to seniors. Some will do just fine, but most freshman will struggle when up against a bunch of seniors. It's also worth making sure these cows stick around at this age because they represent our best genetics, and we have a lot of money invested in them at this point, without a lot of return.
We feed this bunch hay every day, and cake every other day. We went to every day on hay because we noticed they weren't doing a great job cleaning the hay up, despite not being fed any extra. My dad wondered if it had something to do with them not having the physical capacity to eat and store such a large volume of hay at once - they're getting more than most years because we're having to feed them everything they eat this year instead of relying on grass for part of their filler. He was right, and since we've switched we've upped these girls' consumption, and they've improved considerably on cleaning up their feed.
This is how we're doing it this year. We make changes and tweaks every year, and sometimes even within a feeding season based on the available grass, condition of our cows, cost of various supplemental feeds and the condition of our cows going into winter. It takes a lot of advance planning, careful watching, and knowing what a cow needs in a variety of situations.
This is also one of those aspects of ranching that will probably be at least a little different, and often a lot different, from ranch to ranch. Year-round management decisions will vary between ranches, and will result in different needs and concerns over the winter months. There are a lot of feed options, weather, water, grass and terrain differences, and numerous other aspects of wintering cattle well that come into play when designing and following through with a feed program. What works best in one location may not work best next door, let alone across the state or country.

Tricks of the Lick Tub Trade

If you've ever fed lick tubs, you probably know what I'm talking about when I say they are a royal pain in the neck to handle. Weighing in at 250 lbs, these short, stout tubs are beyond my ability to manipulate. Perhaps some of you other ladies, or anyone for that matter, have similar gripes about lick tubs.
Here is the solution I have devised, using tools from the ranching version of "duct tape and twine can fix anything" box.
First, I have my dad or brother place a block under one side of a few tubs wherever they are being stored. This gets them in a position so I can tip them over and roll them around. One key point here is not to have the lick tubs tipped over on their side wherever you are storing them if it's hot. This will result in no lick being left in your tub when you go to feed it....
I roll the chosen tub outside. Then, I go get a chain and the hydrabed. Or, this particular pickup is sporting Mr. Hydrabed's great grandfather, but it still gets the job done. While the tub is still on its side, I wrap the chain over the top and around the sides to the bottom. Then I half twist both ends around each other and wrap it back around the tub on the other two sides. This is just like wrapping ribbon on a present as far as technique goes. Once both ends of the chain are back on top, I tip the tub back over so it's upright again, and adjust the chains if they need it.
I then twist/tie the chain again at the top in a highly technical fashion that would have the men (who are not involved in the feeding of this tub and therefore have no input) cringing. Next I back the pickup up, lower the hydrabed, loop one end of the chain over the arm and secure it, then lift.
To help you visualize this procedure, I took photos the other day:

Once set on the pickup, I unhook the chain attached to the arm, and lower it around the top of the tub like so for transit. I haven't had one rattle off yet from this location. I think if you were going on a fairly smooth road you could just let it hang from the arm just off the pickup bed. I am in no way responsible if you decide to try this and it goes very wrong.

Upon arrival, the hydrabed arm is lifted and the tub rolled off the side. A mild struggle to get it tipped upright ensues. Eventually I win, and everyone is happy - me that it will be empty when I pick it up, and the heifers that they have something to eat.

Feeding more hay

As mentioned before, feeding is a daily, or every other day chore in the winter months. Feed accounts for the largest single expense on most ranching operations.
Hay like this costs about $65 dollars a ton (a ton is 2,000 pounds). Then you have to pay to have it delivered, which costs about $5 a mile right now. We have our own trucking operation, so that is a little more than we pay, but the offset of paying less in mileage is that we have the time invested in getting it home.
Each of the bales you see in this picture weighs between 1,200 and 1,300 pounds. So, with a little math, you can figure out there is a lot of money sitting in this pen, known as a stack corral.
Stack corrals typically have much higher fences than the average fence to keep out animals like deer, who also love high quality hay.

I am not involved in the hauling of hay aspect very often. However, next time I am you better believe I will have my camera along, so I can share with you the entire process of getting hay from the field to the cow.



I am more involved in the feeding of the hay to the cows. I stop at the stack corral seen above and pick up one bale of last years hay.
If hay is put up (as in cut, and baled) correctly, and stored correctly, it can last for several years. If it isn't put up or stored properly, it can get moldy, and livestock won't eat it, and it becomes useless.
Then I drive about 5 miles to the pasture our cows are in. They know when feed day is, and on my way I turn on a siren briefly to alert them I'm on my way, with breakfast.
They start down the road to meet me, and this is what it looks like.



So I pull off road to a fairly flat location, and wait for all the cows to get to me.



Then I unload my bale, until its a few inches off the ground.




The net wrapping is cut...




and pulled off. You want the bale off the ground so you can pull the net wrapping off, and not drag it through a lot of cactus.





Then you drive along, using hydraulic controls to lower the bale as it unrolls on the ground.




But this bale was one that I picked up backwards, so in order to get it unrolled I had to back up instead of drive forward. The cows know the drill, and fall in front of the pickup, instead of behind, as their feed is unrolled.



Once you get out of the way, they all converge on the bale and fill up.




But these cows get two bales. Their second bale is waiting in another stack corral, in the same pasture as the cows. These bales are second cutting alfalfa, and basically taste like candy to cows. That's why they're set so far away from the fence - to keep the cows from leaning over the fence, and breaking it down, to get a taste.



I load one of the tasty bales on the feed pickup...



and head back to the feed grounds, just down the road. We feed in a different location most days so the cows don't tromp down the grass too much. Where we live the soil is highly erosive, and proper soil and plant management is critical in keeping land healthy and in production. If you overuse the land, it shows really fast where I'm from.
A lot of thought goes into even the most seemingly simple task on a ranch.



I unroll the second bale just like the first. If you ever want to know which of the two, or three, or four bales you just fed is the best, all you have to do is watch which one the cows eat first. You can see that no one is choosing to finish off the first bale I fed with the second one sitting right beside it. This is a pretty obvious example, as the second (green) bale is really really good stuff, and the first one is just kind of average. Sometimes you will have hay you think is very similar, but when you feed two bales, the cows all eat one first, just like what is seen here.





As I've mentioned before, we feed our livestock to keep them at a certain level of condition. We don't want them too skinny, but it's just as bad, or even worse, to have them too fat. A cow with the right amount of fat will stay healthy, and be strong enough to calve without issues (usually). She also needs to have enough energy stored for when she starts milking, because producing milk takes a lot of energy. Cows that are too fat are much like obese people, they have trouble getting around, and fat deposits in a cows bag can reduce her milking ability.
We want our cows to work for us, and instead of getting really fat, we want her to convert that energy to milk for her calf. While there are some parts of the country with so much feed that cows just stay fat, it isn't like that where I'm from. It takes a large area (30-50 acres) to feed one cow for one year where I'm from. People often say that those really big, really fat cows couldn't walk fast enough to get to enough grass to keep them from shriveling up, and it's true.
If a cow does get too skinny after calving, and has used up too much of her energy reserves producing milk, it significantly reduces her chances of re-breeding. Keeping cows near their ideal body condition is a year-round aspect of ranch management, and a critical component of any operation.
All of these cows are in good shape for us, and if the temperature hadn't dropped in the last week we probably would have reduced how much they were getting fed.



Here are all the cows enjoying their bales of hay. Once they finish off the really good bale, they'll go back and clean up the other bale too. They don't waste feed at our place.



Then there is always the second half of any feed day, checking the water to make sure it isn't iced over.
Another benefit of these re-cycled tire tanks is they're black, and absorb more heat due to their color.
One issue we've had with them in the past is that if we installed them prior to getting our sheep (like this one), they're too tall for a sheep to drink out of. When our sheep were in this pasture we would hook up a much smaller tank to the float on this one for the sheep to drink out of.

Before the gifts...

...is feeding at our outfit. Christmas Eve morning everyone was busy feeding so we didn't have to feed Christmas day.
Cattle have a ruminant stomach that is separated into four compartments and is designed to maximize the utilization of the conversion of forages and grains to energy. A ruminant's stomach contains bacteria that allows them to adjust to digesting feed over a 24, or 48 hour period.
We feed our cattle every other day, and that allows us to dedicate one day to feeding, and one day to something else. It's a matter of time economics, and the cattle are used the routine and it meets their energy needs.
If it gets cold we will adjust our feeding schedule accordingly to ensure our livestock have enough additional energy to stay warm and maintain their body condition in the colder weather.
Where my family lives there is rarely enough snow to cover all the grass, and they can fill up on the old grass. We are responsible for providing them with the nutrients the dead grass is lacking, and that's why we feed a lot of cake. It's a good way to provide that energy in a way that is easy to feed.
But, where my uncle lives in the black hills, the grass is almost always under snow this time of year, so he feeds them hay to both fill them up and meet their energy requirements.
There is a lot of science, economics, humanities, weather watching and dietitian aspects to feeding cattle. We have to make sure their energy and nutrient requirements are met, they stay healthy, and we don't go broke feeding them.
We feed our cattle on this schedule no matter what, and Christmas is no exception. We feed before we eat our Christmas dinner, open presents, or play games.


Christmas Eve morning I went with my uncle to feed his calves and yearling heifers hay. We pull out to the feed ground, where the snow is packed down, after loading two round bales of hay onto the pickup.

Here is the hay feeding pickup. He uses a hydrabed, which will be demonstrated a little further down. Here we are adjusting where the arms are gripping the bale - you want the arms in the center of the bale, because you pull the bale behind the pickup and it unrolls. If you don't grab it in the middle it doesn't unroll well, and causes problems.
The calves arrive and wait patiently for the bales to be unrolled.



First is getting the twine strings off the bales. This is what holds the round bale together. Some bales are also wrapped with net wrap instead of twine.



All the strings are cut, then you pull them out. You want to have the bale picked up off the ground for this step, because trying to drag strings out from under a 1,200 pound bale is difficult at best.



A recent rain storm on top of the all the snow froze some of the strings to the bale. So my uncle used his axe, and pitchfork, to break up the ice, and free the strings.




Here is a chunk that is still caught in the ice. After freeing all string, it's looped and tied in a knot and secured in the pickup. A loose batch of twine string can make an awful mess, and mad ranchers.




Then my uncle gets in, lowers the bale to the ground, and takes off. The other bale just sits on the back of the pickup, and will ride there unless you try to go up a steep hill.





As the bale unrolls, you use manual controls in the cab to lower the hydrabed arms further to keep the bale on the ground and unrolling.
Sometimes you will pick up a bale backwards, and have to back up to unroll it.






Then you drive, and lower the arms as needed, until your bale is completely unwrapped.




Those two knobs are the controls for the hydrabed. One raises and lowers the arms, and the other moves the arms back and forth to grip or release the bale.



He just let the first bale go, and is raising the arms to grab the next one.






Pearl was supervising.




He will set the bale on the ground, get the arms centered on the bale, re-grab it, raise it off the ground, cut the strings, knock all that ice off, pull, loop and tie the strings in a knot, set the bale back down, then unroll the bale.
We fed these calves five bales, and repeated the same process for each one.




The calves fall in behind and eat. After every cow, horse and other creature on the ranch has been feed their ration, we go in the house, eat our dinner, open our presents, and thank the Lord for the birth of his Son, the food, our family, the cows and horses and other creatures we are responsible for, and the gifts we received.