10/27/05, 06:18 PM
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: New York bordering Ontario
Posts: 4,778
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MaryF, the figure that your dairyman uses is correct. It's 3% of the cow's weight should equal pounds of dry matter for the daily diet. So if you have a 1000 # cow, she'd get 30# of DM per day. Figure that dry hay and grain would have 10% moisture, so you are looking at 33# in actual feed per day for that cow. (If you had her on corn silage, that figure would be much higher since silage has a lot of water in it.)
Acceptable waste is considered to be 10%, and generally speaking that will be all in the forage portion of the diet. Are you seeing uneaten/laid on hay or are you seeing an empty manger?
Cows can stuff in another 5# of hay a day if it's really excellent. That may be why you think yours are eating that much. I am going to round bales this year, but in the past I've fed small square bales, around 70# like yours, and how I do it is just put the hay out, say 12 bales, and then see what's left at night. If they wasted a lot, they get 11 bales the next feeding. If they cleaned it all up, they get 13, etc. In any case, I always figure 1/2 of a bale a day per cow here for an average figure that works pretty well. Heifers get some less, but call it 60% of the cow ratio for the average calf ration.
I wouldn't push too much grain on your milkers when they are gettin excellent alfalfa like that, either. And at only $100 a ton for hay like that delivered, well! Can't beat that price! Might want to think about feeding them 4:1 on feed instead of 3:1.
Jennifer
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-Northern NYS
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