THE ART OF SUSTAINABLE HAY FEEDING IN A TOUGH ECONOMY Hustler Mounted Chainless LX105™ bale processor
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ivestock feed represents the largest single cost – often up to 60 percent of the total operation spending. Maybe now is the time to rethink your feeding methods.
The average bred cow weighs about 1,200 pounds and typically consumes 2.5% of her body weight on short stem hay, or 30 pounds/day of hay. Over an 80-cow herd, that is 2,400 pounds of forage fed daily or over 180 tons during a 5-month timeframe. At $55/ ton1, you will spend about $9,900 over that period. According to a study by Dr. David Lalman of Oklahoma State University, “... the cows eating long stem consumed 1.8% of their bodyweight in dry matter (DM) intake and retained the same body condition.” 2 So imagine if you could feed out long stem hay reliably with a bale processor, how much could you save? Three essential factors can make a massive difference on your bottomline: hay wastage, forage quality, and the impact of your feeding method on pastures.
Drastically reduce your hay wastage
Maybe now is the time to think ahead and to re-evaluate the efficiencies of your bale feeding system. One popular method is unrolling the bale on the ground in a thick matt. Another method, bale processing, is to chop the forage and feed out in large, thick windrows, resulting in huge losses because the hay is quickly blown away or trampled because too much hay is fed in one location. Alternatively, the Chainless bale processors, such as the mounted Chainless LX105™ bale processor or the trailed Chainless TX205™ bale processor from Hustler Equipment are designed to maximize every pound of DM thanks to their unique, gentle teasing action, pulling the hay apart in long stems, making the feed more palatable for stock and allowing you to feed out the exact amount in a long, thin windrow, drastically reducing nutritional loss and hay waste.
Article by Lance Paskewitz
Preserve the goodness of your hay You already know that everything starts with the quality of your feed. Most operations put a lot of time, money, and effort into harvesting and storing the highest quality hay possible. Doesn’t it seem like you should carefully consider how you feed it out? Most of the nutrition is retained in the leaves and/or grain; why create a bunch of dust and pulverize your hay by feeding with a traditional flailtype bale processor? To maximize nutritional uptake, it is essential to gently fluff the hay out, so it’s not broken up and the nutrients destroyed and lost. The patented rotor system of the Hustler Chainless bale processors can help to achieve that result very easily in a limited amount of time. Though minimizing wasted forage and being cost-effective is a key concern, it is far from the only worry. For most livestock ranchers, the main reason for allowing unlimited access
Wondering how many pounds of hay your cows are eating each day is maybe the wrong question. You should be asking how much hay your cows are wasting every day. Hay wastage depends on harvesting and storage techniques, but more importantly on the way its fed out. Consider that more than 40% of your hay could be wasted3 because of losses associated with your feeding method. That’s like buying 100 bales of hay and then sticking a match to 40 of them! If we use the example we presented in the introduction, it means that in the best-case scenario, you are going to waste around 72 tons of forage this winter.
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GPL Winter 2021
