Posted by JD Seller on November 24, 2012 at 09:40:09 from (208.126.196.144):
In Reply to: Alfalfa value? posted by Dave from MN on November 24, 2012 at 06:16:37:
Feeding your cows is not a hard thing to do. They need so much protein and fiber in their diet. So you have good hay that will be higher in protein so they will not need as much of it. If you have a feeder wagon I would have the alfalfa hay and corn stalks tub ground together. One bale of alfalfa and two corn stalk bales in a rotation as the guy grinds them.
You may have trouble getting the cows to eat the corn stalks if they have the real good hay in the same field. They are like us in that they like the "good stuff" best. LOL
They do not need all high protein hay. They need some lower quality roughage to have a more balanced diet. So you can split fed some stalk bales and alfalfa to get a more balanced ration.
The nutritionist that told you to sell your hay and then buy supplement was selling supplement. I never trust any nutritionist that works for a feed company. They will have a product that they promote to make their company money.
One of the nutritionist that is supposed to be the big beef feeder guy around here does not like corn silage. He tells all the guys to shell their corn and tub grind hay instead of feeding corn silage. Also to buy this liquid supplement from HIS company to get the protein level you need.
Guess what? I feed corn silage, high moisture corn and some tub ground hay. I feed a dry mineral in the ration. My ration is about 10% cheaper than his and I get the same to better rates of gain.
Now to your hay issue. You have alfalfa hay it would be worth $225-250 dollars a ton. Good grass hay would be in the $160-180 range. So on paper you could make money by selling your better hay and buying the grass hay. The trouble it that you will have a hard time finding good grass hay. Also you would have the cost/labor of moving/selling your hay and then getting the grass hay back to your farm. I think that would wipe out any financial gain.
Just feed what you have. If you have standing corn stalks put your cows on them to graze and feed them some of your good hay in a limited manner. This would work until you have snow cover. Long an short of it, your better hay will not hurt your cows at all. You just may have to watch and not let them get too fat on the high protein hay. You can do that by limiting how much good hay you give them and make them eat some corn stalks.
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