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Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 6:44 pm
by Colin
We're under stocked for the amount of land we have, and have a lot of grass still available for grazing. I'd like to leave using our winter haylage as late as possible, depending on how wet the weather gets (we over winter in a wood and field shelter). How much nutritional value is there in grass at this time of year going into winter and should I supplement it with haylage ?
They are all looking pretty good on it up until now.
Colin
Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 7:17 pm
by Duncan MacIntyre
You would be better to begin feeding a small quanitity of haylage sooner rather than later, not necessarily a big amount but enough to allow them to change the diet slowly. If you wait till you can see a difference in their condition they will already have suffered a check and take time to get over it. They will continue to eat the grass and it will be of some use to them especially if your haylage is good and can stand a bit of added roughage to make up a balanced diet.
Duncan
Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 7:20 pm
by Broomcroft
All the cattle I want to control and keep an eye on, like finishing steers and calvers, are inside now and won't be out again till April next year.
No doubt like everyone else's, our cows moo VERY loudly when they're not getting enough, so I generally just follow their command. But the youngsters don't, it's just the cows that know how the system works. We are leaving small number out out this winter, but we are putting ring-feeders out.
Edited By Broomcroft on 1226168539
Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 9:24 pm
by domsmith
i agrre with Duncan in that when you see condition loss it might be too late. but i have seen galloways outwintered on ungrazed summer pasture. cows not suckling calves with the aid of mineral blocks surely should be able to make the winter.
dexters seem to be able to use all the available grass, right down to the stuble. even if you dont wnat to risk leaving them to it, limiting the silage and making them graze will help save your winter fodder and of course use your grass. which if you dont get down to a reasonable level will suffer next year.
dominic
Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 6:40 pm
by welshdexterboy
Hi Col when you say you have a lot of grass you omit to say what state it is in. With us in West Wales the grass will grow nearly all the year round as it is so mild ( slowly I admit) and as long as they are happy I would just give them the option to have some haylage as and when they want. Obviously it will need to be eaten up quickly to stop it spoiling but that will be an indication of how much they want it. How many cattle will you be feeding the haylage to so it doesn't spoil? ???
Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 10:49 pm
by Colin
Many thanks for the replies, this helps a lot. The grass is very thick and lush (around 8 to 10 inches high) and is mainly a mixture of grass and clover. The field is very open and has a slight slope towards the north, so can get some cold winds in winter. But generally we live in a mild area and have had little frost so far (just a couple of nights in October). Field is around 8 acres and we'll graze it with 10 adults and 3 calves.
Although we've had a lot of rain recently, and the ground is water logged in places, the grass is so thick that there's no poaching. So I think I'll leave them graze it for as long as possible and pop a bale of haylage into the ring feeder in the next couple of weeks or so, so they get a used to it and have a mixed diet. They have access to plenty of minerals.
Colin
Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 11:26 pm
by welshdexterboy
Hi Col sounds like they wont need a bale for a while or at least I would be suprised if they did. I wouldn't worry about it being North facing if they have a hedge to go by for shelter. At the end of the day when they are in the second half of the grass I would think about offering something. If you have small bales hay I would give some of that before starting a big bale. You are a lucky beggar for having that much grass at this time of year. 
:D :D :D
Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 12:22 am
by Colin
Hi Rob, unfortunately we just have the big round bales. It would be very useful to have smaller ones.
We would have cut this field in the early Autumn if we were able to do it ourselves, but the cost of the contractor for the amount of haylage we'd have got was prohibitive. We got a reasonable harvest of haylage from it in June, even though we hadn't fertilised.
Our herd have plenty of shelter for the winter, we don't bring them in. As well as hedges, they have a nice snug field shelter and also I'll be opening a wood soon. They seem to do well on it.
Colin
Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 4:54 pm
by welshdexterboy
Sounds like the perfct spot Col 
but if you wait till they are ready to eat a whole bale you might be a bit behind the game so if you can I would get a few small bales just for the start but like I said before I don't think that will be for a while. In the end you do what is best for yourself :D
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 9:03 am
by Broomcroft
PS. It also depends on the clover content and the grass itself. We have two adjacent fields, one without clover, one with a lot. The cattle in the grass field are having a ring-feeder and they need it. The ones in the clover/grass field are doing well on just grazing. We finish lambs in January on heavy clover/grass grazing.
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 10:18 am
by Bury Hill Farm
With the ammount of rain that we have had in our area the last few days we are having to bring in around 70 cows tomorrow to save cutting up the ground too much, I was hoping not to have to get them in until well into December.
Its always a bit of a balancing act to ensure that the land is grazed off enough but also rested enough this time of year and obviously that we have got in enough hay & silage to last the winter.
This year it seems that we will have at least 100 cattle in and only 20 or 30 staying out for the whole winter.