Hay amounts for winter feeding of Belted Galloway

[lilachill]

Does anyone have a formula or a guestimate for the number of square bales I will need for an 18 month and a 7 month old Belted Galloway?
The farmer haying wants to know how many I will need, feeding probably Nov- Mar/April here in central PA.

Thanks

[cathleenc]

I've been working on this challenge, too.

Are they large bales or small bales? average weight per bale? what kind of hay? what harvest of hay (first, second or third)?

how much do your cows weigh now? how much can you project they will grow over a year?

what months will they have grazing and what months will they eat only hay for their browse/graze?

then - do a graph. A cow will eat about 3-4% of their body weight in hay or graze each day (from what I've read). Adjust for growth. Adjust for months when the cows will be grazing. Figure out how many servings you'll get per bale. And then add up the bales.

Goes pretty easy when you put it into a spreadsheet. I just placed my hay order last week.

[Up North]

Originally Posted by lilachill

Does anyone have a formula or a guestimate for the number of square bales I will need for an 18 month and a 7 month old Belted Galloway?
The farmer haying wants to know how many I will need, feeding probably Nov- Mar/April here in central PA.

Thanks

18 month : 175 days X 1 small square bale/day = 175 bales.
7 month : 175 days X 1/2 small square/day = 88 bales
So 263 bales more or less.