What do Y'all feed your cows?

[GBov]

Am trying to cost out every blessed little thing about having cows for my hubby who is resisting my new project until I can tell him exactly how much its going to cost.

And yes, I do know that's an impossible order but I can try to get close.

So what do you all feed your cows? And how much do you feed?

I am trying to decide between a couple of steers (5-8 months old) to fatten or a Dexter cow/calf pair for milk and meat.

The place we are trying to buy has 10 acres and is fenced and cross fenced into three acre fields but as we are in Florida and on pure sand, no amount of rotating is going to avoid the dust bowl effect so all feed and hay will be brought in for them.

[myersfarm]

I feed a mix out of my grinder hay soyhulls and distillers grain.......but a 5 to 8 month old steer to FATTEN....will cost a lot money 700 lbs at $1.50 pound HERE.. that is the weight everybody wants them...bag feed will put u in the red with just a few visits to the feed store...even if you are going to slaughter it for you

[Jackie]

Mine eat grass in the summer and I dump alfalfa/grass mix bales out in the pasture in winter and thats it. I dont know...I am thinking a single dexter cow would eat about 4 round bales a winter..each? Maybe? Full size cows are said to eat about 6 bales a winter up here (around 1200-1500 lbs per bale). Thats how the average rancher figures out how much hay he will need. Bales are about $40 each. So my cows cost me about $240 a year each to feed. I dont feed grain cause so far they dont need it. I haven't 'fattened' anything though...but the breeder I got my dexters from doesnt feed grain. She says they all finish on grass.

[SCRancher]

My cows eat from the pasture for as long as possible. This year I purchased 60 4x5 round bales of hay @ $20.00 per bale.

I have 12 full sized cows + 1 bull. I feed 1 round bale of hay per day so I purchased 2 months supply for this year. I don't expect I'll need all 2 months - more like 45 days tops but I wanted a few bales extra "just in case".

[GBov]

So can I feed just good hay? Or do they need grain as well?

[scholtefamily]

Plenty of us feed just grass in summer and good hay in winter. They do not "need" grain.

[Karin L]

GBov, couldn't you find grasses that would easily set seed in your sandy soil? Or "pure sand," as you call it? I'm sure there is particular species of grasses in your area that will grown in the type of soil you are wanting to raise your cattle on.

When we had cattle (stocker steers, not cows and calves) we would feed them alfalfa-smooth brome-timothy hay from early October to the middle of May, plus barley silage for the same amount of time, until the pile runs out, which can be until April or May or even into June if the pile is really big and we don't have enough calves to feed. Then they're thrown onto pasture (comprising of Kentucky Bluegrass, Smooth Brome Grass, Creeping Red Fescue, Meadow Brome Grass, Meadow Fescue, Orchard Grass, Canary Reed grass, Timothy, volunteer White Dutch Clover, Crested Wheatgrass, Quackgrass, volunteer alfalfa, etc.) from mid May until September (sometimes into October or November if grazing conditions are good enough to do some stockpile grazing).

[GBov]

Originally Posted by Karin L

GBov, couldn't you find grasses that would easily set seed in your sandy soil? Or "pure sand," as you call it? I'm sure there is particular species of grasses in your area that will grown in the type of soil you are wanting to raise your cattle on.When we had cattle (stocker steers, not cows and calves) we would feed them alfalfa-smooth brome-timothy hay from early October to the middle of May, plus barley silage for the same amount of time, until the pile runs out, which can be until April or May or even into June if the pile is really big and we don't have enough calves to feed. Then they're thrown onto pasture (comprising of Kentucky Bluegrass, Smooth Brome Grass, Creeping Red Fescue, Meadow Brome Grass, Meadow Fescue, Orchard Grass, Canary Reed grass, Timothy, volunteer White Dutch Clover, Crested Wheatgrass, Quackgrass, volunteer alfalfa, etc.) from mid May until September (sometimes into October or November if grazing conditions are good enough to do some stockpile grazing).

The farm we are trying to buy (fingers crossed we get it) has quite good grass right now but with the droughts we have had every summer and its being so dry in the winter I dont know how long the grass will last with cows on it. Its cross fenced into three, three acre fields but we want to put our pigs into one field - cross fenced again to make three, one acre fields to rotate them through - and the other field will be cross fenced into three as well for goats, chickens, ducks/geese and turkeys so the cows will have three acres of their own. There is a field not fenced - about two acres - down by the lake that will be fenced and they could go there part time to rest teh grass in the first field but for the most part they will be in one spot.

I cant see the grass lasting long. Looking at the other people in the area with cows the pastures look dusty but by gum, they look better with cows than with goats. The places with goats look like sand dunes!

If I can free choice feed good hay and a bit of sweet feed a day to make "friends" with them, costing THIS project should be not too hard.

Thanks guys