Estimating WInter Hay Needs

[ejb]

Hi guys.

Anyone want to sanity check my assumptions for winter hay estimates?...last year I just picked up a pickup truck full at a time and never really kept track for the few animals I had...this year I may be heading into winter with about 5 times as many animals so I want to budget much better.

Anyway, found a website that uses something called an Animal Unit...which is a theoretical 1000lb animal I beleive, and it is assumed that a 1000lb animal will need 25lbs hay per day...sheep and goats are considered 1/7of an AU, and a donkey the size I have would be 2/7 of an AU. Kids and Lambs would be considered 1/14th of an AU.

Anyway, what this more or less works out to is that a single sheep or goat (150lbs average?) would require about about 3.75lbs of hay per day and rough a 100lbs per month (almost two bales).

A donkey (mine is a large mini and weighs about 250lbs) would require almost twice as much, or roughly a bale per 2 weeks.

Also, for my area (New England), I am assuming 180 days of needing to provide hay...roughly mid Oct thru Mid April before the pastures.

For all my estimates, I'd rather round everthing up and be safe...opinions anyway?

Anyone have hay estimates (or better yet actual records) for their animals and be willing to share?

Thanks.

 

[cowboydoc]

Those estimates are pretty good. I usually figure 30 - 35 lbs. per day for my animals in winter. When it gets cold they will go through hay like water to keep warm.

 

[poorboy]

ejb, I don't know if this will be of any help for you but here is how we estimate it here. We bale 4x4 rolls of hay and feed from Oct. ish to late April. For the spring calving cows Averaging 1000 pounds each it takes 10 rolls each. But then you have to take into consideration type and quality of hay as well as the type of winter. Boy they can put it away when the temperatue drops. So we allow for around 11 to 12 for each. Also if we miss it over its no problem selling it if we need to. But it is a chore to haul around in the spring mud if we have to haul to them. Can't seem to find it in the early spring when we did run out.

But you probably supplement with grain and we do only to replacement heifers. With the prices this fall I am not keeping any calves over though.

Patrick

 

[cowboydoc]

With the prices this fall I am not keeping any calves over though.


Yes no kidding I just made a killing on selling 125 head of fat cattle last week. I averaged .94 a pound!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[ejb]

>>Those estimates are pretty good. I usually figure 30 - 35 lbs. per day for my animals in winter.

And I would assume that your animals are big? i.e. 1200-1500lbs each?

 

[cowboydoc]

Most of my horses are in the 900-1100 lb. range. A few are around 1200 but not many. Most of my cows are in the 700-1300 lb. range. Probably avg. about 1000-1100. I put that figure a little higher than what you have because it gets awful cold here. When that temp. drops they will consume an awful lot of hay. When the temp. comes back up they will back off. If your temps. consistently are in the 20's and below in the winter months figure the higher #.

 

[rozett]

I think your estimate is pretty good. We have two horses and use a bale per day. My suggestion is to use your animal units to do a good estimate and then add a 15 or 20% margin for loss and over-use. It's cheaper to put up extra now, than go looking for it in Feruary or March.

I have kept a spreadsheet for over two years, tracking use of grains, hay, and bedding. I can take inventory in the barn and plug that into the spreadsheet.... out will pop the usage rate for each item, $/month, $/year, and tell me what date I will run out of each.

 

[NoTrespassing]

I don't dare keep track of $$$ per anything when it comes to our animals. The 2 horses would be the first to go if I did, and then I'd probably be divorced shortly thereafter. So... I'll just keep my head in the sand and pretend they aren't eating up my retirement. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Kevin

 

[riptides]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I don't dare keep track of $$$ per anything when it comes to our animals. )</font>

I stopped counting last night when the vet came late to check out "Silver" who has tummy trouble. When the wife and the girls have that look, it just doesn't matter.

-Mike Z.

 

[rozett]

Kevin, when I first built the spreadsheet, we had just moved the horses out of a boarding stable to our place. I was just trying to understand just how much $$ we were saving by having them home. Fact is, it doesn't matter what it costs.