Putting out hay

[Mickey_Fx]

Interesting discusssion taking place. Sure shows the diversity in conditions and pracitices around the country.

Joe in Arlington saying 4 acres/head isn't enough to raise cattle on and the mention of Fescue toxicity.

Got a small hobby sized farm and when I first moved here many yrs ago a ran 3 head of cattle on 3 acre of pasture and they couldn't keep up with the growth. Have run as much as 6 head on the same pasture and didn't hurt for feed for about half the yr. Fescue is one of the major grasses used for pasture and grass hay around here and have never heard mention of toxicity. Come butcher time I've had the butcher appoligize for the high fat content of the ground meat due to excessively fat cattle. My cattle rarely saw supliments nor needed them.

When I had a small custom haying business, first cutting typ yieled 4T/acre. Some customers had a lot higher yield.

Tis a very diverse country we live in.

 

[Mahana79]

My situation in all this is a bit different. i feed hay year round. but you see i dont have cattle. i know my place is over grazed. i have 3 horses on about 9 acres of WEST TEXAS pasture. Please note the WEST TX We had a very dry summer. most of the guys that cut hay locally barely got 2 cutting this year. i dont irrigate. The wild fires that swept through this region hurt us bad. It burned many hay fileds and my hay broker lost 4200 bales up in smoke. year before last I was paying $30/bale for a nice big bale of coastal, now i have paid as much as $200/ton for prairie grass because that's all there was at the time. anyways by the end of summer we should have a the in-laes new place in East TX fenced in and then we can just turn these old retired nags out to pasture where they can have 42 acres at their mercy. And i can start letting my 9 acres recouperate from being over grazed.

 

[mopiflyer]

George and all,

About the fescue toxicity... It isn't so toxic that it knocks the cows down. it just makes them less efficient in consumtion and weight gain. There are some "fixes." One is to keep a mineral free choice that has ingrediants that deal with it. i can't remeber the feed company...it used to be Moormans, but they are are called something else that starte with an "A" I think. It is sort like horn flies...thiey'll live but be behind those that don't have to spend all thier time swatting flies. I think the guy I heard speak about it said that the "toxic free" cattle spent less time in the shade and more time munching on the forage.They also shed thier winter coats faster, which probably led to less time in the shade. There is also toxic free fescue that you can reseed with...after you burn down all the old stuff. That will work for a couple of years till the birds "interseed" your rather expensive renovation. I think I am going to try the mineral this coming spring and see if i notice any difference...probably hard to see , because I don't have a "control" group to compare and will just have to have faith in the university studies.

Don

 

[N80]

I'm going to be down on the farm tomorrow. I'll ask my B-I-L about the local situation. Like I say, his cows tend to be among the best looking in the area. He gets top dollar for his calves. He worms, immunizes, etc, etc and I've helped with all that and never heard him or the other locals say anything about fescue toxicity. I'm very curious now. It will be interesting to see what he says. He may already be doing something about it, or given everything else he does it might just not make a significant difference...or maybe he doesn't even know about it.

 

[ljh2]

Cattle shouldn't need suplementing if the right amount of head are on the proper acreage.

That's a pretty broad-brushed statement. Of course, you must mean that where you live cattle might not need supplementing, but obviously there are many places both in the US and abroad that due to seasonal changes (cold weather/dry seasons/etc...) that pastures cannot and do not produce grazable forage. During those times it is standard acceptable practice to feed hay, silage, and other stored crops. You would be hard-pressed to raise cattle in MN during the winter on forage alone and it would be pretty hard here in MD as well. With the right forage crops and a good grazing rotation, it might work in MD though -- if you don't have too bad of a winter.

 

[Blksim]

What you guys are talking is an endophyte fungus which affects fescue grasses. Some cattle are more tolerant to it than others. Mine are born and raised on it and we don't have much problem. A cow will eat around fescue and then come back to as a second choice. After a good freeze kills the fungus they will mow it off. We offset any potential problems during regular grazing season with a high mag free choice mineral program and mixing clover with the fescue helps also. If my cows couldn't tolerate fescue they would starve as our pastures are full of it and we hay it also.